Creating Utopia in WV, One Project at a Time

Once, long ago, there was a Monday from hell

2012-01-15T18:17:00.001-05:00

One Monday morning I woke up from a very light night of sleep with a terrible headache. I hardly ever get headaches so I knew the day wasn’t going to go well. Had I known how true my foresight was, I would have called in sick and pulled the covers back over my head.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at work. The headache never dissipated, so I was more clumsy than usual and woke up the next morning with numerous new bruises. When the day was finally done, I was exhausted and hungry, since I had also forgotten to pack a lunch. I pulled myself up into the F250, fastened the seat belt and turned the key.

Nothing.

At that point, it didn’t surprise me. I was actually expecting something else to go wrong. It was Monday, after all.

I got a coworker to hold down the ignition key while I banged on the starter and the truck magically fired up after the third hit with a hammer. I said a small thank you to the FORD gods and drove out the lane.

My drive to and from work is all back roads, which makes the 45 minute commute very tolerable. That is, until you’re on a narrow dirt road with a steep drop off on the right and some moron runs you off the road.

The tow truck driver was skeptical and made me sign a waiver saying I wouldn’t sue the towing company if my truck decided to mate with a tree. Several hours and $250 later, my truck was back on the road where it belonged. It was dark by then and I still had to go home and feed the horses.

As I pull into my driveway, thankful that nothing else had happened on the drive home, I spot eyeballs on the side of the driveway. The dogs had been shut in the house when I left for work that morning, so maybe the eyes belonged to a cat? But they were too far apart, unless it was a really large cat. The kind of cat I probably didn’t want to run into in the dark. Then my headlights hit the animal and I saw that it was Calypso. What the heck was she doing out? And why wasn’t she running up the driveway to greet me, as she normally did?

Then the knot in the pit of my stomach came back and sat there like a bad fruitcake. Calypso wasn’t moving. I jumped out of the truck as soon as I had it in park and ran to Calypso’s side. It had started raining right after my truck was pulled out (of course) so Calypso was lying there wet and shivering. I ran to the house and grabbed a flashlight and headed back to my dog. Her right shoulder was large, swollen, and hot. She couldn’t put any pressure on it and just laid there whimpering.

My planned hot shower and pity party had to wait. I couldn’t fall apart yet, Calypso needed me. I hefted her 60lbs and carried her into the house, then called a vet tech friend of mine. It was after 9pm at this point and I hoped she’d still be up. I ended up carrying Calypso back out to the truck and taking her over to M’s for inspection. She told me to call the vet in the morning, but that he probably would not be able to do anything because of the location of the injury. The shoulder is impossible to immobilize with a cast or splint. The vet said the same thing the next morning and suggested pain meds, confining her to a crate for four-six weeks, and ice packs.

By the time I got home with Calypso, got her settled in, fed all the horses and myself, showered, and fell into bed, it was after midnight. I had to get up at 5AM to do it all again.

I tell you all of this now, well after the fact, for one reason only.

I survived the Monday from hell and so did Calypso. The next time life deals you one of those days that makes you want to curl up into a fetal ball and suck your thumb, just remember that tomorrow is a new day. If I survived, so can you.

A very special dog

2011-12-05T20:28:00.001-05:00

And she’s not even mine.

Kaja is one of the many dogs and puppies awaiting homes over at the The Olive Branch. Except that Kaja is different. Since the day she was dropped at the end of the driveway, to make her own way to the Olive Branch or get lost trying, I knew this little girl was different. She wasn’t even five months old when her owners dumped her and her sibling off, but I saw right away that she was special. Intelligent, kind, playful, and cuddly, with a willingness to please that is unsurpassed by any other dog there.

There are no other dogs at the Olive Branch that are given such freedoms. When I get to work in the mornings Kaja is fed with the rest of the pups, then let out into the play yard. She plays for a few minutes, then deftly climbs the four foot fence to come looking for me. She helps me clean the kennels, feed the horses, goat, and pigs, then rides in the Polaris with me while I spread manure.

She gets along with all the other dogs and is the canine ambassador in the cat kingdom. The older kittens just adore her --- rubbing themselves all over her, letting her join in their games of chase, and snuggling up with her for a nap at break time. Kaja has a special relationship with Whinnie the goat, and is trying her best to become friends with Tyler the pig. She keeps a respectful distance from the horses, has never offered to chase them, and has not once even barked at them.

Kaja plays a mean game of fetch and drops the ball eagerly at your feet. She knows “Sit” and “down” and is currently learning “Shake” and “Rollover”. “Stay” has been difficult because she hates being more than a few feet away from me. Her job, as she sees it, is to be next to me at all times. I recently fell off several bales of hay in the barn and as I was lying there taking stock of any injuries, Kaja curled up against my side, offering me her warmth and comfort because she knew I was hurt. She didn’t jump all over me and try to lick my face like most pups would do when a human is on the ground.

Kaja is special. She’s that once in a lifetime dog and today she was adopted. I get to give her one last bath tomorrow before her new humans come to pick her up. I’ll give her a kiss on the nose, a gentle ear rub, and wish her well at her new home. Then I’ll wipe the tears away and move on to the next puppy project. But I know there will never be another Kaja.

Sky and Mariah

2011-11-23T10:53:00.001-05:00

This past summer I was allowed to bring some horses over to The Olive Branch to graze on one of their unused pastures. This was symbiotic to both parties, as my horses kept the grass down so it didn’t need to be mowed, and it gave my pastures at home a bit of a break. I should have taken more horses than I did, but since this was a first for me, I wanted to keep it simple. I ended up taking three old fogies and two youngsters that were not yet available for adoption: Semi, Junior, Stride, Mariah, and Sky.

Semi and Junior have been married for many years so they were pretty much inseparable throughout the summer. Stride has always been a loner so didn’t mind being a third wheel. Which left Mariah and Sky, only one year apart in age, to become the best of buddies.

They didn’t seem to mind.

They ate out of the same tub every day. I tried giving them separate tubs, but Mariah just couldn’t stand eating by herself, so they’d polish off one tub and move on to the other as a team.

When it was time to run and play the two were always within feet of each other, usually running belly to belly.

I originally took these pictures for the purpose of getting one or two good ones of Sky to put up on the website, but I could never get him alone!

Sky’s adoption is currently pending – it didn’t take long after I put him up as available for someone to fall in love with the handsome fella.

I know I’ll miss him, but probably not as much as Mariah will!

Dilbert Update

2011-10-22T20:19:00.001-04:00

Remember little Dilbert, one of the minis rescued from the seizure outside of Fairmont, WV last year? This is what he looked like when we rescued him.

This is him now!!!

Turns out, the little guy was broke to ride already. I took these pictures at the fun show on October 8th, where he was ridden in some games, a walk/trot class, and then “ran” some barrels.

Too bad they didn’t have a dressage class… check out his extended mini trot!

I love happy endings!

Training Updates

2011-09-24T18:09:00.001-04:00

It’s either feast or famine around this blog lately. I either hit you with multiple posts in a week or zip, zilch, nada for weeks at a time. Sorry about that! Here’s what you’ve missed:

1. Jethro was adopted and just left today. The kids were also trying to sneak Amigo into the trailer without me noticing. It didn’t work, but it was amusing to watch them lead him around with just their arms around his little neck.

2. Traveler went for his fourth ride and first trail ride ever on Wednesday. He was AMAZING! Read all about his ride on Tamara’s blog. Traveler heads over to my pony foster next week for daily riding and further training. Then, it’s likely he already has a home waiting for him with Jethro’s adopter!

3. At the same time Traveler heads to the foster, Chip will be headed to the vet for some much needed brain surgery. Then he’s off to the foster as well for training.

4. Did I tell you the story of Whiskers? She was actually rescued by a friend, but turned out to be too dangerous and unpredictable for her to keep at her barn with larval humans running around. She’s three, but I wasn’t going to start her training this year because we had so many other youngsters. However, she kept hanging out around the round pen, watching everyone else and looking left out. So just to see how crazy Tamara really is, I asked if she wanted to work with Whiskers and see if she accepted the saddle as well as I thought she would. Whiskers never batted an eye when she was tacked up, so Super Crazy Volunteer laid across her back, then swung on up. Whiskers went berserk!

Can’t you tell? I know it’s not a video, but that’s what happened. Whiskers stood statue still, just swishing her tail at flies. Tamara dismounted, untacked, and called it a day. Now that we know Whiskers accepts pretty much anything, we’ll start her ground work and teach her voice commands and cues. Once that’s done, the rest will obviously be pretty easy.

5. Jasmine is doing so well that we’ll probably take her out on trail for the first time this week. I’ll take pictures this time because I just know she’ll do awesome!

6. Quill.. what can I say about Quill except that he’s incredible? We should have him out on trail soon, too.

I never imagined having this many Maverick-wanna-bes in the herd!

Traveler’s first ride

2011-09-03T18:12:00.001-04:00

Tamara wasn’t even going to get on Traveler the other day. She’d already been there for a few hours, worked four other horses, and it was HOT. Let me tell you a bit of a secret… it’s a LONG walk from the round pen to the driveway where she had parked. After she was done with the last horse and had him untacked and turned loose, she was cursing herself for not leaving Quill tacked up and just letting him carry her saddle and bag down to the car. Luckily, Traveler was standing right outside the round pen and he volunteered his happy fat butt to carry the saddle. So I grabbed him and we threw the saddle on. Then it was pretty silly not to go ahead and work with him. So she put the bridle on him. Since he has much the same attitude as Quill and she’d already done some ground work with him, we decided she should just mount on up and see what happens.

A whole lot of nothing happened.

Which is a big bonus since she forgot to put her helmet on before mounting up.

I let him follow me around the pen for a few minutes until he got his sea legs under him, then we called it a day. Except that he still got to carry the saddle and bag down to the driveway for Tamara. He’s such a gentleman.

Traveler will be going to the same foster that took River and Casper. I can’t wait to see little Lexi riding him. I think she’s really going to love the little guy!

Quill’s first ride

2011-09-02T17:28:00.001-04:00

When Tamara was out the other day she got on Quill for the first time. Let me tell you, it was devastating! I thought for sure Quill was going to… going to… oh, I just can’t say it… I thought he was going to fall asleep!

He looks really upset about this whole human on his back concept, doesn’t he?

She only stayed on him for about 10 minutes. Just long enough for him to find his balance with the extra weight, and wake up. Just a little, mind you. Not enough that he actually put any effort into the session. I think Tamara worked harder than he did.

Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Quill has been worked with in the round pen a total of ONE time. That’s just the way he rolls. Crazy humans want me to do something? Okay, let’s do it!

I just love this little guy and I think Tamara feels the same. How could she not?

Jethro

2011-09-01T17:36:00.001-04:00

I haven’t been posting over on Training the Unwanted this year because I haven’t been doing any of the training. Tamara has been volunteering her time to come out and work with these horses and she has her own blog to tell you all about it. It’s over there on the right and it’s called “All about horses in training”. Tamara helps other people with their horse troubles, so her blog isn’t just about the horses here. Go check her out sometime!

Yesterday she came out and worked with Quill, Jasmine, Traveler, and Jethro. This was Jethro’s evaluation ride and I was pretty confident that he was already broke to ride just because of his excellent ground manners and calm, relaxed way of handling new situations.

For instance, this was the first time Jethro had been introduced to the main herd. The first time he’d been up on the ridge and in the round pen. And it was probably the first time he’d ever had a little “helper” in a round pen with him.

I’m very impressed with the way Jethro handles himself and can’t imagine why someone would have turned him loose, or not gone looking for him if he had escaped. He’s an awesome horse and I can’t wait to find the time to hit the trails on him for a more thorough evaluation!

And what do I say about Amigo? How many times can I tell you how adorable he is before you get tired of reading it and find another blog to read?

Everyone should have a round pen

2011-08-31T14:40:00.001-04:00

When I first built the round pen, my reasoning was simple. I wanted a safe, confined place to work with all the green and unbroke horses that I have. At the time, I didn’t have any ponies, so I wasn’t concerned with putting a third board down low to keep them from squeezing under. I’ll never be able to work any small ponies in there, but at least Amigo still appreciates the hard work and time it took to build him a round place for scratching all the itchies.

At least someone is getting some use out of my round pen.

The new and improved Logan

2011-08-28T17:55:00.001-04:00

Logan has been friendly towards me for a couple of weeks now. He never let Glenn near him and I thought he might take a bite out of Brandi the other day when she was petting Eve, who is one of his herd.

He’s finally started playing with Calypso instead of running away from her attempts at fun.

He still has no interest in coming into the house, but that’s okay. His job is outside and that’s where he needs to be. He’s also really good at his job! I haven’t seen the foxes or coyotes in the back pasture since Logan arrived. I haven’t lost anymore chickens, either. Go Logan!

He’s also become playful with me and is starting to come out of his shell. When I come out with his dinner he bounces up and down, spins in circles, and barks excitedly. He comes running to meet the truck when I get home and escorts me back to the house.

Have I mentioned that I just love the big lug?

We have a Monastery in WV? Really?

2011-08-27T18:25:00.001-04:00

Last Wednesday I received a call from a Father (the religious kind!) at a monastery down in Wayne County, WV. My first reaction was “Monastery? In WV? Seriously?” The mental image that accompanied that consisted of toothless rednecks in patchwork robes riding donkeys, growing pot, drinking moonshine, and making up lewd jokes from the bible. Sorry, that’s just the way my mind works. I couldn’t stop it.

