Update!

So all is good at the ranch- Forrest continues to put on weight and is over his cough ( he of course brought home a illness from the auction ) I had him and Jerry the one eyed pony on some antibiotics, they are doing well now.

I got some good news- I thought that the auction/kill pens at SW Livestock Auction took their horses to a non EU regulated slaughterhouse in Mexico- Turns out his contract is with Betrax in Mexico which is EU regulated.. Long story short as of next April all US horses will need to go through a 180 day quarantine before slaughtered, which will hopefully stop the slaughter market in the US as who wants to feed a horse for 6 months just to get $300 in meat ( would cost half that in food ). Time will tell..