10-13-08 & more on 10-12-08

We want to thank Cathy, her girls, and their friends for their tireless efforts in getting the tack ready for the auction. Cathy writes: "My van was loaded to full capacity. I could not have done this job without the help from my friends. Mayleen was out one night until after 11:00 helping me label and put everyone into sets. Without her help you might have ended up with some fog blankets and a English stirrup as a bit!. My friend Eva helped me more than once. On Friday we worked until 2:00 in the morning finishing up and loading the van. It is great to have good friends with a heart for horses. "

They washed all the blankets, got them sparkling clean and hung them out to dry.

The day they were moving it all down to the sale they laid down their seats and filled the van up.
They arrived at the auction and started the huge job of unloading it all. Those little carts probably had to make a hundred trips in and out of the building. Mayleen, thank you for your tireless efforts in helping Cathy out!

There's Cathy checking in all the tack. What a job! We cannot thank you enough.

On Sunday's blog, the day of the auction, we forgot to add that Sunny came back. The family that adopted him in 2006 was no longer able to care for him, financial hardship is hitting a lot of horse owners.

When Sunny first came to us he was quite skinny. This photo was taken in August 2006. His old owner got tired of feeding him and so they just quit. We watched as he went from fat to skinny in a couple months. We contacted Animal Control, but no action was taken so we bought Sunny from his abusive owners.

Just a few months later in Oct he was beautiful horse once again, fat and happy. He is really a sweet, wonderful horse who is looking for a new home! Please contact us if you are interested, he is trained to ride.

This morning first thing was getting the stallions into temporary paneled pens so they could stretch their legs. It sure is easier dealing with mares and geldings! Stallions have way to many hormones and are oh so eager to spread the love around.

Annette came out and did a whole bunch of office work and adoption applications. Then she headed out to clean some pens while Tawnee was loading up horses to take to the vet.

It was Aquarius' day to get new fancy shoes put on. We are really hoping that this will be the solution to his lameness.

This poor little filly was rescued yesterday at the auction with some weird lumps in her throat area. We were really concerned about her, she is the emaciated one seen in yesterdays blog with Becky.

Dr Weaver did an ultrasound to determine what was causing her problems. Come to find out she had a large hard mass near her airway, probably caused by a traumatic injury awhile ago. Dr Weaver had Dr Brown, a fellow vet, double check her diagnosis. It was determined that humane euthanasia was in her best interest.

This mare we were told was exposed to a stallion so we wanted to find out whether or not she was pregnant. She was given an ultrasound and thankfully she is not pregnant. It will be much easier for her to find a loving home with no baby on the way!

Finally Macho Man was ready to come back to the rescue to his waiting grumpy love Dottie.

The results of the surgery are so amazing. He will be wearing the bandage for a few more days to give the stitches time to heal. Here is how he holds his leg now...

...and this is before the surgery. What a wonderful difference, we are so glad we were able to provide the surgery for him! He will be able to live life with so much more joy and happiness.

We loaded up the horses, said goodbye to the stallions. Our hearts are breaking with sorrow at not being able to provide you a forever home, our only consolation is that you are not on your way to Mexico or Canada to be hung from a meat hook while still alive. Many people have asked if we could get them gelded. The sad fact is, we currently have almost 20 geldings available for adoption, many with waived adoption fees, and with the hard economic times people are not wanting another mouth to feed, especially going into winter with $30 a bale hay right around the corner.

Another horse came from the auction with a severe injury. We were hoping that she was halter broke so that we could treat her injuries, alas this was not the case as she turned out to be untouchable and her almost 12" long, deep gash could not be treated. Since she was untouchable she was untreatable. We took her to the vet to figure out the best plan for her, alas we had to say "Goodbye, we love you!" as infection was a high concern as we would not be able to treat her. It was a very sad day, after the joy of rescuing them yesterday only to have to give several the Last Act of Kindness, but our hearts are comforted by sweet Macho Man coming back.

On the way back to the rescue from the vet's Tawnee had to go to Zara and Sally's home as Sally kept escaping onto the main road. Their fencing is very good quality and all the other horses are not escaping. She apparently was just, simply, jumping their fence. They had never seen her jump over the fence, but it was the most probably way as the fencing was always in good repair. They did see her jump up a 3' rock retaining wall from a standstill. If something is in Sally's way, she just jumps it! Zara is very happy and content in her home and doesn't' even dream of escaping.

Tawnee loaded Sally up. Her mommy is planning on coming to the rescue and adopting another horse as Sally is such a houdini.

Tawnee finally made it back and got to unloading the horses.

We tucked Macho Man away in his stall with Dottie, who was acting disgusted that he is back. She was hoping he was gone for good. He'll win her over eventually... Dottie is such a funny character, when Macho Man left she thought it was the end of the world, but now that he is back she is giving him the cold shoulder. He may be able to say with all honesty that he wasn't hanging out with another girl...