Anyways. The Father told me about four horses that had been running loose in the area since March and one horse had since died. He thought the horses had belonged to someone who had committed suicide this past winter. He had tried the local authorities several times, but no one would return his calls. What a shocker.

He said the horses were dehydrated and emaciated. The monks had been feeding them on and off, whenever they came on to the monastery property. Two of the horses had halters and were very friendly, but the third was skittish and flighty. They were covered in rain rot and their feet were overgrown.

Since my quarantine paddock is still filled with studs, there was no way I was going to be able to bring the horses here. So I talked to the director over at Olive Branch and asked if they were interested. They had rarely rescued starving horses before, but have a few old retired horses that people have surrendered, a beautiful farm with plenty of acreage, a nice barn… and a great little paddock with shelter for quarantine.

The horses arrived Friday evening. They weren’t as bad as I had thought they’d be, but they’re not great. The Father had said there were two mares and a gelding, but of course the gelding is really a stallion.

The buckskin stallion is the friendliest one and looks to be about three or four years old. The vet is coming to examine and castrate on Tuesday and we’ll know more accurate ages then. I gave this guy a bath today and he was totally cool with it, like he’d been bathed many times before. I named him Tristan. You’re welcome, Brad Pitt.

This is the younger mare, I’d say around 6 years old. She was the hardest one to catch, but is okay once you’ve got her as long as you don’t make any fast moves. Her bath didn’t go very well and I stopped when she was comfortable with the water on her legs and chest. She doesn’t have rain rot, so I’ll take my time with getting her used to the hose.

She was really difficult to catch for worming and again for feeding this morning. Luckily, we had her in the barn, but she still had enough room to get away from me. After her bathing attempt later, I let her eat some grass and plied her with cookie after cookie. When I fed this evening she walked right up to me and wouldn’t leave me alone after that. Some people don’t like cookies, but I’m telling you right now… cookies make the world go round with these rescued horses. We named her Breezy.

This is the older mare, I’m guessing between 10 and 12 years. She’s friendly enough as long as you don’t make any fast moves around her.

There were three teenaged girls volunteering at the Olive Branch today and they named this mare Wendy. She wasn’t so confident about a bath at first, but with slow moves and patience, I got her done. She seems like she’ll be an incredibly sweet mare eventually, but for now she’s just wondering where she is, what’s going on, and when is dinner?

Olive Branch could use some help bringing these horses back to health so please consider a donation! Any amount will help and they are a 501(c)3 charity!

Riley and Huey Return

2011-08-24T13:33:00.001-04:00

Remember these two trouble makers? This picture was taken last May, shortly after Huey was born, and about a month and a half after the horses were seized. That’s Huey on the left.

Ginger, Shortcake, and Huey were adopted and Riley was fostered as a buddy for Huey to grow up with. The adopter did a wonderful job with the two, but things have changed and she realized that she just didn’t have the time necessary to devote to the two munchkins and brought them back to HHH.

Little Huey hasn’t dropped his testicles yet, so they are both still stallions. When I put them in with the stallion herd everyone took a sniff, Dagwood and Rusty chased them around for a minute, then everyone settled in to the hay like nothing exciting had just happened.

Both boys are friendly and love attention. I can’t wait until they are old enough to send over to the foster that took River and Casper -- little Lexi will have a blast training these two cutie patooties!

River and Casper get to show off

2011-08-10T17:25:00.001-04:00

The Tyler County Fair is this week and our foster took River and Casper to compete in the pony classes at the fair. Monday’s classes were postponed until today because the ring was too muddy, which was fine with me since I had to work on Monday. I did end up going Monday evening after work to get some pictures, which was a good thing since I took the camera with me today, but forgot the memory card. Go me!

The competition wasn’t exactly stiff since there were only three ponies in most of the classes and all three were ridden by the foster’s kids. But we weren’t there for the competition, we were there for the fun! Little L rode River in a halter and lead rope all day, even in the classes (what can I say, things are pretty laid back here in hillbillyville). River won most of the peewee classes and even did pretty well in the barrel racing. I hope you can imagine what it looked like to see tiny little River trotting around cones that are twice as big as she is since I don’t have any pictures to show you. Trust me, it was too stinkin’ adorable!

The little girl that rode Casper forgot to hold on to the reins when she was leading him back to the tent and he had a nice gallop around the show grounds. It was pretty entertaining to see him outrun and outsmart a bunch of adults (including me). In the end, he ran right back to the trailer that brought him to the show in the first place. I could just see him thinking that if he got back on the dark scary box maybe it would take him home!

River was also the “go to” pony for impromptu pony rides. She made a lot of little kids very happy!

It was sad to see River get on the trailer at the end of the show today and head off to Pennsylvania to her new home, but it was also very fulfilling. She’s going to be pampered and loved in her new home, with an indoor riding arena, all the cookies she could ever eat, and an unsuspecting little boy who just turned three on Sunday. I wish I could be there to see his face when he finds his belated birthday present in the barn!

Another Olive Branch Puppy

2011-08-09T17:14:00.001-04:00

I’m not planning on showing you every cute, adorable, and snuggly puppy that comes into Olive Branch. But I probably will anyway. This blog needs a little cute and cuddly once in awhile.

Please say hello to Cletus. He’d really like you to pick him up so he can chew on your ear lobe.

Mom was a Beagle that showed up at someone’s house and had four puppies shortly after. The nice people took her and her puppies in, got them checked out by a vet, and got mom spayed. They kept the mother and found homes for three puppies, leaving poor little Cletus still in need of his own human ear lobe to munch on. So now he’s at Olive Branch, chewing on whatever ears he can find and just hanging out with his ancient friend, Mitzie.

And playing. Lots of playing is involved.

If you’d like to adopt Cletus, he’s available now! You just need to provide proof of neutering once he’s old enough. Quick! Go get him before I bring him home! PLEASE!

Logan

2011-07-21T08:43:00.000-04:00

As my Facebook friends may already know, Cody was euthanized on June 29th. Almost 14 years of the best dog ever and it crushed me to come home from work to find him lying in the hot sun completely paralyzed. That brought us down to five dogs, all females. We had a really good pack – they stayed home and didn’t roam, they all got along well, and they were all really well behaved. Just don’t tell Calypso I said so. I’m sure my generous mood will pass soon anyway.

Then came a call to a friend about a Great Pyrenees dog that was no longer wanted. His 80 year old owner told her son to take him out into the woods and shoot him. Thankfully, the son couldn’t bring himself to do it and made some calls trying to find the dog a home. I brought him home Monday and he immediately took an interest in Lucille. Oddly, the interest was reciprocated. Lucille sniffed him all over and lipped his fur, then hung out with him near his tie while I put up a kennel for him. She also shared his dry dog food coated with bacon grease and loved every bite. Why is my donkey so odd??

The poor dog is terrified of people. Every time I raise a hand within reach of him he thinks that hand is going to come down on his head… hard. If I’m carrying anything in my hands when walking past him, he cringes in expectation of a beating. I can’t get near him without him barking and growling at me. Once inside the kennel I could corner him and approach slow and low and could eventually pet him. It does not make him happy to be touched. He is constantly on guard, tense, and ready to spring at the slightest hint of violence.

Yesterday was incredibly hot and muggy, and although he has shade in his kennel, I thought it might be a good idea to bring him in the house and let him hang out in the A/C with the other dogs (who all adore him, by the way). Once in the house he felt trapped and afraid, so I left him alone to be in another room in hopes that he’d explore and eventually settle down somewhere near. Instead, he busted the plastic latch on one of the swing windows in the living room and jumped out.

I thought he’d run off (he’s not neutered, of course), but he just wandered around the yard, got a drink out of the pond, sniffed the chickens, then settled down at Lucille’s feet. I’ll be honest – with the recent coyote sightings in the back pasture and the Great Chicken Massacre of 2011, I’ve been a little worried about Lucille. She never leaves the yard, but apparently the coyotes and foxes know no such boundary as the dead chicken carcasses in the yard will confirm. The last time I saw a fox lope across the back yard Heidi and Calypso were right there with me, watching it go. Thanks girls, you’re a big help!

Now that he’s loose he no longer barks and growls at me as soon as I step out the door. He follows me around at a safe distance, but it will be a long time before I’m able to catch him again. Eventually, he’s going to have to buddy up with me because I want to get him neutered, vaccinated, and wormed. He’s also a mess of knots and matted fur and I’d really like to give him a bath and a good grooming. But that’s not happening any time soon!

For now I’ll just have to content myself that he’s happier. He’s spent his whole life tied up to a chicken coop, barking at passing four wheelers. It seems a guardian dog needs something to guard and Logan has found something very much in need of protection. We might just have another happy ending on our hands.

A Pleasant Surprise

2011-07-20T10:01:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a super busy day. My two new volunteers came over and helped me get Seymour, Lucky, Jethro, Casper, and River in the trailer. It was hot, muggy, and I was dripping enough sweat to fill a five gallon bucket. Hello, Summer. Nice to finally see you.

Ugh.

Anyway, Seymour, Lucky, and Jethro were headed over to a friend’s place to meet up with Doc and his castration equipment. Doc was going to be there anyway and he’s so busy these days that it was easier for him if I took the boys over to him.. Casper and River were headed to the same place to be fostered with two little riders who couldn’t wait for the ponies to show up.

Let me tell you right now, that I love Jethro. I have loved that stallion since the first night. He’s so well behaved and unstallion-like that I just can’t help it. Yesterday was no different. He was a peach to load, was awesome in the strange barn even when this cute little mare made googly eyes at him, and was also a perfect patient for Doc.

Seymour was also a very good boy. When the surgery was over and he was coming out of his drug stupor he was still very woozy and staggering around. But even in this state he knew he wanted to get back on that trailer and stumbled his way out to it with me trailing behind. Once he got to the trailer he had to take a break and rest his head on the trailer floor before clambering up into the trailer and begging me to take him away from the mean and nasty vet. Poor guy. I felt so bad for him! That is, until I got him home and tried to take him back to his paddock in the dark. As soon as he saw Lucille the drugs wore off and he was back to his old self and trying to drag me along with him. Ya’ll… it was hot. I as tired. And it was going to be too dangerous for me to walk him past Lucille and around the pond through the mud in the dark. So please don’t judge me too harshly when I tell you that I yanked his horny butt back up the driveway and let him spend the night in the stock trailer. Thankfully, he was a perfect gentleman this morning when I put him back in his paddock. Whew!

Lucky was a different story. Lucky hates needles. Lucky is bigger and stronger than me. Need I say more? At least the deed is finally done.

Now, on to the fun stuff! The kids couldn’t wait to ride Casper so as soon as it started cooling off a bit they tacked the little guy up. It was obvious from the first that Casper had been through this before. He was fine with the saddle and took the bit easily.

He was a pro on the longe line.

He stood still and almost seemed bored when L climbed on board.

His main problem was laziness, which I don’t really consider a problem in ponies. The lazier the better since not all kids this size ride as well as L.

She did get him to trot and canter, but Doc was there by then and I was in the barn sitting on Jethro’s neck and not taking pictures. Casper bucked a few times when asked to canter, but nothing serious and L stayed on him.

I just have three words for you… too stinkin’ cute! It’s River’s turn tonight and I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

Not as dumb as he looks

2011-06-22T12:29:00.002-04:00

Let’s admit that Thoroughbreds are not known for their incredible intelligence. Sure, you might have a smart one now and then, but as a whole, TBs are not the brightest bulbs in the pack. Timmy is just one such TB. Dimwitted, dumb, airheaded, blonde. That pretty much explains the big guy. But here lately, he’s proving that he might just have more smarts that Lucille the donkey. Because while Lucille suffers with flies covering her legs all day, no matter how much fly spray I put on her, Timmy takes matters into his own hooves.

He’s not out there drinking, he much prefers the clean water in the trough. He’s not lame and trying to cool his heels, and he isn’t trying to roll. This is just where he hangs out when the flies are bad.

Now please start humming the Jaws theme to yourself. Don’t worry, no one is listening.

I guess even Timmy is too much for the mighty dog shark.

Tempting Fate

2011-06-21T11:58:00.001-04:00

The past couple of weeks have seen me bitten by a cat, a dog, and a horse. I’ve broken a big toe then had it stomped on my two different horses. I had new bruises on my body each night that I couldn’t remember deserving. I’ve walked into walls, slammed fingers in truck doors, and tripped over lumpy air. It’s been a hell of a month.

You see, when I’m exhausted or sick, I become more of a clutz than normal. And trust me, normally I can’t walk twenty feet without finding something to stub a toe on, or trip over. So multiply that clumsiness by 50 when I’m exhausted.

Yesterday was my trip to the ER for a tetnus shot after the cat ripped into me. I was saving the damned thing from a pack of seven dogs and that was how I was thanked. Silly kitty. I was already running on fumes when I got home that night, so I turned on my auto pilot and got to work feeding horses. I was bound and determined to not work any horses. I was just going to feed, shower, eat, fall into bed. But then I found these beauties on my way back to the house from feeding Seymour.

