11-30-08

The auction rescue fund received another generous donation today and it is currently at $650. This can go a long ways towards saving lives in this terrible economy where horses are being shipped to slaughter in record numbers.


First thing this morning Aquarius' approved adopter made the long trip to adopt him. They will be working with him to come to a solution to his lameness. His lameness has been getting better since we had him shoed with pads, but he is still a little off. We are hoping that this will be his forever family.

Deb came out and worked all day with the horses. Fiddle (pictured below) enjoyed being messed with and is very nice to ride. He is an approximately 10 year old, trained to ride gelding. We saw no signs of lameness. Please consider giving this sweet boy a forever home.

Ron pitched in wherever he could today and gave Precious his first leading lesson at the rescue. Ron loves working with the baby horses and will no doubt be working with them more to make them adoptable. Thanks Ron!

Our biggest concern when we heard the round bales were heading our way was how to move them. At over 1200 lbs each, it is no simple matter to get them fed to the horses. A tractor would make this job very feasible. Alas, we do not own a tractor. We need a tractor, but as of yet have not had the resources to purchase nor has a tractor been donated. Our first thought was to unravel them and feed them little bits at a time.

We make do with what we do have to get the hay to the horses. Tawnee and Claire, who was over helping out today, put their heads together, got the donated truck fired up, put it in 4wd, roped it up to a hay bale, and drug it to the horse pens. This is obviously not an ideal solution, but for the present it works ok. It's nice to know there is a way to move them.

The first bale they moved was into the baby pen. The baby's were so wide eyed, they have never been that close to so much hay before in their lives. One of the baby's, once the hay had been spread out somewhat, curled up as close as he could to the hay, and took a nice long nap.

Another hay bale went to one of the large pens. Volunteer Amber helped remove the netting from that bale.

Teresa showed up today, she asked Tawnee if there was anything she could do to help. Tawnee handed her the camera and said "Almost all the horses need pictures taken." With a look of amazement, Teresa took the camera out to the pastures and started taking pictures. It wasn't too hard, she just had to hang out around the big hay bales. Hopefully we will have updated Petfinder pictures soon.

When Teresa was done with the photo shoot she went to work in the tack room. She got that all organized, fell in love with a saddle that was going to the next auction as a fundraiser, paid a great deal more than we would have gotten at the auction, and went home the happy owner of a new saddle. Thanks Teresa!

Long lost Becky showed up today. It was a pleasure having her out at the rescue again and she was definitely a great help! Her and Boss had a little chat, and we believe that Boss has yet another person wrapped around his hooves. Thanks for coming out Becky, we have missed you so much!

The inside of the office is officially finished, so the great move has begun. Here Jason and Tawnee are moving a giant desk in through the front door. Please be understanding if emails, updates, and phone calls are delayed a bit through the move.

It was a long day, but a lot got accomplished too. We were still out working when the stars came out. Ann Marie came out this evening to work with Sissy and then on to the baby's. Thanks for coming out Ann Marie! Tawnee decided to take a snapshot of the moon, she figured it would be a flop, but this time it turned out not to be!

11-27-08 & 11-28-08

We didn't write a blog on Thanksgiving evening, but in between the festivities Jason wrote 57 emails, Tawnee answered the phone (yes it was ringing,) and horses got evaluated. We hope that your Thanksgiving was a wonderful day.

The auction fund is currently at $400 for the rescue and care of horses at the livestock auction. The next auction date is Dec 14th. Our goal is to be able to rescue at least 16 horses this auction.


Today was a slow day as well, but Jason used the time wisely and got the trim painted in the office. Tawnee says it's the wrong color, so no doubt it will have to be painted again. Tawnee is hoping it dries darker.

After the trim was painted Jason started on the flooring. It is almost all done, the office should be moved down there next week.

Have a great weekend!

10-26-08

The auction fund got its first donation today, for $25. The goal for this months auction rescue fund is $5,000. We plan on rescuing around 20 horses depending on the prices and our space, but if we rescue just 16 horses this auction we will have rescued 200 horses from the auction this year. That is 200 horses that very likely would have been slaughtered. With you help we can reach our goal of 200 horses saved from the auction!

Some new volunteers who adopted Hugs the dog made a 6 hour trip to come volunteer at the rescue today. They cleaned a lot of stalls, brushed and groomed, and overall made themselves very useful. Thanks so much! Hugs and all of her pups are doing great, and all the puppies are lined up to go to wonderful homes.

Jason painted the office today, twice. First the coat of primer went on, then it dried, then the final paint coat went on. The trim needs to be painted, the flooring laid, and the office inside will be done! It will be so great to finally have it finished. Next project: hay barn being built.

Annette came out and was able to do a few applications, but then it started sprinkling so she and the volunteers made sure all the hay was covered. The wind blew some of the plastic off, but Tawnee, Annette and the volunteers made short work of putting it all back on.

Jason headed into town to do some banking and to buy the rest of the supplies (hopefully) needed for the office. When he got back it was after dark and raining harder, so he had to unload the truck right away and put all the tools in the office.

Today was peaceful and slow, pretty expected the day before Thanksgiving. So many people are gathering with friends and family, we hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

11-25-08

Jason got some tractor work done while it was here this morning bright and early. This drainage ditch needed to be re-done as it had filled in over summer.

Jason loaded up the tractor and headed off to return it.

