Paulsen family rescues young horse from kill pen

By: Cam Grubic

It was 10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 when  Bullet arrived at the farm, and it was like he was already home.

He was hesitant to get on the trailer but was more than excited to be off.  His first move was toward the grass. He was so excited to eat the fresh grass.

We hurried him into his stall in the barn where fresh hay and grains waited for him. He was a surprise for the children of science teacher Debbie Paulsen and her husband Clif.

Bullet had been on death row. He had previously been an Amish pony, and once he had served his work to the Amish, he was sold to a kill pen. Bullet and probably hundreds of other horses were in a pen full of manure and food. The idea is to get the horses fattened up and ready for slaughter.

image00 copyFortunately, the right person came along and saw the little bit of fire still left in this pony. They put someone on his back, and he accepted it; this horse was broke to ride.  They marked this pony for sale and advertised him on the Internet.

This is where Mr. Paulsen became involved.  He was uncertain and pondered it deeply: to purchase or not to purchase? Finally, this had “tugged on his heart strings” too much, he said, and he made his decision.

It was a deal.  Arrangements were made for this three-year-old pony, later named by Fisher Paulsen, to be hauled from Humansville, Mo., to Maxwell, Iowa.

Five-year-old Fisher gasped and said, “My horse!” as he caught a glimpse on his way through the barn doors. Unaware of his pony’s background and where he had come from, Fisher was more than excited to pet his pony and assure his older sister, Sutton, that Bullet the pony was theirs to share.  Fisher said that he is “happy” because “Bullet was in a kill pen and was going to die. But he’s not anymore.”

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