Ahhhhh… wild black raspberries! Just the thing to make life a little sweeter. The problem was that the brambles were on a steep bank on the other side of the pond. I was tired, my boots were untied, laces trailing the ground, the grass was wet and slick… disaster waiting to happen. I wasn’t about to tie my boots because then I’d have to expend energy to untie them later. I just wasn’t sure I had it in me to bend over and didn’t want to sleep in my boots. That’s just the way I roll, ya’ll.

So I spent 20 minutes picking, and eating, berries. I almost slipped and fell several times. I almost went head over heels into the rocky stream bed when I tripped over Calypso, who was trying so very hard to assist me in my berry picking endeavors. I almost went down on one knee on top of a large rock when climbing back up the bank. My scream would have been heard in Ohio if I had. I almost tipped over the four wheeler while driving back to the house with one hand holding up my shirt full of goodies.

When I made it back to the house I slowly and carefully tip toed into the house, put the berries in a bowl, flipped off my boots, and gently sat down. I then marveled at my incredible good fortune in escaping the brambles unscathed, or at least without any new wounds or injuries. Has my luck finally changed? Will I no longer require the economy sized box of band aids I purchased last week? Will that half used tube of Arnica gel now collect dust in my bathroom vanity? What about the Tylenol PM that gained me a few hours of sleep each night?

I’m feeling so lucky that I think I’ll head to town and buy a lottery ticket or twelve. Or maybe search for the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

Because while some might say that this is the calm before the storm, I prefer to think of it as the calm after a storm.

This is not my puppy

2011-06-13T19:58:00.001-04:00

I only wish he was. He was found wandering around on his own when he was just six weeks old. Lucky for him, someone called the Olive Branch Rescue and now he’s living large with all of the attention his cute little butt can attract. And trust me, that’s a lot of attention!

They believe he’s a Norwegian Elkhound cross and is now about eight weeks old. He had a huge distended belly full of worms when he arrived and I have to wonder how long he survived on his own and what happened to his siblings and mother.

Mastering the sit and spin.

Fingers are yummy, but only when you can reach them over your own big fat belly!

Say cheese!

All that play was just exhausting!

Blaze should be up for adoption in a few months, once he’s been neutered and has had all of his shots. Think you can wait that long?

Fashion Sense

2011-06-02T17:47:00.001-04:00

As you already know, I have no fashion sense. Good thing Lucille does! This is what every fashionable donkey should be wearing this summer! It’s lightweight cool cotton comfort to keep those nasty horse flies off your ears! It’s chic, it’s stylish, it’s functional… what more could a gorgeous donkey ask for??

This is supposed to be a fly bonnet used only when riding, as it really isn’t built to stay on or last with everyday wear. At least not on a normal active horse. But on a sweet, crippled Lucille who barely shuffles around the yard, it should work just fine! I’ll take it off if it ever rains again to make sure it lasts as long as possible.

The bonnet was made by a friend of mine, Michelle, who claimed she had to go to the store for more yarn because she didn’t have enough for Lucille’s ginormous ears!

Michelle also makes dog sweaters and headwear for humans, so go check out her etsy store! Because you just know you want to follow in Lucille’s fashion footsteps and sport one of these beauties on your own ears this summer!

The Problems withTestosterone

2011-05-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile, and those few newcomers who read my entire blog to combat insomnia, may remember that I’ve had trouble before with my two nearest neighbors and their critters. First, there was Cattle Baron, whose starving cows broke out of his fence and came into my yard in early spring. They turned it into a mud pit, tried to destroy my garden, and fell through the floor of my shed behind the house. Cattle Baron didn’t even notice they were gone. Then there is Drunken Neighbor on the other side of me, who is also a cousin to Cattle Baron. When we first moved here, her horse kept escaping and coming over to tear down my fence and get to my horses. She didn’t know her horse was missing either. One time, I had him here for several weeks before I could catch up with her to tell her about it.

Thankfully, the cattle haven’t been back in a couple of years and neither has Appybutt. However, about 10 months ago, Cattle Baron got a Jack donkey from an auction and dumped it into his pasture with the cattle for protection. About six weeks ago, the wind must have blown just right and the incredible horny donkey got Lucille’s scent. He head-butted the gate until it was bent enough for him to squeeze past, then he came running over to our place. It was in the wee hours of the morning when we first heard Lucille’s brays of distress. She was practically screaming and we could tell she was in pain. When we turned on the outside lights to see what was going on, we found poor crippled Lucille trying to fight off one very turned on jack donkey. Lucille had bite marks all up and down her neck and back and most of them were bleeding. Her ears were a bloody mess where the jack had bitten them and ripped off the hair. Glenn was ready to shoot the donkey, but no matter how angry and upset I was, I just couldn’t blame the donkey. He was just following his instinct, doing what he thought he had to for the continuation of the species. Why should he die when there were other options?

Eventually, I caught the little bugger. Once caught, he calmed down and was actually a well-behaved boy. I put him in a pen by himself until I could take him back in the morning. He was back two days later, raping Lucille again. When the neighbor came over to get him he brought his whole family. You see, after eight months of having the donkey, Cattle Baron had no idea that the little guy was halter broke! He thought his family would have to herd him back home, so he was surprised when I met him halfway with the donkey in tow.

This time, the neighbor locked him in the barn to keep him home. That lasted a few days until he jumped out of the barn, busted the gate in half, and came running back to our place. This time I offered to keep the donkey (we learned then that his name was Seymour), get him castrated, get those twisted hooves trimmed, vaccinate and worm him, then adopt him out to someone else. He wouldn’t hear of it because it was “kinda nice” to have a donkey. So I still have Seymour until he’s castrated, then he goes back to Cattle Baron. Not ideal, but at least Lucille is safe.

I’m hoping we can get him, and a few other stallions, castrated in a few weeks. I hate to do it in warm weather, but I don’t want to be stuck with him until Fall, either.

I have to confess that I’m going to miss Seymour. He’s become so sweet and gentle, he loves attention and follows me wherever I go within his pen, and lets me (and the rest of the county) know when he’s lonely by braying. Even if it’s in the middle of the night, because loneliness doesn’t keep a schedule.

Water Dog Extraordinaire

2011-05-11T08:04:00.001-04:00

Has anyone ever heard of an English Bull Dog or a Blue Heeler enjoying the water? I certainly haven’t, but I’ve never had either breed of dog before. Now I have both, wrapped up in one very dense, heavy, solid puppy. Oh, I forgot stubborn, obstinate, intelligent, challenging, and ornery. And cute. Mostly.

Calypso loves the water. I mean LOVES it, with a passion. Unlike Heidi and Stormy, who just wade up to their bellies, Calypso dives right in with gusto and swims around the pond without a specific destination in mind. She also enjoys bathing in the 100 gallon horse trough that I have in the yard for Lucille, especially when I’ve just cleaned it and put in fresh water. Lucille is usually not amused.

She also loves to fetch and will swim out into the middle of the pond simply to bring me something that she only thought I threw out there.

The real fun comes when she reaches the shore only to find Heidi there waiting to snatch the stick from her mouth.

And did I mention she only shakes off the stinky pond water when I’m in range? Adorable. Simply adorable. Really.

Sleeping with the Enemy

2011-05-09T20:29:00.001-04:00

What do you get when you combine a pile of tomato cages and one sleepy cat…

with one very confident chicken?

Julia Roberts in a chicken suit.

Sorry, that sounded really funny in my head. And if you chuckled, even a little, my sanity thanks you.

This depression has been kicking my ass and proving hard to beat. But I’m picking up the camera more and the brain is starting to function again. There are ideas whirling about between the ears again and there’s one major rescue project that I will definitely need some help on. I’ll let you know more as I figure it out. Meanwhile, I WILL blog more often! Whether I have anything useful to say or not. You may want to find another blog to read.

Little Charmer

2011-04-23T11:13:00.001-04:00

Once again, I have to blog about Amigo. Let me start by telling those of you that don’t follow us on Facebook that he is the smallest escape artist I’ve ever had. Electric fence? No problem! He just ducks under it quick enough to not get jolted. Lower the wire? No problem! He just lies down and wiggles his way under it. Lower the fence even more? No worries! He just jumps between the top and bottom strand of electric without touching either. Put up a third strand of electric in the middle? Not a problem! He just jumps all three strands. I’ve wondered more than once if his daddy was a deer.

And his most favorite place to go when he gets out? In with the main herd.

Whiskers really likes the little guy because she’s in season and she somehow thinks that he can scratch the itch that none of the geldings can. Good luck with that, girl.

Sometimes he stays out in the yard with Junior and follows him wherever the he goes. River can be calling from her paddock, but Amigo just ignores her as if he doesn’t need her anymore. Once I found him sleeping in the sun next to Lucille by the pond – completely out of sight of River. Neither one of them minded much and Lucille enjoyed the company. He’s only six weeks old! Little tyke should not be that independent yet!

His teenage angst and “rebel without a cause” attitude reminds me of another little twerp I used to know…

Opie!! Opie is living large with his adopter, has run of the whole farm (since he ducks under fence as adeptly as Amigo), and likes to follow his adopter when she takes her other horse out for a ride. What a lucky pony!

Siesta

2011-04-04T17:50:00.001-04:00

The sun came out yesterday and it was 60 degrees, which was a nice switch from the cold and hail yesterday. I’m sure I’ll wake up to snow tomorrow. Thanks for the brief respite, Mother Nature!

But do you know what happens when the sun comes out and warms up the ground?

Naps. Lots of naps.

I have very lazy equines around here. You’d think I worked them in the coal mines eight days a week the way they fold those long legs, crumple to the ground, and pass out without a care in the world. Matilda went down especially hard today so those of you that felt the earth tremble, don’t worry. It wasn’t an earthquake.

I have a pop quiz for you. Who’s incredibly rotund belly is in the next picture?

If you guessed that to be the “mommy” belly of River, you would be correct. Now run to the store and get yourself a gold star. Or a beer if you need an excuse for one.

See that little tuft of brown fur to the left of River’s ginormously large butt?

Why, why, WHY do they always have to open their lips a bit in a smile when they lay down?? It’s almost too adorable to stand!

River had her eyes shut, getting in some much needed REM sleep. She didn’t even wake up when I let the dogs out and they took off around the yard barking and chasing each other.

While I was snapping away, Amigo woke up and gave me the same look that the GBH sometimes gives me when I wake him up too early.

Then he showed me more of his GBH impression…

… and went right back to sleep.

Foals learn by imitating, but what I want to know is when the heck was Amigo in our bedroom??

Just a few pony pictures

2011-04-02T08:14:00.001-04:00

I don’t think I’ve ever been clinically depressed in my life, but the past few months have seen a new side of me, a side I don’t think I like. It’s been terribly difficult for me to find the energy to do anything except feed the horses. When Amigo was born I had to force myself to get the camera and take some pictures of him. I felt like I was far underwater, just trying to swim to the surface for air. All I could concentrate on was flapping my arms in hopes of reaching the surface before I drowned. I didn’t want to ride, take pictures, blog, start any seeds for the garden… none of the things that usually get me going this time of year held any interest for me.

This morning when I rolled my weary body out of bed I decided that enough was enough and took the camera with me when I fed.

Sky and Quill were very thin when we got home in February. Their hips and backbones were sticking up under their thick winter coats and they were lethargic.

Being so young, they recovered quickly. Quill still has a little weight to put on, but he’s starting another growth spurt right now and not only growing out, but also growing up again.

Had Tabby been fed properly this winter, she’d already be back to normal. But when we got home, she didn’t look that much better than when we took her back from her adopters. I’d still like to see another 150lbs on her.

I only wish they could all be like Dallas (except for the covered in mud part)!

Traveler is another one that didn’t lose much weight over the winter. He was still plump and round when we got home. Greedy little pony still thinks he needs all the grain in the world and runs me over at every feeding. Good thing he’s cute and cuddly.

Ditto for Jewel. That mare could stay fat just by looking at food.

Molly was fat when she came back from her foster home, but quickly lost weight and became ribby when Gilbert refused to feed her because he said he didn’t like her. She picked up weight quickly and is ready to start carting me down the trails whenever this weather warms up again.

Now if this four day migraine would go away and spring would come back to town, I could be happy again.

Amigo

2011-03-30T13:39:00.001-04:00

This foal has more attitude than Riley, Huey, and Tootsie put together!

He’s the littlest ball of trouble I have ever met.

He follows the chickens around, thinks the dogs are the coolest playmates ever, and loves Heidi to death.

Being the awesome dog that Heidi is, she stands statue still while Amigo sniffs her,

chews on her, and tries to rear up and put his legs on her. Sorry for not getting that picture, but I’m sure I’ll have ample opportunity next time!

The little guy thinks I’m swell, too. It’s like catching fish with a worm… wiggle your finger at him and he’s there in a flash to suck on you.

But this worm is not going to be too happy when those front teeth finally start coming in!

I’ve been canning

2011-03-24T19:51:00.000-04:00

No, really! And I find that winter is the best time to can! The added heat from the stove is welcome in the kitchen and life outside is dreary and slow, so it’s the best time to spend slaving over a (thankfully) hot stove canning. The GBH got me started when I threw caution to the wind and sent him grocery shopping on his own. He brought home about 60 packages of mushrooms from Aldi's again because they were on sale for 39 cents a package. I truly apologize to anyone else that wanted mushrooms from the Aldi’s in Marietta that week. I don’t think he left any stragglers behind.