Meanwhile, Ron had left early this morning for a long transporting job and was now at the Ca coast. Literally, on the beach. It looks cold, foggy and it was drizzling rain.

The first horse Ron loaded up was Blueberry. We rescued her in 2006 from auction. She was placed into a wonderful home, but then recently sadly the husband and wife divorced. The x-husband had custody of Blueberry, and he started overfeeding her. This is quite odd, usually the x starves the horses. We are glad that she had a great couple years, now it is time to find her a new home. It is always so sad when an adoption is not forever, but at least we know that Blueberry is safe and horses are always welcome back.

Ron headed out to pick up the next horse, he kept passing road narrows signs, he kept wondering how narrow it could get. Well, it went down to a 1 lane road, but thankfully it was paved and he had no troubles.

He arrived at the 50 acre pasture this horse had been turned out in 2 years ago. He had been in a severe trailer accident where the trailer actually rolled over with him in it. When his owner moved to New Mexico, he could not get his frightened horse into a trailer and was forced to leave him behind. Now, he could no longer stay in the pasture due to health issues, so Ron worked his magic.

The uncatchable was caught.

The unloadable was loaded. This all happened within 2 1/2 hours from arriving.

Back in Missouri two empty stalls sat waiting. Waiting for...

...the transporter to arrive with...

...Crusoe and ...

Durham!

The horses were settled down into their stalls at their new home. They were then blanketed, fed and loved on. These two horses have come a long way, from being at a feedlot, arriving at our rescue, and then a gracious opening for these two off the track TB's to go live with a wonderful family all the way in Missouri. Thank you for openinng your hearts and home to these two sweet horses.

This evening it started clouding up enough to make us worried about rain ruining the new hay, so Jason got to cover all the hay. Jason may very well be sick of looking at hay, much less working with it.

Annette worked late into the evening doing adoption applications. She got a lot done, a lot of messages are out for references to call in, but finally the adoption applications feel like they are under control once again.

Ron got back around 8:00. This is the horse that was uncatchable/unloadable that he picked up last.

And there is Blueberry on the left. They are both spending the night in the round pen so they can meet everyone over the fence and be safe and quiet for the night.

Tawnee spent every spare minute she could working on the website, changing a few things. Hopefully it looks even better. The euthanasia clinic fund goal has been raised to $10,000 so that we can continue these clinics for old, injured, lame or sick horses so that they do not end up in the slaughter pipeline.

11-24-08

Bright and early Jason headed out to rent a tractor. We needed one ASAP!


Why did we need a tractor so early in the morning?

Miss Autumns Barkery had been working long and hard getting hay donated to us. She got 27 round bales, 34,000 lbs worth, donated. She figured out the most economical way to get the hay to Ca, and in the end she found a company that would put the hay on a train, ship it across the nation, and then bring it up to the rescue for $2500. Miss Autumn's Barkery, in addition to all of her hard work, donated half of the shipping cost.

We just couldn't wait to see the big truck loaded with hay. Jason's heart sank when he saw the enclosed box trailer coming up the road. That was not in the days plan, was there really a way to get 1500 lb bales of hay out of the 53' box?

The doors opened up, and sure enough, there was a bunch of giant bales of hay ready to unload.

The truck driver refused to drive the truck off of Dunstone, so we had to unload all the hay down on the side of the road, and then haul it up. So, Jason wrapped the tow strap around the first bale on top, hooked it up to the tractor, and the first 3 fell out. Maybe this would be easy after all.

Soon round bales of hay were spread out all over the side of the road. It ended up not being easy at all, but was extremely difficult especially as the trucker kept asking "How many more? I would have never done this if I had known!" After all, he only showed up an hour early...

About this time Sally and Sue came out to donate their time and trim horses. They were here from about noon until 4:00. Thank you so much for all your hard work! Tawnee got them started and headed out to help Jason with the hay some more.

By mid noon the semi trailer was unloaded and the truck driver was off to his next job. But then the huge job of getting all the bales to the rescue started. Tawnee would drive the truck and the flatbed that the tractor came on out, they would put 2 bales on it, tie another one to the tractor and head back to the rescue to unload.

The 5 horses that came in yesterday were more than delighted to have a huge round bale in their feeder. This was the first round bale fed to horses at the rescue, it went right into the feeder for the horses to enjoy.

More and more loading and moving of hay.

And more, as you can see it was getting dark and cold.

Ron came out to get his delivery assignments for tomorrow, and felt so sorry for Jason that he helped moved the hay. Finally about 8:30 pm all the hay was moved onto the rescues property. That was what was done today, moving hay, hay and more hay.

Ron got his delivery assignments, loaded up some panels to catch a hard-to-catch horse tomorrow, and he headed off.

Taking advantage of the tractor before it has to be returned, Jason put round bales into each of the large pens. No need to feed in there for a few days!

The horses are just tickled pink with the new hay, Tawnee took this picture and just couldn't help but think about how sweet these horses faces are.

Tawnee got into the office and she got a phone call from someone desperate to help horses from the terrible fate of being slaughtered. She forwarded an email from Animal's Angels of horses that had been brutally beaten at the "USDA overseen 'humane' slaughter house" that was operated in Texas. If you can stomach blatant brutality to horses, click this link, and then pause to think what must happen in the foreign countries that have no humanity laws. This is why it is so important that we are able to continue rescuing horses from auctions and hold euthanasia clinics, doing everything we can to keep horses from being slaughtered.