We have a few Happy Tale updates for you. We absolutely love being able to post wonderful updates about horses that had a bleak future, but thanks to being rescued, they now have wonderful lives full of joy and happiness.
You will probably recognize these two pretty faces. The horse is Mya and the girl is Star. Star was featured on an Animal Planet "Petfinder" TV show. During the show Mya, who was rescued from a feedlot, found her forever best friend in Star. Click here to read all about the show, and to find out about Star and Mya. Star and Mya are in the first video at the top of the page, and you can also scroll down and see a writeup and more video in the 8th episode section. The below picture was taken recently, and they are still doing very well together. We are so glad that Mya and Star are so happy together and that we were able to save Mya from certain death at a slaughterhouse.
These two guys are Crusoe and Durham, who were adopted way back east. They came from kb Ronny Biggon. They are both off the track TB's. They are doing great in their new home, although it is a bit cold these days, so they are all wearing blankets 24/7. The blankets are of course removed for their grooming. They are being absolutely spoiled and love all the attention they are getting. They are sure two handsome boys!
These two guys are Crusoe and Durham, who were adopted way back east. They came from kb Ronny Biggon. They are both off the track TB's. They are doing great in their new home, although it is a bit cold these days, so they are all wearing blankets 24/7. The blankets are of course removed for their grooming. They are being absolutely spoiled and love all the attention they are getting. They are sure two handsome boys!
This morning, bright and early, Jason and Tawnee headed over to the Cowtown auction in Turlock to pick up the horses. We were really impressed by this auction's facilities. They keep their grounds neat, clean and in good repair. All of the pens had good footing, and had piped paneled pens everywhere. They even gave Jason a complimentary beverage and food during the auction! Usually auctions give us grief, not refreshments! Their paperwork also seemed to be well organized. All in all the management seems to be doing a good job on keeping the facilities safe for horses. But of course there were all the out of state trucks and trailer. With no anti-slaughter laws being enforced in California, and no check stations going out of state, the KB's float in and out of California at will, sending hundreds of Ca horses to slaughter each month. Jason had purchased 1 stallion, 1 jack donkey, 1 six month old colt, 1 mare that appears pregnant and the rest were mares and geldings. It was a tricky loading task for Tawnee, but soon she had them all in the trailer without a terrible amount of fuss. The baby was put in the very back next to a nice older gelding who kept him safe all the way back to the rescue. It sure helps that our trailer has nice dividers in it.
And then Jason and Tawnee were off for the long trip back to the rescue. Jason is so glad that fuel has not yet returned to $5+ a gallon. 
Meanwhile at the rescue, James, the barefoot trimmer who usually comes out with Sally, came out today to help out as he could. He brought out some saddles he wanted to donate. Jess, we believe that is your name, came out with James and also had some tack to donate as well. Thank you so much! She wants to start volunteering at Norcal on a regular basis, and we sure could use the help
After the tack was unloaded, they got right to work trimming feet. Candy Cane, along with many other horses, got her feet all fixed up.
Finally Tawnee and Jason made it back to the rescue and slowly came down the hill, around the corner and up the driveway.
But, there was no time to waste, there were a lot of horses in that trailer that wanted to get out and stretch their tired legs.
James, Jess, Claire, Tawnee and Jason all stepped right up and got to work.
Claire had the hard job of holding the door. She says it's the safest, but, we're not so sure... Jason took the pictures while Tawnee unloaded the horses and handed them to Jess and James, who put them into the round pen so they could relax and settle down, get a big drink of water and enjoy some nice yummy hay.
Then it was time for the ungelded guys to be put down into the mare motel. The stallion is a 4 year old registered TB, he rides and has good ground manners for a stallion. He has a vet appointment to be gelded on Friday. Many times we receive offers to pay to geld stallions at the rescue, here is one, please step forward! It costs about $150 to have this sweet guy gelded. The Jack has an adopter lined up, and we are hoping to have the adopter pay for the gelding. Either way he will have brain surgery.
About this time a huge trailer came lumbering down the driveway. Claire might have known about it, but Jason and Tawnee were bewildered whether they were coming to adopt or what. Usually we don't have such big trailers come down the hill.