To make matters worse, Jamie had a yard sale of donated items to help raise money for the county dog shelter. We weren’t home for the yard sale and came home a week or so afterwards. The leftovers had already been picked through several times over so it was with great enthusiasm (and several happy dances) that I found these babies, sitting lost and alone amongst the junk:

Go ahead and covet, I’ll understand.

Once he had all the mushrooms canned, the thought occurred to me that maybe I should finally do something with all the frozen tomatoes from the last two years. Since I wasn’t in a hurry I could take my time and do something new… something other than the usual pasta sauce. I canned 8 pints of pizza sauce, 10 half pints of chicken wing sauce, and 12 quarts of plain tomato sauce. We’ve already tried all three and love them! When I opened a can of the tomato sauce I added roasted garlic, mushrooms, and frozen bell peppers from my 2009 garden. Delish! I’ve also gotten back into using the bread machine and have been living off of “french” bread pizza using the pizza sauce and bread heels from the bread machine loaves.

Then the GBH was also given about 10 lbs of turnips. Hmmm… what to do, what to do? None of my canning books had any recipes for canning turnips so we made a trip to Borders for a new book (happy belated birthday to me). The new book (Canning for a New Generation) had a pickled turnip recipe that the GBH declared to be the best turnip pickle ever. He’s already polished off two pints and has demanded that I grow turnips this year just for use in that recipe.

Now I’m looking for new things to can before the garden gets going and before the warm weather gets here and I dread spending time indoors! I’m also feeling like these jars need to be on my Christmas list this year. Beautiful!

Calypso

2011-03-22T10:27:00.000-04:00

Thor and Xena have been gone long enough that I no longer cry when I think of them. There’s just a small catch in my throat when I say their names. We’ve come to believe that someone has shot them for whatever real or imagined crimes they may have committed. It’s odd that the flyers and calls to the local shelters every week have been unsuccessful. Hopefully, I’m wrong and someone is remaining quiet about their whereabouts simply because they love the dogs and have chosen to keep them.

Anyways, on to Calypso. A woman not far from us raises mules and this past winter while I was out driving with Glenn she emailed me and asked if I had any mules for adoption. We started communicating on a regular basis and became email pals. Shortly after we returned home and I told her about Thor and Xena, she emailed and said she had sold one of her puppies, but the woman no longer wanted her and could I please take her? I was prepared to say no, but then the GBH saw the puppy pictures and I no longer had a say in the matter.

Please meet Calypso. She’s a four month old Blue Heeler/Bull Dog cross and she’s smarter than me.

Heidi thinks Calypso is as much fun to play with (and chew on) as Xena.

I just want to call her Jabba.

She had been kept in a crate most of the time at her old home and had a big fat belly when we got her. She had no muscling along her back and her little backbone stuck out. It took a week of playing with our dogs and helping me around the farm for her to lose the belly and gain muscle. I only wish it worked that fast for me!

While she will never replace Thor or Xena, we love her like crazy already and are glad she came in to our lives.

Even if she were as dumb as a box of rocks, she’s still adorable.

Baby #6

2011-03-20T20:17:00.001-04:00

First, let me apologize for the lack of posts. Besides running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I have not had much luck with internet access since being home. That should start changing here shortly and I’ll be posting more often. At least, that’s the plan.

This should be the last baby that will be born from the mares seized from Baracksville, WV last April. River must have conceived either days before being seized or in the few days after when we were trying to catch everyone and get mares separated from stallions. Amigo was born exactly 11 months from the day River was seized, on March 14th shortly after 1AM. I had separated River from Lucille and Lucky about a week before, when her bag started filling up, but she was still right in front of the house and I could look out the window all night and keep an eye on her.

The GBH was home that night and was having trouble sleeping, so when he heard the horses screaming and going nuts, he grabbed a flashlight and our new puppy (she deserves her own post later), Calypso, and headed out the door to see if someone had gotten out or if that bobcat we had heard in the woods a few nights ago had made a return visit. He and Calypso wandered around, but couldn’t find anything amiss. He came back in, but Calypso stayed out, which is totally against her nature. She is usually glued to us and goes wherever we go. As soon as the GBH closed the door, Calypso started barking. He went back out to find her standing in front of River’s foal, who had been born under the metal panels of River’s pen! The poor little guy was about 12’ from River’s pen and was still soaking wet and attached to the umbilical and sack. He couldn’t stand up yet, but had obviously tried since he had gotten himself so far away from River.

We got the little guy back in with mom, dried him off, and I kept River close to the heater until he stopped shivering. River has proven to be an excellent mother, but because her fat belly was hanging so low and her udder was so high and tight, the poor little guy had trouble nursing. I tried milking her, but couldn’t get anything out. Fortunately, a friend of mine raises Andalusian horses not far from our place and I knew she’d have a supply of colostrum since her foaling season starts in April. Once he had some warm colostrum in his belly his energy level picked up and within another hour he had figured out how to turn his head to the side and practically upside down to nurse.

The friend with the colostrum is also the person who named the little tyke: Amigo. Too darned cute for words, right?

Finally, some pictures!

2011-02-17T18:26:00.001-05:00

Apologies, but I haven’t had a lot of time to wander around taking pictures since being home. Between running errands, trying to clean up the place, and getting horses groomed (probably for the first time all winter) and fed, I just haven’t had the time or energy to walk around with the camera. However, today when Glenn and I got home from town, I found a scene that simply had to be captured.

An all male slumber party happening in the stud paddock.

The mud and filth on everyone just made me want to throw my brushes into the burn barrel and give up on the whole grooming thing.

But seriously, how cute are these two (dirt and all)?

The fact that Kincaid let me get so close for pictures while he was lying down was impressive enough. He’s still skittish about certain things, and usually hops up if someone is within 50 feet of his snoozing spot. Then to further impress me with his lackadaisical attitude, he did this.

The sun, it’s warm. My belly, it’s full. The hay, it’s comfy. And I am simply too tired to care that you are that close. I will smile for the camera, though.

I thought it was rude that all the larger horses laid down for a nap and left the littlest ones of the bunch to stand guard.

Or stuff his face, in Dagwood’s case.

Good night boys, have a fun sleeping in the hay. Better you than me!

Honey, we’re home!

2011-02-16T18:54:00.001-05:00

After Gilbert packed his crap and left without telling anyone (*sigh*), we had to come home for a couple of days to initiate the new guy. However, once we were home to the disastrously filthy house (again), a few of the horses looking worse than when I rescued them (again), and a warrant for my arrest (thank you for writing that bad check on the farm account, Lee) we finally had a stroke of good luck. Yes, really! A friend of ours called us one night to tell us about a local driving job. The job pays great (more than Glenn was making on the road) and he’d be home every night! Woohoo! More importantly, they are so desperate for drivers that they may even stoop to hiring me, even though I only have a few months experience. Suckers!

Kidding. I’m a good driver (said in my best Rain Main voice).

So, we’re home. Home for good, I might add. No matter what, I just can’t leave this farm again. Thanks to the losers that we hired, we’ve lost two dogs, have a house that needs major cleaning and repairs, a truck that is drivable but still won’t pass inspection, horses that were once pocket ponies are now skittish, and a couple of the horses have been starved. When we came home on the 7th, Don Juan was in the main herd instead of in the stud pen, so we’re also looking at Lutalyse shots for all the mares in a couple of months (you have to wait at least 45 days after exposure before giving them the shot).

I thought I couldn’t afford to NOT go out on the road, but it turns out that I couldn’t afford to leave the farm in the hands of lazy incompetent idiots, either! The horses are already gaining weight and should be back to normal in a few weeks. Poor Sketches is the worst, so I hug her several times a day while she’s eating and apologize for leaving her. She seems to understand when I cry into her mane and stands quietly for the extra attention. Quill and Sky were skittish when I returned, but have already reverted to the pocket ponies that I remember. Maggie and Matilda still haven’t forgiven me and want nothing to do with me unless I have food in my hand. Jethro ran away every time he saw me, but today he and I took a nap in the hay together, with his muzzle resting on my shoulder.

Oh, and let’s not forget the 10k worth of tools that are now missing out of the garage. If you happen to see a tool for sale at a pawn shop with the initials G.W. etched in to the handle, please let us know. I hope Gilbert got more than the price of his plane ticket home out of those tools. They were certainly worth a lot more.

Then there’s Timmy, who somehow got frostbite on his penis, of all places. Doc came out and explained to Gilbert what he needed to do to take care of the horse and said that if he didn’t start right away, Timmy might lose his wanker. I talked to Gilbert on the phone that day and he said “don’t worry, he’s just like my horse, I’ll take care of him”. Then he packed his shit and left the next day without taking care of Timmy’s wanker once. We got Timmy into a foster home within a day or two, with someone that would take the time to take care of him properly. It’s still up in the air, but he’s finally looking a little better now that the penicillin shots are over. I’m hoping we don’t have to put the old man down, but I certainly don’t want him to suffer any more than he already has!

And I keep looking for Thor and Xena to come running home from the back pasture. I look for them while driving down the back roads. I listen every night for Xena’s whimper at the door, wanting to come in. Sometimes Heidi sits, gazing into the distance, as still as a statue, and whimpers. I think she’s waiting for them to come home, too.

I can only handle so much

2011-01-30T21:58:00.001-05:00

This winter has been the hardest one ever, and I’m not talking about the snow. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse after Lee, this week has proved that it can get worse. MUCH worse. The new guy on the farm, Gilbert, has proven to be a better choice than Lee, but only because he remains sober. He’s feeding the horses, which is also a bonus. With Jamie going out every week to make sure he’s taking care of the horses properly, I think the horses will get through the winter just fine. Here’s the bad news. On Monday, we called Gilbert to see how things were going, since he refuses to pick up the phone and call us. Glenn talked to him for 10 minutes before asking how the dogs were doing and what we heard next had me randomly breaking out in tears for the rest of the week. And now that I’m typing it, here I go again. *sniff*

We told Gilbert at least a dozen times to not let Heidi, Thor, and Xena outside together. They have a tendency to take off for the day when they are together and we didn’t want them disappearing or wreaking havoc with the neighbors while we were gone. Like most things we told him, Gilbert ignored us. He let Thor and Xena out together on the 18th (six days before we talked to him on Monday) and they had disappeared. It’s now the 30th and they have still not returned. Gilbert wasn’t even going to tell us. Jamie has spread the word with the other county shelters and has put an ad in the paper for us. But at this point, I have given up hope. Neither of them have ever left for longer than a day. They have always come back around dark. It’s winter. There is a pack of wild dogs roaming the area and then there are the coyotes.

I simply cannot bear to dwell on what has probably happened. So I stick to my butterflies and flowers approach and think of them in front of a warm woodstove, being fed and loved by someone new. So this is my goodbye to them, in the hopes that writing about their disappearance and my loss of faith in their return, that fate will bring them back home just to spite me.

Xena. Where do I start? You were the pup I hadn’t planned on and it was uncertain whether or not you’d ever bond with me. But, oh what a companion you were when we finally did bond! Loyal to a fault, I was the only human you loved.

The most intelligent of our dogs, you could have learned anything if I had had the time to teach you. I’ll miss the way you were there to say goodbye when I ran to town and you were always waiting at the top of the driveway for me when I returned.

I’ll miss the way you and Lucky chased each other around the yard. I’ll miss the way you used to lie on your back with me in the hammock, your legs in the air and your nose on my neck.

Who’s going to lick the tears from my face now that you’re gone?

Thor, I will miss your 100lb body trying to fit in my lap and your grunts of satisfaction when you finally settle on my legs. I’ll miss the way the cats all loved you and would curl up with you for warmth in the winter. And the way you chewed on their heads affectionately when you could have easily snapped their necks.

I’ll miss the way you’d lay on your back in the sun, legs in the air, jowls hanging down in a goofy upside down grin. I’ll miss playing fetch with the only dog who ever brought the stick back to me. I’m going to cry a river when I get home and see this boot still lying in the yard.

I’ll miss the safety I felt late at night and alone in the dark - I knew you’d never let anyone get past you.

I hope you’ve found someone new to love and protect. You deserve it, big guy.

I’ll be stepping away from the blog for awhile. I hope you understand.

Let’s play a game

2011-01-27T21:05:00.001-05:00

Glenn and I were driving in Amish country today, up in New Yarwk, and came across the following scene:

Ok, students, give me your attention, please. Make sure your Number 2 pencils are sharpened and remember to press firmly when writing your answer.

Please tell me what particular item in this photo does not belong.

Washington State

2011-01-19T22:30:00.001-05:00

If I had my life to live over, I would live in Washington. No doubt about it. I have seen almost all 50 states by now and none have tugged at my soul the way Washington has. It’s something I really can’t explain, and I’m not even sure I want to try, but it may have had something to do with the wild horse herds we saw while driving through a wildlife refuge.

We didn’t get many good pictures because of the rain and fog that day, but the GBH did get some pretty good shots of the horses. We passed about 10-12 different herds, ranging in size from four horses to 20. They have the ideal range land to roam, since there is ample water, evergreens for shelter, and grass year round. They all looked to be in pretty good shape, but I have to wonder if some are domesticated horses that have been turned loose by their owners. There was a buckskin in a herd of bays, a chestnut appaloosa with white blanket in a herd of solid chestnuts, and a couple of herds with all different colored horses.

