In November 2014, Redwings received a call from Santa Clara County Animal Control. They had just seized 38 horses from a neglect case in Morgan Hill, and for one of the horses, it was already too late. She had died from malnutrition. The owner was a horse trader, and all the horses in the herd were in various stages of physical deterioration. Some were near starvation.

Redwings originally agreed to take two or three horses. The day before Thanksgiving, most of the staff took two trailers and headed north to Morgan Hill. We selected three horses and were getting ready to load them into the trailers when we spotted a mare and her young filly that were in such bad condition that we couldn’t leave them. So instead of three, we loaded five scared horses and hungry horses into our trailers for the long drive back to Lockwood. In spite of their poor condition, they all eagerly jumped into the trailers. It was as if they knew they were going to a better place. We named the mare Circe and named her filly Atte. Circe was thin and had a severe limp due to an old injury to her right front leg. We weaned her filly and put Circe out in a large pasture with two other horses from Morgan Hill, Big Joe, and Katrina. Over the next few months, Circe gained weight and started to look healthy again. Then in early late March, the equine care supervisor noticed that Circe was changing shape and continued to gain weight even after we reduced her feed. We soon realized that Circe was pregnant, and we got ready to welcome another foal to Redwings. On May 26 at 1:30 am, Circe delivered a beautiful, healthy colt that we named Black Jack. Black Jack stayed with his mother until he was five months old and then was weaned and put in a pasture with two kind and quiet geldings to keep him company. Circe now lives in a green pasture and is happy and healthy. Circe’s old injury requires daily medications, so she will be a permanent resident at Redwings.