Joshua Parfitt
FORGET what you’ve heard. The Spanish police do care for animals.
My husband Rod has been there on the front line with Policía Nacional, their weapons drawn, ready to defend the freedom of a starving horse.
This was the case with the incredible rescue of Diplomat.
It was in San Javier this time, where someone tipped off the authorities to a skeletal horse trapped by a piece of rope to a fence behind someone’s house.
Rod got the call and turned up flanked by four police officers – two with guns ready – and followed by an ambulance with two paramedics.
One of the armed agents guarded Rod’s trailer, while the other stalked down the track to where Diplomat was locked behind the iron fence.
A police officer carrying bolt croppers cut through a chain on the fence and sliced through the wires so we could get him out.
The agents were nervous – the owners of the horse were gitanos, gypsies, and very violent people. The problem with them is they make threats to the local police, saying ‘we know where your daughter goes to school’.
Let’s just say the paramedics were called in for a reason.
Fortunately, this time they weren’t needed. Diplomat went straight into the trailer and the team disappeared as quickly as they could back to the Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre in Rojales.
Diplomat was a handsome devil, a stallion, but it was obvious he’d been bashed around.
One of his hips couldn’t move freely from a blow or an accident, so I imagine he was given to the gypsies to use him for breeding. Because despite his deformities, he’s still the most handsome horse you’d ever seen.
And now this handsome beast lives his days out in the air, 24 hours a day.
He’s the kind of horse that makes all the mares go ‘oooh, look it’s Diplomat!’
He ignores them, though, to be with his best friend Mystery – another strange horse we found tied up to a rubbish bin behind the rescue centre, hence Mystery.
How wonderful he’s had a chance to shine here, because he had no life when we found him in that terrible state, tied to a fence and beaten around.
And all thanks to the police. This is risky business: we get a few death threats from the gypsies too, because they know where all these horses go.
But the police will come in an instant to help us out, because they too know where these horses go, and how lucky we are to see them given a second chance.
Find out more at easyhorsecare.net/ and please leave a donation to allow Rod and Susan to continue their fantastic work.
Call: +34 652 021 980
Email: rescue@easyhorsecare.net