Sorry this one is a bit grainy, most of the herds were a LONG distance off and Glenn hasn’t bought me a zoom lens for my camera yet. What’s he waiting for, anyway?

There was also a puzzling piece of architecture overlooking the Hood river that I wanted to stop and explore, but couldn’t.

I’m pretty sure I want to live along this beautiful river, but I can’t help but think there are even more spectacular places to live in this incredibly diverse state.

Once we finally climbed out of the valleys and gorges, we found the top of the world. Vast acreage of nothing but snow-covered crop fields. There were open fields as far as the eye could see, with farm houses dotting the countryside every few miles. This picture isn’t the best representation of the area, but it’s the only one Glenn got at the time.

This is the same river mentioned above, but this was taken above the large dam. When we win the lottery next year, we’re going to build a house on that far mountaintop, clear, irrigate, and seed pastures, and build a monster of a barn with indoor riding arena.

If you’re going to dream, might as well dream big!

Who knew Utah was so beautiful?

2011-01-06T22:48:00.001-05:00

I certainly didn’t. Whenever I thought of Utah in the past, I envisioned flat and barren desert, devoid of anything but sand. Silly me! These days, I’m finding beauty wherever I go, whether it’s just a hawk perched on a fence post, the way the sun sets and outlines a particularly twisted tree on a hilltop, a herd of wild horses drinking from a stream, a new born calf suckling in the middle of a vast prairie, a magnificent elk hanging out near a large herd of antelope, a lone wolf pouncing after his dinner in the brush, or an emerald green field of winter rye surrounded by nothing but brown grass for miles.

And that’s just what I’ve seen over the past two days, ya’ll. Days like that make being so far from home just a little easier to handle. But on to Utah, shall we? These pictures were taken on US 6 and I-70.

I think we drove at least 100 miles without seeing a house. Awesome!

You just knew I had some sunset pictures, didn’t you? The sunsets out west have me wanting to stop every couple of minutes to get a picture from a different angle. Too bad I usually don’t have the time to stop and soak up the last rays as they color the world in front of me.

This is probably one of my favorite shots from Utah just because of the way the light makes the mountain look like it’s on fire. The rest of these pictures are all of the same sunset.

I hope these pictures make you smile. The real thing certainly had me grinning like an idiot as I was rolling down the road!

Hello, New Year

2011-01-04T12:03:00.001-05:00

I’m a few days late on this, but I saw it on another blog and thought it’d be fun to do. These are my top 10 favorite blog posts from 2010. It should not surprise most of you that Maverick is featured in more than one.

Stormy and Xena keeping it real while working out

Baby Riley and Tootsie videos

The bittersweet adoption of Maverick

Equine stupidisms

The unexciting Jethro assimilation

Lucille’s beauty tips

I hope everyone had a great New Year! Our truck broke down (again) in Utah on New Year’s Eve and we’re still here. At least this little town had fireworks on Friday night and the view from the hotel has a heated swimming pool!

Awe inspiring

2010-12-22T10:54:00.001-05:00

I drove through some beautiful country yesterday and wanted to share a few photos of northern California and Nevada. If you ever get the chance to drive I-80 across the western part of the country, do it! There are so many things that I want to stop and see, but can’t because we’re in the truck. One of these days we may rent an RV and do some travelling on our own time, but by the time we can afford that, we’ll be so sick of the road that we won’t want to leave the farm for years!

I usually drive during the day, so I got to climb the dreaded Donner’s pass in California. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined, but it would have been a lot worse if the roads weren’t clear. The views were definitely worth the white-knuckled ride, though!

The mountain vistas of Nevada were too spectacular for words. Once again, I found myself imagining life as it might have been two hundred years ago on the harsh prairies.

As inspired as I was by the beauty and vast emptiness around us, my co-pilot was unaffected.

Are we there yet?

I hate to do this

2010-12-14T19:57:00.001-05:00

It’s come to the point where I have to ask for help. I have never begged for donations before and have taken pride in the fact that we’ve been able to keep these horses fed and vetted on our own, but it’s time to swallow my pride before anything else goes wrong. Before I come straight out and beg, I think it’s important that I tell you why this has come to pass.

As you know from a previous post, I recently got my CDL and came out on the road with Glenn to team drive and make the money necessary to get the horses through the winter. We had hired, and spent five weeks training, Lee to live on the farm and take care of the horses and dogs for us until my return in April.

Without getting into too much detail, Lee wrecked our 4wd truck, which is the only way we have to get hay rolls into the pasture since we don’t have access to a tractor. He told us he’d get his own insurance because adding him to ours was cost prohibitive, due to his driving record. He did not get insurance. We’re looking at almost $1,000 in parts to fix the truck and we will be taking it to the local adult education school for the mechanics class to fix in order to avoid labor costs. About 10 days after he wrecked the truck he became seriously ill and has been in the hospital for almost two weeks now and has had several operations already. He would not be physically able to return to work even if we would take him back after what he’s done.

On December 4th, Glenn and I drove all night under a load to make it home Saturday morning to try and straighten things out. Friends had been feeding for us until we could get home, so no one was starving. Or so we thought. When we got home Saturday morning I walked into the house, fell to my knees, and wept. Lee had not been letting the dogs out so the house was full of “accidents” and the doors and windows were torn up from them trying to escape confinement (this all happened before Lee went into the hospital). Jelly the cat is still missing and presumed dead. The other cats, Lucky, Noodle, and Lucifer, were home, but hungry. Cody and Lucifer were both emaciated. Our bed was covered in urine. Our friends had warned me that the house was a wreck, but I had no idea things were that bad!

When I went outside to take stock of the horses I did not like what I saw. The easy keepers all looked fine, but the horses requiring a lot of grain looked terrible! Seven horses in all had lost weight since my departure just a month before. The horses had no hay and the neighbor said he’d only seen a few bales out in the field at a time, even though there were plenty of square bales in the barn. As it turns out, Lee had been feeding the “emergency” square bales before he wrecked the truck, for reasons I can’t fathom.

It doesn’t end there, ya’ll.

That same Saturday, we hired someone else. I was hesitant because he lived 45 minutes away, but he assured me that he didn’t mind making the trip and would be there every morning. He also didn’t mind using his 4wd truck to haul round bales and water until we could get our truck fixed. It was just supposed to be him feeding and his wife would work if he had a big project, like putting up new fence.

It should take a maximum of two hours to feed everyone in the morning. The first morning he worked, he charged us for 10 hours because he insisted that his wife helped him and they each worked for five hours. When asked what they did, the list of things he produced could have been done by me in four hours, by myself. He continued to double and triple charge us all week and let us know a few days ago that he could only continue to feed for a couple more weeks because it was too far to drive. Now he’s just hauling hay twice a week and water as needed until our truck is fixed. We’ve found someone else to feed for us who will hopefully be more honest and not try to take advantage of the situation. He can’t live there, but yesterday morning was his first day and he drove a four-wheeler almost 20 miles over the icy roads in 18 degree temperatures just to get there! Jamie, the ACO for our county, has been our savior this whole time and she met him out there to show him the ropes. She’s also cleaning our house for us since we couldn’t stay home long enough to clean it up ourselves. Jamie… what would we do without you??? And another big thanks to Brannon, our farrier, for doing an emergency feeding the day we learned that Lee was in the hospital. You guys are the best!!

We have hired another person to move in and take care of things, but he can’t start until the 26th. He and his wife were planning on moving here from Arizona in the Spring, but when Eve’s adopter told him of our plight he immediately started packing. He’s coming up on the 26th and his wife will move up with their horses in the spring. After talking with him on the phone I’m comfortable with his knowledge and work ethic, but I’ve obviously been wrong before! Glenn and I are going to be home for a few days on the 26th to get him moved in and teach him whatever we can in such a short time. Jamie will be there to help him with any other problems once we’re back out on the road.

So there it is. The past month’s story, somewhat condensed. Thanks to good friends feeding for us since Lee left, the seven horses are regaining their weight and everyone has hay in front of them 24/7. The dogs now have a doggie door and can come and go as they please.

People keep asking me why I don’t just go back home. Trust me, I’d love to!!! But thanks to the unseasonably cold weather: 1) the horses are eating 18 hay rolls a week, 2) we need more trough heaters, extension cords, and pipe insulation to keep the pipe to the spring-fed tank from freezing, 3) we now need to pay two people to do the job of one because the truck isn’t fixed, 4) and we need to fix the truck. I can’t afford to go home, no matter how much I’d like to. Did I look for a local job before I left? Of course! Trying to find a job in our area that fits my experience was fruitless. When companies like Tractor Supply, Lowes, and Krogers look at a resume like mine, “over qualified” is usually the response. After several months of job searching, this is where I have ended up for the winter, for better or for worse.

So here’s where I beg. The horses are being fed, no worries there. But if we can get our truck fixed it would mean paying one less person to feed, and hay and water could be gotten as soon as it’s needed. I know it’s almost Christmas and money is tight for everyone. Horse Haven Hollow has 185 fans on Facebook and if everyone donates just $5 that should be enough to buy the parts for the truck and get it fixed.

Sorry for the long post, but I didn’t want to beg without telling you the circumstances that brought me to this point. If you can find it in your heart to help us out with a few bucks, you can use paypal and send it to horsehavenholler@frontiernet.net. If you’d feel better sending something material, trough heaters safe for plastic troughs would be appreciated!

Thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far and thanks in advance to those who can help now!

Daydreaming

2010-12-02T18:55:00.001-05:00

I love driving through the mid-west, especially when we stumble upon something like this in the middle of nowhere. It sparks my imagination and provides hours of escapism.

Everything is so desolate, so sparse. Some ranches are so huge that the road stretches between it’s boundaries for dozens of miles, with nothing to see except a windmill and some cattle here and there. I just want a good horse and a few weeks to ride those ranges, forgetting all the troubles and stress of the life I’ve chosen.

As I’m driving through this rugged terrain my mind wanders I sometimes picture myself as Calamity Jane or Annie Oakley, riding a good horse on the plains, trading with the natives, or hiding out from the law. Whatever gets me through the 11 hours of driving is ok with me.

Then I see these… running across the plains just because they can. I didn’t think I could get any more homesick than I already was.

I was so wrong.

Bella Makes a New Friend

2010-11-27T20:42:00.001-05:00

Meet Trucker. He’s an incredibly obese Min Pin that Bella met today and the two of them hit it off famously right from the start.

I take that back. Bella played hard to get at first and she’d hide behind me with her hackles up.

She got over that fairly quickly and Trucker became the one playing coy. Then it only took a few minutes for them both to realize they’d better get over themselves and take the opportunity to play together. I couldn’t believe fat boy was able to get that belly off the ground!

The “kids” were able to play for a long time while we chatted with Trucker’s owner… a 72 year old gentleman who is still as healthy as an ox and driving a truck “to escape the wife now and then”.

He said Trucker is so fat because he won’t eat regular dog food, so he gets to eat whatever his human eats. From the looks of it, he eats more than that!

We were worried that he might find Bella to be a tasty morsel. I think Bella was having that same thought!

Where cheese comes from

2010-11-19T18:00:00.001-05:00

I bet you thought cheese came from cows and goats. I did too, until we had to pick up a load, including 13,000 lbs of cheese, in the Kraft caves in Springfield, Missouri.

Really cool caves, I might add.

Ya think?

This reminded me of that really old movie about a rat named Ben. Am I wrong to love that movie?

These caves are immense and the temperature in the cave remains stable around 60 degrees Fahrenheit without heat or A/C.

They’ve built several office buildings into the cave walls and I’m betting there’s no fighting over a window office.

That’s a regular 53’ trailer with a yard dog tractor, just to give you a sense of how large this place is.

There’s also one very large hole in the ceiling to allow exhaust fumes to escape.

The concept of having a business like that underground to conserve energy is intriguing and kudos to Kraft for doing it!

But I was still pretty happy to see daylight again.

I’m here, in an absent kind of way.

2010-11-14T22:22:00.001-05:00

I’m here, lost somewhere in the world wide web, but I’m not home on the farm where I feel I should be. I’m homesick and lost without the critters. So why did I leave? Why have I been wandering the road like a gypsy and not blogging for the past two weeks?

Cause I’m a truck driver, baby.

Back in January I lost my job after four years. This was ok and I was never so happy to lose a job! This gave me most the year to work on the farm and with the horses. Except that I spent most the summer in my truck, chasing water, feed, and hay, and not so much time with the horses. Then came Lee. Lee is a misplaced cowboy from Texas who ended up in West Virginia by way of Alaska. Lee had told me when I delivered Molly that if Glenn and I ever wanted to hire someone to work on the farm, he was our man. He loved horses and his dream job was to work on a farm like ours with all those horses. That got me thinking… hmmm… and I discussed with Glenn… and tossed it around in my brain a bit more… then we hired Lee and moved him out to the farm. Let me explain the thought process on this:

1) Taking care of 40+ horses over the winter was going to mean me getting another job. For those of you who don’t know where we live, we are 12 miles from the closest small towns where minimum wage is about the best you can do. Tack on another 20-30 minutes for a bigger “city”. This would mean a big hunk of my measly pay check would be taken up by the commute and I wouldn’t have much time for the horses. It would also mean working spring, summer, and fall – the busiest time for the rescue, and when I need to get all the training done.

