Our equines at Ikkos equine sanctuary

Our equines at the sanctuary and their pasts:

Tequila Suluna was one of our first, she is a palomino saddle horse standing at 16.2 hands high. Her birthday is 20th december 1995. Her best friend is Icarus. She was badly abused whilst being used as a show horse, overworked and not given any TLC. She also has back problems so can't be ridden, due to her previous owners riding habits and more than likely cruel training and working methods.

Echo is a grey Boerperd x Arabian mare. She stands at 14.2 hands heigh. Her birthday is 30th january (the date she arrived with us) i am not sure what year but i think 1998. Her best friend is Zeus-Apollo. She was severly whipped and covered in scars and was petrified of everything. it took me over a week to touch her. She loves to swim! I havent ridden her, i am going to give her lots of time to overcome her fear of people and objects.

Adonis- is Echo's and Pegasus' brother. He is a Boerperd x Arabian. He is a dapple grey gelding. He stands at 14.2 hands heigh and his birthday is also the 30th january (the day he arrived with us) but i reckon he is younger than echo and estimated his year of birth to be 2002. His best friend is Pegasus. He was also severly whipped and scared of everything.

Pegasus-Echo and adonis' brother. He is a flea bitten grey gelding and looks more araby than his brother and sister. He stands at 14.2 hands heigh and his birthday is also the 30th january (the day he arrived with us) and his estimated year of birth is 2001. His best friends are Adonis and Gaia. He was ridden and trained very badly and harshly and subsequently attempts to buck me off every couple of strides when i ride him so he is going to take a lot of work!

Gaia is a branded bay Boerperd mare who has a lovely nature. She stands at 16 hands heigh and her birthday is also the 30th january (the day she arried with us) and the estimated year is 2000. Her best friends are Pegasus and Zeus-Apollo. She came from riversdale (the same place as echo, adonis and pegasus) and was also badly beaten and turned up when we got her delivered full of open wounds from the journey in the horse box.

Zeus-Apollo is a black Fresian x Nooitgedacht gelding. He stands at 15.3hands heigh and his birthday is 3rd march (the day he arrived with us) and the estimated year of birth is 1988. His best friends are: all the ladies, expecially Gaia, Echo and Chara. He was extremely badly abused, tied into a cart and whipped until he couldnt move so they left him by the road strapped into the cart and went back for him later, he got up and pulled them all the way home (whilst being constantly whipped) after they kicked him in the head several times, leaving him with no front teeth on his upper jaw! We were told he was 10 years old but it turns out he is over 20 and the vet is surprised at how well he is looking. He also had a severe wound on his back leg just above his hoof which has now healed but has left an horiffic scar. He hated people and would charge anyone that came near him and try and kick but now he is more relaxed and trusts certain people. He is still very unpredictable though. He was only recently gelded before we got him and in my opinion gelding a horse that is 20 years old is a waste of time and money. He acts just like a stallion, trying to breed with the mares, overmarking the other horses dung and urine and herding the females as a stallion does in a wild herd. He was kept alone for as long as anyone knows so it was a hard job trying to introduce him to the other horses but we have and he is now fine.

Venus is a chestnut mare, she is a part bred welsh pony i think and she arrived with us after biting the owners daughter on the back and hospitalising her. We found out later the girl was messing around with Venus' baby when he was only a day old and pushing venus away so she was only protecting her baby and has never been agressive towards me. She stands at 13 hands heigh and her birthday is 24th october (the day she arrived with us) and the estimated year of birth is 1994. Her best friend is Baby (her son)

Baby is Venus' baby. He is a bay stallion. He stands at 12.5hands heigh and is still growing. his birthday is the 24th may 2007. His best friends are Venus and Kosmos. He is coming along nicely. we got him when he was about 3 months old so he has grown up with me and loves me loads. When we went to England for christmas we left the horses in the paddock and when we got back the farmer that owns the land had introduced a mare, filly and stallion and baby had been kicked the head and is now blind in one eye and was severely bitten on the rump- a huge chunk of flesh was missing. The wound has healed but he still has a dent where the bite was.

Chara-is a bay welsh cross pony. She had her foal (Kosmos) when she was only 3 years old. She stands at 11 hands heigh and her birthday is 19th january (the date she arrived with us) 2005. Her best friends are Kosmos and Zeus-Apollo. She hated people and just spent hours running away from people when there was anyone in the camp. she loved my husband but hated me. She had obviously had a bad experience with a woman before. but now she trusts me and i am the only one that can put her rug on and groom her. She just took time to learn to trust me.

Kosmos is Charas baby and we got him when he was also about 3 months old. He stands at just under 11 hands heigh and his birthday is 19th january 2007. His best friends are Chara and Baby. He is extremely cheeky and was also scared of people but not as bad as him mother. He is the dominant foal here and although he is two thirds the age that Baby is he still bosses him around and they always play together.

Orion is our latest addition. He stands at about 9 hands heigh as he is still a baby. His birthday is 22nd november 2007. His best friends are Aramus and Achilles. We were driving down a road near our house and i saw a horse standing in a dusty camp all alone so we stopped. He was covered in flies and ticks and spiny burrs from one of the plants in the camp. He looked so sad so i went in with him and started to pull some burrs off him, his hair was so matted the burrs were right against his skin and making him bleed in places. We found out who he belonged to and as with all the other equines at the sanctuary we had to buy him from the owner (money talks as they say), we got him home and tried to find out more. His joints were deformed due to lack of minerals and we found out that his mother was sold when he was a couple of months old so hadn't had his mothers milk for as long as he should have. It took me about 2 hours to get all of the burrs and ticks off him as he was so scared. He is still quite nervous but has only been here for a few weeks so in a few more weeks i am sure we will see a huge change.

Aramus is our grey donkey he stands at 11 hands heigh and his birthday is 6th october (the date he arrived with us) and his estimated year of birth is 1988. His best friend is Achilles. He had bad feet and ringworm and bad teeth. he turned up with Achilles at our house one day so we adopted them, then a farmer came and claimed them so we bought them from him for way more than any donkey is worth but it was worth it!

Achilles is our brown donkey. He stands at 11.2 hands heigh and his birthday is the 6th october (the date he arrived with us) and his estimated year of birth is 1988. His best friend is Aramus. He was in the same condition as Aramus but also has liver failure and a hernia and there is nothing we can do, but with good care he could live as long as any of the others.

Icarus is our Dun Boerperd gelding. He stands at 15.2 hands heigh and his best friend is Tequila Suluna. His birthday is 19th november 2002. He is one of our equines that arrived with us in quite good condition, his feet and teeth needed work but he wasn't underweight. We bought him to be one of our trails horses as he had been used as a riding horse for children in the past.

Cronos ('To infinity') is our bay gelding. He is an ex race horse and has only been of the track a couple of years. His birthday is 26th october 1998. He was very underweight when he arrived, his ribs and withers and hips were visable. His feet were in bad condition and his coat had no sheen to it. He just needed some TLC and a good diet and to be left to rest. He is now gaining weight slowly but has a gorgeous temperament, he is such a sweetie. He loves to climb on the porch and look in the windows and he has even invited himself into the house on a couple of occassions :-)