9-30-09

Today was a massive cleaning, and getting ready for winter, day at the rescue. Bright and early at 7:30 Byron showed up with his tractor to get to work.

His first job was to get the manure pile where the stall cleanings are dumped hauled to it's permanent resting place. It took 4 big dump truck loads to get it all moved!

Jason immediately got to work taking apart pens so they could be scraped and smoothed out.

Drainage ditches were cleaned...

...pens were graded out...

...land was smoothed...

...all in preparation for the winter rains that are coming. It is so nice having all the pens freshly graded, cleaned and smooth for the horses.

Meanwhile, Linda was busy making the old blind Appy feel very loved. She groomed and loved on her for a long time. With all the tractor work going on riding the horses really wasn't an option today, but the blind Appy sure did love her makeover.

Napoleon can't believe the improvement in his pen! He looked and looked and everywhere he looked, he just couldn't find a bit of manure or a bump to trip over anywhere.

Byron got to work scraping and smoothing the arena pen.

Once that was done, he cleaned out the drainage ditches by the driveway so the water won't be running over the road this winter.

All of the dirt and decomposed manure sure made a big pile when it was all finished.

The horses loved the freshly smoothed pens! They ran, galloped and bucked their way around for awhile.

They were just too happy, but now, they have all settled down and are eating contentedly once again. Orchid definitly gave her approval of Byron's work, and gave a leap of joy.

We would like to thank our donors today, Kelly B. and Carol G. without your generous support, these wonderful horses would not be given the opportunity to find forever, loving homes.

9-29-09

This morning our hearts burst with joy at the overwhelming support for the two seniors that were unexpectedly dropped off yesterday at the rescue. We just had to rush the soaked mash out to give them the great news, that people care and they are definitely loved. After they enjoyed their mash they were given hay to nibble on. It is very wonderful they are both at the rescue, and the chestnut (in the background) was not hauled off yesterday. It's so wonderful that they were not separated.


After some phone calls, emails and a staff meeting, Chief was loaded up to go to his new home.

Chief's mommy is so excited to finally have him home for good. He looked around, and soaked in his new surroundings, while his mom had the biggest grin on her face.

Soon he settled right in to his pen and began the never ending quest for something to nibble on.

From there, it was on the road for a couple hours to pick up a horse that needed to come into the rescue. It is getting harder and harder, it seems daily, to decide which worst case story we can help and which worse case story we cannot help. Each day the pace of horses that have to be moved out of their home due to foreclosures and job losses seems to be rising. We cannot imagine this winter, we are going to take it one day at a time.

On the way, the sun slipped behind a beautiful mass of clouds. Tawnee grabbed the camera and took a picture. Jason, who was driving, said "You should see it through sunglasses."

So Tawnee grabbed a pair of sunglasses, sure enough. It does look better with the sunglasses over the camera!

The GPS told them they were getting close, but the GPS navigation was wrong and soon they were lost. After pulling over, making some phone calls, doodling on the GPS, the correct directions were soon punched in and they were backtracking a few miles. Now the sun was in the rear view mirrors, still as beautiful, but now slipping behind the mountains.

Soon the sun was gone and they were still not at the stable.

Thankfully it was still light enough when they picked up Nike. She is a very beautiful girl, and she was very well cared for, but her owner unfortunately is no longer able to keep her.

It was a long drive back to the rescue, all done after dark.

Eventually they were safely back, unloading Nike into Chief's waiting stall. It's always a good day when a horse finds an adoptive home just in time to bring a horse in that needs a new home.

Nike settled right in and started eating. Nike is an 11 year old TB cross / Warmblood. She is trained to 1st level dressage in training level events. She has been sitting in pasture for several months not being ridden, but with a little exercise she should tone right up and be ready for some great riding.

Again, thank you thank you THANK YOU!!! to each and everyone that donated since last blog. Your generous outpouring of love not only makes it possible to help the seniors, and others, but gives us hope and courage that in the never ending fight against horse slaughter, abuse, abandonment and neglect, there is your loving support. Wendy S., Stephanie F., Gail G., Lari K., James G., Sally F., Andrew C., Deborah G., Carla G., Christine C., Lynn E., Cynthia B., Jacquelyn W., Andrea M., Marlene B., Judy C. all donated, thank you again.

9-28-09

We have a great update on Kramer. He is becoming a police horse! His adopter has been keeping us informed, and has sent us the newspaper link that talks about Kramer's latest achievement. Click here or click the picture below. Kramer's adopter is a police officer, and she's so happy that she will be able to ride her horse for work. What an awesome story, from rescue to Mounted Patrol.