2) Taking care of 40+ horses over the winter would test my physical limits and it would be likely that someone would find my body frozen in the muck and mire with Sassy using me as a scratching post. I would rather someone stronger and more macho push around those 800lb hay rolls and have the chance to freeze in the mud, thank you very much.

After five weeks to train Lee and get him up to speed on where he needed to go for feed, hay, and water, meet the vet and farrier, how to feed so many horses, which personalities he had to watch out for and which ones needed extra coddling (Lucille!), I felt I was ready to hit the road. A week spent at terminal training and getting my CDL learner’s permit and here I am… stuck in Iowa waiting for Freightliner to fix the seven month old truck. Again.

In my first week I’ve driven through Missouri, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, southern California (YUCK), New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada, Iowa, and Wyoming. I’ve seen the lights of Las Vegas, the smog of Los Angeles, the rugged desert of Arizona, and the snow covered plains (and roads!) of Wyoming.

Can I go home now?

Here’s the plus side to living like a gypsy: I’m going home in April and will stay home until next November. I’m only going to team drive with Glenn during the winter when the extra money is needed to take care of the horses. I have to go out every 59 days for at least a week to maintain my seat rating, but other than that my summer is free. Lee will still be working for us in the summer, which means more projects get done and more horses get trained.

No matter how much I miss the dogs, horses, and especially my Lucky kitten, I feel like I’ve made the right decision. I have the utmost confidence in Lee to take care of everyone and have friends that will be stopping by to check on things in my absence. I’m still in charge of the rescue and take part as much as I can from abroad. The wonderful world of technology will keep me connected and I’ll still be blogging about the horses and farm as long as Lee sends me pictures. I’ll also be sharing pictures from the road and of our truck dog, Bella. I think I’ve done what I had to in order to keep the horses happy and healthy through the winter. I know some will criticize me for leaving, but you all know how I feel about begging for money and relying on the kindness of others to support these horses. Finding a job that paid well and allowed me to take the summer off was the ideal solution, at least for this year.

So stick with me this winter, it’s shaping up to be one heck of a ride.

Equine Stupidisms

2010-10-28T14:31:00.001-04:00

Since moving up here to West Virginia, I’ve heard a plethora of incredibly ignorant horse-related “facts”. I’ve mentioned a few of these tidbits of wisdom in posts before, but I thought I’d list them together to share in the humor. Folks, some of these are so stupid you just have to laugh. Crying and pulling out your hair over the idiocy coming from these self-proclaimed “horse experts” does no good. Trust me, I’ve tried it.

Myth: You only need to deworm your horse once a year in the summer.

Fact: Doc and I disagree on this one slightly. His thought is that if you only have a handful of horses that never go anywhere and you never bring in any new horses, then twice a year is plenty. I feel that four times a year is the minimum, or else you’re just throwing away good money on feed. Since I have so many horses, with horses coming and going constantly, I deworm at least six times a year. Sometimes I’ll throw in an extra ivermectin wormer between rotations if I notice some of them aren’t looking their best.

Myth: Horses don’t need water every day if they’re not being worked.

Fact: In cool weather, horses will drink about 10-12 gallons per day. During hot weather they drink 20-25 gallons (or more) per day depending on the heat and humidity.

Myth: A horses’ hooves stop growing after a certain age. (I actually heard this from someone calling himself a farrier!)

Fact: Hooves and human fingernails are made of the same stuff. Do your fingernails ever stop growing?

Myth: Kerosene works great for killing lice.

Fact: Um… maybe it does, but do you really want to douse your horse in something extremely flammable when you can just buy a bottle of lice powder from any feed store for around six bucks?

Myth: Tennessee Walkers have to be broke to ride before they are two because if they get too old you’ll never be able to break them.

Fact: Tennessee Walkers are just like any other horse. With the right approach and common sense training you could successfully turn a wild, unbroke 20 yo TNW into a horse suitable for a beginner rider.

Myth: If a mare or stud isn’t broke to ride when you breed them, you won’t be able to train any of their progeny.

Fact: It is true that some personality traits can be passed on genetically. However, not being broke is NOT a personality trait. No matter how rank the sire or dam, if you treat the foal right from day one, you’ll have a happy, personable, well-behaved horse that’s relatively easy to train. I’m sure someone out there is going to tell me about a bloodline or two that produces untrainable horses. To that I simply say “then stop breeding them”!

Myth: You should never castrate a cryptorchid stallion because they will surely die. If they do survive the castration, they will be proud-cut and always act like a stallion.

Fact: Yes, some cryptorchid colts do die from the surgery, but it’s very rare because it is typically an easy surgery for a veterinarian! There are backyard “vets” around here who think that just because they own a knife they can castrate a colt without the use anesthesia or sterile instruments. A proud-cut gelding is simply a gelding that still has the testosterone-producing glands that may have been missed during castration. Some people request that the vet leave in the glands so their horse still acts like a stud. Just because he is proud-cut does NOT mean he can still impregnate mares. A good vet will remove the glands even on a cryptorchid stallion.

Myth: You shouldn’t castrate a stallion over five years old or it will kill them.

Fact: Timmy was 17 years old when he came here and was castrated. His blood vessels were larger so he did bleed a little more and took more time to recuperate than the youngsters, but was otherwise fine. There is no age limit on castration!

Myth: Riding a horse one or twice a week for 4-6 hours is the way to get them into shape.

Fact: That would be the same as telling me I had to run a marathon every weekend after sitting on the couch watching soaps and eating bonbons all week. Fitness in a horse is a long-term goal, not something to be achieved over night. Riding them hard only once or twice a week can cause severe damage to their legs and backs.

Myth: All Thoroughbreds off the track are hard to handle, flighty, and dangerous.

Fact: Tell that to Quest, Joma, Imperial, Eve, and Sketches. In my experience, TBs off the track can be difficult to handle because they’ve been locked in stalls most their lives and because of the steroids and drugs that are pumped into them to keep them running, even when in pain. This is nothing that a few months of down time and 24/7 turn out can’t cure! The TBs I’ve dealt with have all been wonderful and affectionate horses, great for the vet and farrier, easy to ride, and they all loved being bathed.

Myth: You can tell how old a horse is by how many fingers you can get between their ribs.

Fact: If you can get a couple of fingers between each rib FEED YOUR HORSE! You tell a horse’s age by their teeth.

Myth: You don’t need to have their feet trimmed if you’re not riding them.

Fact: Hooves grow constantly, but more so in the spring and summer than in the fall and winter. Regardless of what time of year it is and whether or not you are riding them, they still need to be trimmed on a regular basis, preferably every six to eight weeks.

Myth: A colt won’t breed it’s own mother.

Fact: If it’s got a penis and testosterone, it will try to breed just about anything with a uterus. Colts can impregnate mares as early as six months old. Fillies can get pregnant as early as a year and a half of age.

Myth: All horses under two years old are called “colts”.

Fact: A “colt” is a male horse between one and four years old. A female horse between one and four years old is a “filly”. The term “Foal” is used for both genders under one year old.

Myth: A horse isn’t skinny unless it’s “eye sockets” are sunken in.

Fact: I can only assume he meant the supraorbital fossa, which is that “dent” above the eye. The supraorbital fossa contains fat tissue and horses in poor condition might have a deeper dent than a fat horse. However, age also plays a part in how deep the dent is and older horses will typically have a deeper hole. Horses with Cushings disease may not have a dent at all, or it may appear swollen. So while the condition of the supraorbital fossa could lend itself to the overall condition of most horses, it should not be used as the only criteria.

Last, but not least, this is one I’ve heard for many years, not just since moving to WV.

Myth: My mare has been irritable and cranky so I’m going to breed her to calm her down.

Fact: I don’t even know where to begin on this one. There are sooooo many reasons that a horse could become unhappy under saddle. My guess is that someone, somewhere, had a mare that they were riding with ill-fitting tack and eventually she got so tired of her back hurting that she threw the human off her back. Said human decided that the issue was her hormones and all she needed was to have a baby. 16 months later the foal was weaned and the mare is now happy and jolly again -- not because she had a foal, but because she got 16 months off to HEAL! People, stop using this as a reason to breed your mare! Just give her some time off from riding and have a vet examine her. Paying for a vet exam is a whole hell of a lot cheaper than taking care of a foal!!

Besides, you really haven’t seen irritable or cranky until you’ve met Sassy.

More Long Ears

2010-10-26T07:57:00.001-04:00

A week or so ago someone called and asked if they could board their Jack mule with me for a bit. They had just gotten him and he was jumping the fence where he was and taking off for the hills in search of equine companionship. They say he even jumped a 5' stall wall to escape and they finally found him several ridges west of the barn. I was pretty sure he was escaping because he was lonely and because he was only using that dangly brain between his legs to think, so I said sure, but he has to be castrated once he gets here.

They couldn't get him up here before dark, so I ended up putting him in the yard pen with Jed. They told me he'd kill Jed and would easily jump out of the pen and I'd be searching for him in the morning. I could tell just by walking him down the driveway that the poor little guy was just misunderstood, but I still watched he and Jed for 30 minutes or so after putting them together.

They sniffed noses and Lucky the mule wanted to sniff Jed's butt. Jed kicked at him a couple of times and that was the end of that. Lucky buried his head in the hay and was still in the pen the next morning. And the morning after that, and the morning after that.

He's still a little shy and you can't move too quickly around him, but he's getting better every day and now talks to us and comes to the gate when he sees us.

I removed his halter once I was certain he wouldn't jump the fence and leave. He's now easy to catch, lifts his feet, and as we found out the other day, LOVES kids!

He's only two years old, so this winter we'll just keep working with him and get him castrated. In the spring, there's a little pony cart and harness with his name (and Casper's, and Chip's... ) on it . Once he's trained to pull a cart and his owners are ready for him on their new farm, he'll be leaving us to go home. But his owners don't want to pull him away from his buddy, so little Jed will go home with him! How awesome is that??

Some things never change

2010-10-21T22:10:00.001-04:00

People still think breeding horses is the way to make a bunch of money.

Those same people don’t see much point in feeding, handling, or caring in any way for all of those horses.

West Virginia laws are still woefully inadequate. Only 8 counts of cruelty when 70 horses are starving? You’re kidding, right?? Let’s hope that number increases as they are able to catch and evaluate more horses.

It still, and always will, piss me off to see news stories like this.

I doubt Hampshire county has a way to feed and care for all of these horses, so like many other WV counties, most of these horses will probably be up for auction once they are all caught and evaluated. Which means anyone, even kill buyers, can buy them. Peachy.

The Donkey Difference

2010-10-20T10:19:00.001-04:00

My wardrobe consists of t-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, and shorts. I wear a watch when the band isn’t broken and I’m too cheap to get a new one. My ears are pierced, but I haven’t worn earrings in many, many years. I have no tattoos. I wear an engagement ring that Glenn gave me, but no other jewelry. I cut the split ends off my own hair a couple of times a year because whenever I go to a salon they manage to completely screw it up and it looks nothing like the picture I’ve picked out in those hair magazines. I’m not sure why that matters since my hair is always in a pony tail under a baseball cap. I am covered in dirt just about every day, don’t see much point in painting my chewed off fingernails, and can curse like a sailor when the need arises. Woman? Yes. Lady? I think not!

On the other hand, Lucille is quite the lady! She’s gentle in every way, never gets dirty or uses profanity, and has a very short, trendy hairdo. She never rushes around like a big clumsy ox and never flirts with the boys. She’s also a lady that knows how to get what she wants without inconveniencing others.

Ahem. Even ladies need their behinds scratched once in awhile!

She also knows how to accessorize.

That’s one glamorous donkey!

Baby Budha Belly

2010-10-14T20:51:00.001-04:00

Mariah has been separated from her mother for a few weeks now and is doing great. All the other horses in that herd just adore her, except for Tabby, and she’s got the biggest mares in the herd as her bestest buddies. That’s Matilda on the left and Eve on the right.

Matilda just loves her little shadow and lets Mariah follow her everywhere.

Eve also loves the little tyke and will lay her ears back at Tabby if she gets too close. Eve is a live and let kind of gal on the bottom of the totem pole, so for her to lay her ears back at someone takes a lot of gumption.

But really… what’s not to love?

There’s a 14 day Tabby update over on Rescue Recoveries for you to check out!

Unusually unusual

2010-10-09T16:44:00.001-04:00

Today should not have gone near as well as it did.

Mark your calendars, ya’ll. I won’t say that very often.

Remember Jethro? I get the feeling that he really wants to be an easy keeper, but no matter how much Safe Choice and free choice hay I give him, he still doesn’t have a very nice top line. His spine sticks up just a wee bit and the top of his ribs can still be seen. So my thought was that after spending a month locked in a 12x12 stall at the shelter and two and a half weeks stuck in a pen in my yard with Jed his muscles might just be atrophied. His gut has shrunk a bit after two wormings, but is still more than adequate for his size and his butt has filled out nicely. However, even though his pen is about three times the size of his stall, there still isn’t any room to run and play when the urge strikes. Last week I wondered briefly if I could put him in with the Fairmont studs, but then thought better of it because strange stallions will almost always fight and I didn’t want anyone hurt.

