INDUSTRY — A challenging start hasn’t stopped little Angel Marie, a 6-month-old miniature horse at Double B Equine Rescue. 

An injury shortly after birth led to the amputation of her right foreleg before she was a month old.

When staff at Maine Orthotic and Prosthetic Rehab Services in Portland heard, they offered to help, and have since designed several braces and prosthetics for the filly.

Ruff Rollin’ Wheelchairs for Dogs built a wheelchair for Angel Marie, and Mango’s Freedom Wheels paid for that chair and a larger chair with extensions that can be further adjusted as Angel grows.

Rescue owners Brenda and Lennie Green, and their daughter Jan Truman, have given Angel Marie the specialized care she needs, including using water therapy to help exercise and strengthen her limbs. A monitor lets them watch her movements from the house.

Angel now weighs 140 pounds and is gaining balance. Once only able to stand if her good front leg was up, she has learned to rise regardless of which leg is up. 

The Portland clinicians have tried several prosthetics, but Angel pulls her shoulder out of the strap. “They’re looking at a different type of material to see if she’ll accept it better,” Lennie Green said.

A brace on her left foreleg is strengthening the tendons in that leg, and removing the rear wheels on Angel’s chair makes her use her hind legs more. She is also learning to move without the chair.

Angel enjoys running/rolling near the other horses pastured at Double B. A rope tied to her chair prevents her from getting too far ahead, but “she can almost pull you off your feet when she wants to go,” Green said. 

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