Out came one solitary horse, all the way from Los Angeles area.
His name is Hartford, he is a off the track TB (sound familiar?) who had been injured. His injury has healed, but he was too much horse for his owner. So he made the long trip to the rescue in the hopes that we can find a home for him. He is such a gorgeous boy!
We had to kick Dottie and Macho man out of their stall, Hartford wanted to go in there until we could get pens arranged. We had just unloaded the 10 out of our big trailer, and we were still putting everyone away.
The mares and geldings that Jason and Tawnee had brought up were in the round pen, and the baby was in a baby pen. Everyone seemed to be doing fine, but the little stocky paint didn't seem so interested in eating, but was rather trotting around with glee.
James pulled out this TB mare, who's feet were in bad shape, to give her a good trim. She is one of the 10 that were rescued. She was bred to a Jack, and should be due to foal out a little mule soon. We have an appointment with out vet to have her ultra sounded to see how the pregnancy is going. Then again, she could surprise us and not be pregnant at all. The Jack she was bred to has the fastest offspring in the world of racing mules, so we are told. We may never be able to catch the little guy if she is pregnant.
She was such a good girl and stood nice and still as she got her feet trimmed up. She must have known we were trying to help her and make her feel better.
As the trimming was going on, we looked over and discovered that we had a big problem. One of the "geldings" appeared to be quite frisky and was trying to mount the panels. The first thing that ran through our minds was "Maybe he's proud cut or maybe he's just been gelded." For sure, he could not stay in that pen with the others! Tawnee had Claire run and get Hartford out of the mare motel while she caught the little rascal, haltered him and led him down to the mare motel.
Hartford was quite incredulous at the crazy paint guy running around acting strange. What a rude way to act!
So now Inky had a new neighbour. Tawnee checked out the paint's undercarriage and it appears he is a cryptorchid. There are a few possibilities for him. We'll be talking to our vet to find out what she believes gelding him will entail. Gelding a cryptorchid can be extremely expensive, so lets all keep our fingers crossed for this guy. Let's hope it's just hiding out in there, right under the surface.
Gracie was in the 20 acre pen when she realized there was action happening! She came racing down the hill like a torpedo, slid to a stop and watched wide eyed at the happenings.
And of course that got everyone else's blood flowing as they ran around trying to find out what the buzz was all about. It is really neat to be able to have enough space for horses to be horses and gallop around at will. You can actually feel them gallop in the ground as they run along.
Finally, everything seemed to be settling down. The new horses were eating contentedly. Those that need brain surgery were safely stalled away. We've never rescued this many mature stallions at one time before, unlike the odd claim that surfaced awhile ago that we rescued 15 stallions at one time and had them euthanized immediately. Odd claims are humorous at best, often just downright annoying. We evaluate each horse on its age, personality, training level, behavior and whether or not it is dangerous to others. Most of the time the stallions we get from auctions are old, rough, rugged stallions that have been breeding mares their whole lives and are quite set in their dangerous ways. It was nice to be back at the rescue before nightfall so all the horses could be settled in before evening came.
The little 6 month old colt snuggled in and caught some sleep in the warm sunshine. Poor little guy must have been so exhausted after his whole auction ordeal. He sure is a cutey and he is already nicely trained to lead.
Tawnee was looking through the emails that came in while we were gone and she ran into a funny e-news that caught her eye. Anyone else feel like our two logos are remarkably similar? It's the first time we've ever seen a logo close to ours, we sure believe it's an atractive look.
The little 6 month old colt snuggled in and caught some sleep in the warm sunshine. Poor little guy must have been so exhausted after his whole auction ordeal. He sure is a cutey and he is already nicely trained to lead.
Tawnee was looking through the emails that came in while we were gone and she ran into a funny e-news that caught her eye. Anyone else feel like our two logos are remarkably similar? It's the first time we've ever seen a logo close to ours, we sure believe it's an atractive look. 
Remember, only 6 days until the next auction, we will still need to raise $3115, please help if you can!
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