Then yesterday I woke up to find Drunken Neighbor’s proud cut gelding standing in my driveway and whispering sweet nothings to Don Juan over the fence. Don Juan was calm, accepting, and even looked like he wanted to play with the big gelding. Hmmmm…. This set my little brain to whirring and I made the executive decision this morning to try putting Jethro in with the other stallions and see how it went.

It was terrifying! I doubted Jethro would make it out alive. Don Juan was so aggressive and kept rearing and striking out at poor Jethro…

Um, yeah. The two of them hit it off like old college chums running into each other in a gay bar.

Kincaid made nice with the “I’m a baby don’t hurt me” suckling motions and little Rusty just couldn’t get enough of Jethro.

Dagwood knows that the surest way to tell a stud from a mare is to sniff their hooves and chew on their lower legs. Huh?

When you’re still not sure, just pretend you’re a dog and take a long whiff right where it counts.

Jethro never panicked or became annoyed. His ears were always up, he never lifted a leg to threaten a kick, and his teeth stayed hidden.

I had left Jethro’s halter on at first in case I needed to pull him out of there quickly. But the introductions only lasted a few minutes and then everyone settled down together to eat some hay. Right now everyone has squished themselves into the run-in shed to share in the shade. So much for strange stallions always fighting! It probably would not have gone so well if there had been mares in the area, but I guess a Lucille donkey in the yard doesn’t count.

Now, would someone please come up with something organic to kill all the burdock plants on the farm? Please??

This is me.

2010-10-08T14:33:00.001-04:00

Stuffing my face and wearing more food than I ingest. Par for the course.

And this is me on no sleep.

Any questions?

Sometimes, I’m wrong

2010-09-30T22:25:00.001-04:00

Actually, I’ve been wrong about a great number of things over the years. But I’m pretty sure I did something right today, no matter how the other parties involved feel about it. Considering my lack of patience for idiots and hair-trigger temper when it comes to how these horses are treated, the fact that no one needed to bail me out of jail today is pretty freaking impressive.

It’s going to be a long night.

Updates

2010-09-28T09:37:00.001-04:00

Last Friday I went to visit with Shortcake, Ginger, and Baby Huey.

How cool is Huey’s color??

He’s just as cute as a button and and as sweet as Riley and Tootsie. He’s also as tall as his mother and he’s only four months old!!

This is the view that the horses have from their new barn.

I want to move in.

Dueling Banjos

2010-09-22T09:44:00.001-04:00

I just know that most, if not all, of my readers have at least heard of the movie “Deliverance”, right? So you’ll understand when I say that we drove through some country yesterday that had us looking around every corner for dirty hillbillies in wife-beater t-shirts carrying sawed-off shot guns. My friend, Lee, went with me and as we were rolling through some very beautiful, but remote land, he had his cell phone out the window playing the dueling banjos music and yelling “please don’t hurt us, we’re on your side!”

You had to be there. It was hilarious, in a really scary kind of way.

My F250 is still in the shop, so when someone called and asked me to take in two rescues that she had bailed out from the Fayetteville Animal Shelter, Bessie was the poor old truck that had to do the hauling. I think Lee and I were both thanking the Ford gods when we finally pulled into the driveway safe and sound at 10:30 last night! The whole trip was well over 300 miles if you include the time spent lost and asking directions from people who probably couldn’t have told us how to find their own home, let alone the animal shelter. And here’s a hint… a “fork” in the road is not the same as a turnoff that’s perpendicular to the road that you are on and has a stop sign.

The road to the shelter was narrow and twisted and they only paved the middle of the road, which would have been fine except that the drop off from pavement to gravel wasn’t a lot of fun with a horse trailer. We finally found the shelter at 5:07, seven minutes after they were supposed to close. We had left the house at noon. Ugh. Fortunately, we managed to catch a couple of the workers as they were packing up to leave and were able to find the horses and get them out of there.

The barn at the shelter was brand new and had never been used. Some genius had decided that the proper flooring for the barn was 3-4” gravel in the aisle and stalls! There were no stall mats or even sawdust in the stalls. Both horses had been locked in the stalls for a month with no turnout available. I suppose finding a large dog dish or tub for their food was too much to ask, so their grain was dumped onto the muck and the poor boys were expected to sift through their own feces to eat. The mini had a HUGE pile of food when we got there, most of it oats, and it was way too much for the little guy. I’m hoping they didn’t founder him out of ignorance!

The mini is terrified of people and acts like he’s been badly abused before. He was caught running down the four lane highway and had already caused six cars to wreck before he was apprehended several weeks ago. The bigger stallion is an incredibly sweet boy, well-behaved with great manners. They both hopped right on the trailer for us, even though the little one had run circles around me while walking to the trailer from the shelter.

The folks at the shelter had named the little one “Whitey” and the big one “Tonto”. Because of the circumstances of their escape from hillbilly hell, we renamed them Jed and Jethro on the way home. For now, they are in a small pen in the yard, under the willow tree. Once we’ve tamed Jed down a bit, I’ll get Doc out to castrate and also look at the bloody sacroid on poor Jed’s penis. After brain surgery and vaccinations, Jethro can go out with the main herd and Jed can go in with River.

Here’s poor little Jed. We tried giving him treats this morning, but if my hand got close enough to touch a whisker he was rearing and trying to get away. He’s got a thick coat and big pot belly, so we’re probably looking at a big worm load. I’ll give him half a dose of Ivermectin this morning and follow it up with another half dose next week. I hate leaving that long lead rope on him, but that’s the only way we’re going to catch him. When we picked him up they had a 6’ dog leash attached to his makeshift halter and even that wasn’t long enough and it took a long time to get close enough to catch him in the stall.

Jethro has got to be one of the sweetest stallions ever! Walking him down the driveway last night with just the moonlight to guide us, he was the epitome of good behavior. Don Juan was pacing the fence and giving him the stink eye and Satin was on the other fence line flirting with him, but he only paid attention to me, walking slowly beside me and stopping and standing still when I asked. When Timmy ran up to greet him I expected a stallion explosion, but he just kept walking past Timmy and followed me to his pen. I’ve met stallions before that were this well behaved, but they were raised right, and not kept in a stall or turned out by themselves their whole life. I just don’t expect stallions with this nice of a personality to show up as rescues.

Jethro was found running loose with five other horses. Someone came along and claimed the other five, but said Jethro didn’t belong to them. Hmmmm… I wonder if they were just tired of owning a stallion and didn’t feel the responsibility to castrate him, or at least put up some electric fence to separate him from the mares?

He’s wormy and thin, but not terribly so. We’ll start him on a half dose of Ivermectin and another half dose next week. I don’t think it will take long to have him fat and shiny again.

Who knows about his breeding for sure, but he does remind me a little of a Tennessee Walker the way he moves, as well as those big ears of his. He’s just a sweetheart, that much I know!

Am I next?

2010-09-14T23:15:00.001-04:00

Hidden Meadows Equine Rescue, located in Berkeley County, WV, has closed it’s doors – and not voluntarily.

Did you read the article? Watch the video? Good.

HMER was founded in September of 2008, just three months after we started Horse Haven Hollow. HMER is in West Virginia. The authorities just seized 53 horses and two cattle from HMER. At one point this summer, we were up to 55 horses. I can’t find out if HMER was a 501(c)(3) organization or not – it doesn’t say anywhere on their Facebook page and their website is now gone.

That seems to be where the similarities end. But it still bothers me and in the back of my head there’s a nagging little voice that always questions me. Are you sure the horses are healthy? Are they happy? Are they better off with you than where they came from? Are you doing everything right? ARE YOU SURE???

That nagging little voice sounds suspiciously like my second grade teacher, Mrs. Bruce.

But anyways, this is what I put myself through on a daily basis. This is why I show you current pictures of the horses as often as I can – I’m hoping that if something doesn’t look right, someone will call me out on it. I don’t want to become the next rescuer begging for money to save just one more horse. I don’t want to be the rescue threatening to put horses down just to raise money. I don’t want to wake up one morning and decide that no one can care for the horses as well as I do, so I should just keep them all and become a hoarder.

I don’t know the woman behind HMER. I can’t say that she started the rescue with good intentions or not. I’m hoping that she did and just got in over her head. I’d like to think she had gainful employment and didn’t just beg for money on the internet. I may never know for sure what her reasons were for letting those horses starve. Whatever her excuses, I can tell you that they aren’t good enough.

Because I can’t breathe…

2010-09-13T23:18:00.001-04:00

…I’m still up and it’s almost midnight. It’s late, I’m exhausted, but I know there’s absolutely no point in trying to go to bed since my head is filled with concrete. Hello, allergy season! I’ve been waiting for you! Now we get to spend a lot of nights up late together finding interesting things to dally with on the internet. What fun!

So guess what I learned tonight? According to Veromi, there are five people in the U.S. with the same first and last name as me. Two of the people listed are me, and it looks like two other listings for my name are the same person as well since they are both listed in Ft. Worth, TX. Three people total in the U.S. with my name, which means two other women probably grew up being called “jeanne weanie”. Sorry, ladies. I feel your pain.

But you know what’s really interesting about this? One of the women is a legal assistant in CA, but the other raises racing Quarterhorses in Texas! What are the odds that out of the three of us, two would work in the horse industry? Opposite ends of the industry, but still…

I’m just glad we’re 2,000 miles apart so she won’t be trying to send me any of her broken down horses!

On a side note, go check out Jasmine’s latest training post. If anyone doubts that I ride these horses myself, I’ll be happy to send you a picture of me post-accident. But I warn you now, it ain’t pretty!

Random Pictures

2010-09-07T08:12:00.001-04:00

There’s a lot of pain and wisdom in Lucille’s eyes. Brannon thinks her feet may be back to normal and pain free in a year. That’s a long time to have to be on bute just to be able to hobble around the yard. :(

That’s Shane’s head in the background. The first horse is his new wife, Lacy. I love this shot because of how their heads are lined up.

I had to pick on Shane’s adopter for getting Lacy from someone else instead of coming to me, but I was just teasing him. She is a very beautiful horse!

Shane and Apache introducing themselves.

Steel in his home. He’s soooooo spoiled!

‘

A very dopey dobey.

Fraggle. I love him. Just don’t ask me what color he is because I still haven’t figured that one out.

Things are happening fast around here this month and there are big changes coming up. I’ll try and post as often as I can, but no guarantees. October should slow down a bit and I’ll try to catch everyone up then.

Apache Goes Home

2010-09-05T23:26:00.001-04:00

I wrote about why Apache came back to the farm over on the Training the Unwanted blog, in case you haven’t read it yet.

Marvin, who adopted Baby Girl over a year ago, stopped by the other day to see if I had any small horses that would be good for his wife. Something gentle and kind, that liked attention. He had seen Jasmine and Cheyenne on the website and I had told him about Apache over the phone. When he arrived, he had decided that he did not want Apache, but wanted one of the girls instead. Cheyenne introduced herself first, then Jas came over to say hello. Then he saw Apache… and the two girls were quickly forgotten.

Sometimes it’s just that way. Some people come here with a preconceived notion of what size/breed/color horse they are looking for, but then they see the complete opposite and that’s the one they end up adopting. I love it when that happens!

I also got to check up on a few other adopted horses today. Remember Shane when he got here last October? He’s a different horse now!

Baby Girl wasn’t starved when she got here, but she was terrified of people and not even halter broke. She was gangly and funny looking and had never had her long feet trimmed. Now she’s a real beauty of a mare who has a special bond with her adopter. She’s two this year and will be broke to ride next year.

Jacob was just a tad ribby when he came here last year. He had originally been adopted as a family horse and companion for a young Andalusian colt, but he was returned a short while later because he was too aggressive with the colt and much preferred the company of an older stallion. He wasn’t here for long before he was adopted again and this time his only purpose in life is pleasure riding. He’s low man on the totem pole in a herd of five horses (all smaller than him), and has a huge stall and a shed full of hay just for him. He’s spoiled rotten and it shows!

Happy Labor Day tomorrow! I, for one, am not planning on doing any labor unless it involves saddling up a horse for a trail ride!

Dahlia and Cadence Go Home

2010-09-01T22:34:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine recently had to put down her old appaloosa gelding who had gone both blind and deaf. He was running into things in a pasture where he’d lived for years, causing himself pain and injury, besides just being very unhappy. Her husband thought the best remedy for the heartache would be to find a foal to raise. My friend thought it best to get a well-broke and kid-friendly horse for their many nieces and nephews. So they compromised and got both!

When I delivered the two tonight, there was only a couple of minutes of trotting around and establishing dominance, then everyone settled down to graze in a tight knit group around Cadence.

Dahlia was tickled to have all of that well-groomed pasture to eat and never really bothered with all that dominance nonsense. She didn’t even seem to care when the other horses took a sniff at Cadence, as long as they weren’t aggressive about it.

See that paint mare on the right in the picture above? I bet you don’t recognize her, but that’s Abby! The first picture below was taken when we rescued her back in March of 2009.

This is her now!

I never did get pictures of her when she was adopted last year because she was delivered on the same day that her sister, Genesis, was delivered and I used up all my memory card space on pictures of Genesis in her new home. Oops!

