OILDALE, Calif. (KERO) — A local family is asking for assistance finding their two missing horses, who disappeared from a facility in Oildale and have a contagious respiratory illness.
- Josh Pryor and his family rescued two horses from a kill pen in Colorado just this past July.
- A few weeks later, on August 30, Pryor discovered the two were missing from their pen at the facility in Oildale off S. Plymouth Ave.
- Pryor worries they could have been taken, especially since they were recovering from a highly contagious respiratory illness: strangles.
For Josh Pryor, his love of horses is not only a hobby but something that has pushed him to help rescue horses in need. That's why when his two latest rescues went missing, the loss left him and his family devastated.
"It's a punch in the stomach, rips at your heart," Pryor said. "Especially for our son, it affects him."
Pryor has been taking care of horses for three decades now, from riding, to cleaning stalls and keeping them well fed. Even his son Logan is following in his footsteps, helping them take care of their two latest rescues whom they recovered from a kill pen in Colorado just this past July.
That's why it was so heartbreaking for him when one evening he came to feed them and he noticed something was off.
"Normally the two horses that we rescued come running up when they see my truck because I have food for them," Pryor said.
They were keeping the two rescues at a boarding facility off South Plymouth Avenue in Oildale when on August 30, they discovered they were missing. One is a 17-year-old palomino mare and the other is a 12-year-old bay gelding.
"The boarding facility, the people who ran it, said 'Oh maybe they got out.' So we started looking all over the property, I was going up and down the levy right along the Kern River next to the houses and couldn't find them," Pryor said.
After two of their horses went missing, they moved their others.
Not only was their disappearance a loss for the family, but Pryor worries that they may have been taken. Especially after seeing security footage.
"It showed a blue Dodge four-door pickup, towing an older stock trailer, horse trailer," he said. "Come back to where the horses normally were, I saw footprints".
Pryor said if that's the case, he's even more concerned given that after rescuing them they were working to nurse the horse back from a serious respiratory illness.
"They were just getting over being sick having a case of strangles," he said.
Strangles is not only known to cause fever and abscesses within horses, but also incredibly contagious. This is why Pryor hopes that if anyone in the community comes across the missing two they report it immediately and help them back home.
"I'm just hoping they're okay, because I know they were sick and the people who took them don't know them," he said. "In the short time we've had them, we know them and we know their needs."
If you see these horses or have any information that could help find them, you can report anydetails here.
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