We got a call from Tink's adopter. She told us that she loves Tink, renamed Cloud, very much, but just doesn't have the time to spend with her she feels she needs. Her other horse was feeling left out from all the attention she was giving Cloud, and she realized she really only has enough time for 1 horse. So, Tink came back today.

She is a beautiful girl. She is green broke to ride, and is now looking for a second chance at a forever home.

We got an unexpected call from our vet today informing us that someone was at their office wanting to drop off a horse for us. This transporter has done this before. Our vet is not the drop off place for horses coming to the rescue, so our vet told him to bring the horse to us. We had no idea a horse was coming in... When he arrived, he unloaded a very old, extremely emaciated, Appy mare that is completely blind.

We carefully walked her over to the round pen. It's always so sad putting a blind horse into a new situation, everything is so foreign to them. The round pen is a nice safe spot, until a stall could be made available as we were not expecting to get in a blind horse.

She laid down and rolled in the nice sand. Tawnee was hoping she could get back up, she is very weak. After her roll she managed to get back on her feet and began exploring.

The transporter said that he had paperwork in the truck, so Jason followed him to the truck to get the paper. He handed the paper to Jason, hopped in his truck, started the engine and said "The paper says there's two, but I'll take the other back to my ranch." Jason looked at Tawnee, handed the paper to her, she said "It says two, two are staying!" Jason ran after the truck, yelling at him to stop, and explained to the transporter what was going to happen.

He grudgingly unloaded the horse. It turned out to be a skinny, though not nearly as skinny as the Appy, very old chestnut mare.

We found it a bit odd that he wanted to keep the heavier horse. Non the less, she was now in our round pen being a buddy for the Appy.

She really gulped down the water, she was definitely thirsty from her trailer ride.

The Appy enjoyed drinking the water for a very long time too, she closed her eyes and just sipped away.

Once their thirst was quenched, they each had a nice soaked bucket of mash.

They really enjoyed sitting there with water in their tummy's, and now food in front of them.

It was a warm day, but certainly not as hot as yesterday. Blossom, the mare with the old broken tail, enjoyed her bath in her stall.

When evening was coming on, as usual the wild turkey gang came by for a drink of water. It's nice, even with our limited water, to be able to help the local wildlife out.

Tawnee needed to evaluate some horses. She wisely chose to wait until the cool of the evening. Shasta enjoyed watching the sun set.

She was a very good girl for riding, and they rode until the evening shadows were too long and the sun was too far gone to ride anymore.

Many thanks to Sara H for her generous donation today. We could definitly use some donations to help the Appy and Chestnut out, if you can help even a little, click here.

9-27-09

Today started as a normal day. Feeding, watering, making sure all the horses are ok, but is was definitely hot. This guy recently came into the rescue and definitely enjoyed having his bath. He was such a good boy, you could tell he was really enjoying the loving attention and he just wanted to stay there all day.

Finally he was all done and enjoying a nice bucket of grain. He has a tattoo so Tawnee looked up the number. He's a match with The Day We Met. Kind of a strange name, so we will be calling him Little Richard. If anyone knows something about this horse, please send the information our way.

While Richard was drying off, a trailer pulled in with another horse coming into the rescue. This is Shasta, she's an 11 year old Appendix QH. She is a beautiful girl. We are told she is trained to ride but we have not yet evaluated her riding abilities.

Linda worked with the horses through the heat. It was one of those days where sitting in the shade seemed like such a good idea.

In fact, everyone, visitors and staff alike, just gravitated towards shade. Travis' potential family came out once again to spend some time with him. They are excitedly waiting for their application to be finished so they can take him home!

Dancer left the rescue today with her new mom. They were really excited to take her home, and we were really sad to see her leave. She's been with us quite awhile. Thanks so much for giving her such a wonderful home.

Many of you may remember when we talked about the volunteer sunflower and the volunteer watermelon. The sunflower got stomped on by a horse, but the watermelon has been doing just fine. When everything quieted down and all the visitors had left, it was time to have a volunteer appreciation meal with one of the watermelons.

The watermelon was just about at the peak of ripeness. It's what everyone needed after the hot long day. Sweet, cold and juicy.

Napoleon enjoyed having his piece of watermelon too. Nothing like home grown organic sun ripened refrigerated watermelon to make a happy horse.

We would like to thank the wonderful person for sending all the fly masks in the box. Thank you so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness.

Many thanks to Esther J., Constance W., Scott C. for their generous donations over the weekend.