Untung was a carriage horse that was rescued from the centre of Jakarta in 2009. This is his sad story.

‘Untung’ was rescued in Jakarta in 2009. Having worked as a carriage horse in the center of Jakarta for over 15 years, he was known as the ‘Macan’ (panther in English) as he was small but very strong and according to the handlers, very ‘agressive’.
Carriage horse don’t last long in Jakarta. They are literally worked to death in the heat, the traffic, serving only as a money making tool with little care possible. The quality of grass that is fed tot hem is not the best and is also hard to get, so the horses are fed little and during the day are sometimes not even offered water.

JAAN actively started to campaign for better welfare for carriage horses since early 2009 after observing horses literally collapsing on Jakarta’s streets. ‘Untung’ was one of them.
He was also another victim of almost being worked to death. The JAAN team found him weak lying at ‘Tempat Kuda Andong Kemanggisan’ unable to move. Our team started to track Untung, Still named ‘Macan’ for his ‘vicious character’ back then, only to find he disappeared after 2 days.
A horse dealer had taken him ‘elsewhere’. Determined to help Untung, Our team searched all over Jakarta and found Untung in a much worse state in the area of Ampera Raya, Jaksel. Untung had been punctured with bamboo by the handlers to ‘clean the blood’ as the horse handlers believe. He was bleeding from his chest and in pain. The horse handler was awaiting the moment to slaughter untung to be sold as meat. 

We loaded Untung on our pickup truck and brought Untung home to care for him intensively. We removed the bamboo from his chest. We provided him good food and helped him stand up and lie down untill he was strong enough himself. We named him Untung, as he was lucky to at least escape the horrible life as carriage horse at his old age. We searched for a perfect retirement for him which we found in Salatiga at Havana Horses. Here the horses are kept in natural ways and provided with the best possible care.  It’s horse paradise! Untung finally was able to live the life he deserved and able to walk freely and make friends. For this we can’t thank Havana horses enough!
Sadly, Due to his old age, this week we had to say goodbye to ‘Opa’ Untung. Rest in peace our friend!