Age Unknown, Lost 2023

We rescued Necallie in Wesley's memory when we saw him being ridden around the kill lot, surrounded by fear and commotion, yet being gentle and calm. His kind nature reminded us of Wesley, who we had just lost, and we felt the call to save him in Wesley’s memory. As an Azteca horse we named him Necalli after the brave spirit Wesley showed as he fought diligently until the end. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec people, Necalli is the word for battle/fight, a name for a warrior…little did we know when we picked this name to represent Wesley’s battle, that Necalli would be fighting for his life as well.

​He was sick when we saved him. He had strangles, a respiratory infection, also known as equine distemper. Most of the time horses can fight this infection off on their own. But we didn’t know Necalli’s story. We didn’t know why he was thrown away, what shape his body was in, his age, or what his past entails. After much deliberation with the vet we decided the least risky course of action was to start antibiotics. Strangles is one of the only infections that antibiotics are not traditionally prescribed for, as they have been shown to prolong the infection, leading to something called bastard strangles. But, his body was fighting so hard that his skin was starting to fall off, an immune response called purpura, and doing nothing was a death sentence.

​We told him that if he made it through this, he would have safety and love until it’s his natural time to go, that he would never be thrown away or given up on again. We told him we would do our part and he just needed to do his. But we also told him that if he got tired and wanted to be an angel that was okay. We told him we wouldn’t give up until he said so.

The day after we started antibiotics he was up and eating his breakfast around 7am, but laid down an hour or so later and this time he couldn’t get up. The fight was gone from his eyes, he was so tired. We asked him if he wanted to get up and keep trying, but he didn’t. We knew it was time. His blood work indicated his body was shutting down from the infection. 

Not ever meeting this horse in person doesn’t seem to make the loss any less painful. We had a whole future planned for him, one he will never get to enjoy. He deserved so much better, he was left for dead, sick, and fighting so hard. We wish we could have met him in this life, and told him he was loved and safe in person.