I’m going to miss little Cadence. The day she was born, I swear she hit the ground running and bucking! She was always playing and entertaining herself and any humans that happened to be watching, including Doc. She had him chuckling the last time he was out because she kept charging around at top baby speed and slipped in some wet hay and went down. She hopped up and gave him a look like it was his fault, then charged right at him and swerved at the last second. After that, her nickname became “Little Miss Assitude”!

Yes, Dahlia. I’ll miss you too!

Good thing they’re not very far away. *sniff*

Hay, hay, and yet more hay

2010-08-28T23:21:00.001-04:00

In the past week and a half, three different people have called me to donate hay. The first had lost her last horse and didn’t want anymore. She had about 130 bales in her barn and was looking for a place to donate it. It took two trips, but it’s in our barn now.

The second was a very nice couple that live about 6 miles away. I’ve never met them before, but they called me up last week and wanted to “come out and just see what you’re about”. So they came out a few days ago, met all the horses and we traded stories (they currently have six horses, one of them a rescue), then they said they wanted to donate a bunch of hay, but first needed to make sure I was nothing like the “so-called rescue” an hour down the road. Apparently, I’m not. 170 bales delivered by them over the last two days now sits in our barn.

The third is a friend of mine that is also fostering two horses and adopted Shortcake, Ginger, and Huey. She and her husband bale their own hay and they were offered a new farm to bale this year. I went down today while they were baling and now 82 more bales are sitting on the truck and trailer waiting for tomorrow to be introduced to our barn. They offered more hay, but my barn is full!

Even though I feed round bales, I still like to have the barn full of square bales in the event that the weather is so bad that I can’t get to my round bale supplier. I should have put “fill barn with hay” on my project list just so I’d have something to cross off!

I also got some training done yesterday and Mariah really wanted to ~~hinder~~ help! So go check it out over on the new blog!

Miracles

2010-08-25T17:12:00.001-04:00

As you know by now, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in a higher power because no one has ever proven it to me. I can’t see, smell, touch, hear, or taste this divine being everyone talks about. Faith? I have plenty of faith. I have faith in myself and the creatures around me. Miracles, in my opinion, don’t happen because of an all-powerful being. They happen because of science, or the hard work, intelligence, and ingenuity of humans.

I’m not trying to offend anyone here, so please don’t take me the wrong way. I’m not trying to preach from my soapbox or start a debate, either. Religion and an invisible divinity certainly have their places in the world and I think that some people need faith in a higher power in order to get through their lives. We’re all different and that’s what makes the world go ‘round, right?

Having said all of that, the fact that this horse is still alive is a miracle. Her organs should have given up way before she got to this point. Renal or heart failure should have put her at peace weeks ago, and the fact that her blood tests show no sign of either is simply unbelievable. Man certainly had nothing to do with this mare still being alive when she was rescued, although some asshat had everything to do with letting her get to this condition in the first place! Dare I say that the mare had faith that she’d be saved? Do horses think like that? Who are we to say what and how an animal thinks? Was she hanging on to a thin hope that some human would come along and save her? Or that the asshat that did this to her would suddenly love and feed her again? Or was her will to survive, that instinct passed down from generation to generation, so strong that she just couldn’t give up?

I would love to know what was going on in her head as she slowly starved to the point where most horses would have given up and died, but I never will. I do hope, that at some point, we all know what was going on inside the human’s tiny little brain to let this happen in the first place. And call me hypocritical if you will, but I see nothing wrong with “an eye for an eye” type of justice here. Nope, nothing at all wrong with that!

*****Please consider donating to the 501c3 rescue that saved this mare. It’s going to take a very long time for her to recover and I’m sure they could use anything you can spare.

Yet another happy ending!

2010-08-23T14:41:00.001-04:00

Whew! Can y’all handle this many happy posts at one time? If not, I’m sure I can find something not so happy to post about to balance things out. :)

The Wetzel county rescues are officially safe! The court hearing was today and the judge ordered the owner to forfeit ownership of the six horses and two cows, pay restitution (I’m not optimistic on that one!), and is on probation from owning any more animals (not sure for how long).

It’s only been about five weeks since the horses were seized! I didn’t know our court system could work that fast.

As you know, Poco has already gone to her new home. Shasta left Saturday to be fostered by a friend of mine. Shasta may have EPM, but when Doc checked her out here a couple of weeks ago, he said the main symptom that he’d noticed back in May was gone (her head tilt). She still moves funny in the hind end and sometimes stands so crooked it’s amazing she doesn’t fall down. Since the head tilt is gone, Doc said to just give her time off and see what happens. She may have just had trauma to her spine that is starting to heal now.

Satin and Dallas still need a few more pounds, but they are healthy enough to start ground work. I have a feeling Satin is broke to ride, but who knows how badly she’s been treated under saddle.

The two ponies look awesome and Sapphire has become quite the pocket pony! She’ll walk up behind perfect strangers and put her head under their arm like a dog, just to get attention. I wish I knew a small kid that could ride because I’d love to see these two under saddle and adopted to great homes!

The Fairmont Boys

2010-08-21T17:43:00.001-04:00

I promised pictures of the stallions that I still had left over from the Fairmont seizure and I’m finally delivering. Better late than never?

This is Chip, and I would like someone to supersize him for me. Because I love him and he is the black stallion horse that I always wanted as a little girl, only trial size. I would like the family pack sized version, please.

I think next spring I’ll find a pony-sized harness, fix up the pony cart that has been sitting up on the ridge since before we bought this place, and turn Chip into a cart pony.

Everyone falls in love with Don Juan. Granted, he’s very handsome, but he’s just not my type of horse. He’s very narrow and I prefer to feel like there’s a full-dress Harley under me rather than a moped. I’m sure once he’s gelded and evaluated under saddle, he’ll have a home in no time.

Dagwood… I love him! He and Rusty are so affectionate and whenever I’m out there, the two of them are right next to me, one on either side, following my every move. He’s the first to nicker at me when I come out the door in the morning, and was the first stud to make Riley welcome at weaning time. Does he know he’s Riley’s father? I wonder.

Little Rusty… this is as far away as I could get for a picture. He’s like a fat leech with legs and fur.

Fraggle is much sleeker and shinier than when you last saw him. He’s also a big sweetheart that’s always looking for attention and a head rub.

Last, but certainly not least, Kincaid. He is quickly becoming the new Maverick! Kincaid is showing a lot of the same intelligence and need to please that endeared Maverick to me. He nickers at me every time he sees me and has the same sense of humor that I saw in Mav. He’s still jumpy and shy around strangers, but is always looking for a scratch behind the ears when I’m alone.

Riley went to his foster home today. His main job in life is to keep Huey company and I’m sure the two of them will get into all sorts of trouble once they’re together again!

Pony Updates

2010-08-19T09:31:00.001-04:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve shown you the remaining Fairmont horses, so I thought we’d start with the pony mares and gelding first. Blondie, Casper, and River are all that’s left. I put up electric fence in the yard for them so they have a place of their own, complete with shelter. When I first brought them here, Casper and Riley stuck their noses on the electric fence and never went near it again. The girls were smart enough to take their word for it!

Blondie is the boss of the three, but she’s a just and generous ruler most days. But just so you know, this is her hay, and you can’t have any.

I put Riley in with the other studs three days ago. Blondie missed him for about 10 minutes, then went on with her life of eating and bossing Casper and River around. I still see Riley standing at the fence once in awhile, gazing wistfully across the driveway at his mother. The other studs accepted him immediately as one of their own and I really need to get a picture of him standing completely under Don Juan at the hay roll.

This is my favorite pony of all time. River is the sweetest little mare EVER. The problem is that she’s getting bigger. And bigger… I guess we have a fall/winter foal to look forward to.

Casper couldn’t ask for a better life. He’s got two beautiful women living with him and all he does all day is eat. Every man’s dream!

If this fog ever lifts today, I’ll get pictures of the studs to show you tomorrow. I’m hoping to get the go ahead to start castrating in September once the weather cools! The bad news is that Don Juan is definitely a cryptorchid – Doc can’t find that right testicle anywhere, even when DJ is under sedation. That means hauling him to a equine hospital in Ohio and paying for expensive surgery. I’m excited about getting them castrated, but not excited about the expense!

Bad idea?

2010-08-17T21:58:00.001-04:00

Am I the only one that thinks this will probably end badly?

I suppose he could just be getting food and no drink -- and maybe he’s planning on packing the food away in one of those saddle bags and not planning on cruising around town with one hand on the bars and one hand on the burger.

I didn’t stick around to find out.

Hang in there

2010-08-17T11:48:00.001-04:00

I’m not sure what’s going on with Blogger right now, but if you’re looking for the usual links that are on the right hand side, they are now at the bottom of the blog. No matter what changes I make to the template layout, this is how Blogger wants to show my blog in Firefox (I haven’t checked other browsers). I’m sure they will fix it eventually… and if they don’t, I may just have to move on to something else.

Poco Goes Home…

2010-08-15T18:26:00.001-04:00

…and Molly returns. Molly did great at her new home for the first seven weeks. She got along with the other horses and Lee had the help of a trainer to work out the few quirks that she had. Then all of sudden, things went very south. Molly started beating up on the other horses, tried kicking Lee a time or two, and was constantly irritated and on edge. Since Lee boards her on the farm where he lives and the horses she was trying to kill are owned by the owner of the property, Molly has been evicted. When she got back here to the farm yesterday, she and Sassy hooked up right away and ran around the pastures terrorizing everyone else until Satin put her in her place. Now things are back to normal and Molly is leader of most of the herd, once again.

Poco was adopted by the same people that have Chester, Tootsie, and Peppermint. The poor girl has gone without love and affection for years, but now she’s going to be doted on and spoiled rotten! After introducing herself to the other horses, the only thing she wanted to do was stand at the fence and be loved. She and Chester hit it off right away, but Poco didn’t know what to think of little Tootsie and kept her at a distance. Peppermint just wanted to kick Poco, but I think Poco thought it was a bit of a joke that this little tiny dog-sized creature was actually trying to kick her.

Chester and Peppermint are good buddies, but only when Peppermint is in the mood. Which isn’t very often.

Then there’s the rug rat, Tootsie. Who is just as spoiled and ornery as ever!

I made the mistake of sitting on the ground to get a better angle for pictures of her, forgetting that she likes to roll on your legs. I was barely on the ground when she came over and climbed into my lap, then rolled her body down my legs. Then she got up and came back to my lap to do it again.

Please excuse my filthy feet. I had to chase loose ponies over half the county this morning and didn’t have time to clean up before taking Poco. You should have been here, I’m sure it would have been amusing.

Whenever something scares her, it’s not her mother she goes running to… it’s her Uncle Chester, who loves and protects her like she was his own.

Speaking of Chester, his adopters had to have their satellite dish moved today. It used to sit on a pole out in their pasture, but one night when they were watching a movie they kept losing signal and couldn’t figure out why. The next day they saw Chester scratching his butt on the satellite! So now the dish is safe on the roof of the house and Chester will just have to find another way to scratch those hard to reach places.

I got to visit with another of the Fairmont horses yesterday at his new home. Apollo is looking great and his adopter is madly in love with him. He’s proven himself to be an incredible all-around horse and loves to trail ride.

So many happy endings in one post. I wish they were all like this!

Foster Homes Needed

2010-08-13T17:25:00.001-04:00

The HSUS of WV will be seizing several horses in Raleigh County next week and need to find foster homes for them. Below is what the HSUS representative has said about the horses:

“The bay pinto filly is approx 2 years old and is a total sweetie, the bay mare with one half of her right ear missing seems to be 8 or so and is very gentle, lastly, the dark bay mare is older (prob 12 or so) and is a sweet one as well. I may have a home for the dark bay mare but am unsure. All have good feet, surprisingly, and are slick, without rain rot. They get along well and I have handled them all. They all do very well, love being around people, and receiving attention. I am not sure if they ride but would say all do except for the pinto as she is very young. “

These three are all mares, the one on the right is the two year old filly.

This is the poor stallion, who from what I understand, was turned loose with the mares. We all know what that means!

HSUS can provide transportation if you’re willing to foster one or more of these horses. Their feet aren’t bad, HSUS will get them wormed, so it would seem the only thing they need is groceries and some TLC! If interested, please contact the HSUS WV State Director:

Summer Wyatt
swyatt@humanesociety.org
304.887.4058

Things, they are a changin’

2010-08-10T23:11:00.001-04:00

Some people despise change. Me? I love it! Change is good! Especially when that change has to do with our rescue website.

You’ve probably been wondering why I haven’t been blogging much lately. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost interest in blogging. In fact, I enjoy it more now, after 510 posts, then I did after 10 posts. It’s just that my wonderful webmaster decided that Wordpress would be the way to go with the site and had me hook, line, and sinker as soon as I saw what I could do with it. I’m just easy like that. I’ve spent the past few nights hammering away at the new site, bought our own horsehavenhollow.org domain, and discovered a few new curse words that I didn’t know I knew.

Wait… Horse Haven Hollow? You mean I’m actually going to spell it correctly now? Well, yeah. The plan is to apply for 501c3 charity status before the end of the year and to do that, we have to change our business license from sole proprietorship to LLC (and come up with a boatload of money), and we’ll go ahead and change the name at the same time. We may lose a few of the locals when we do it, but such is life. “Holler” was just a joke in the beginning -- we were in WV, that’s how everyone pronounced it, and did we really think we’d get this rescue off the ground and still be at it more than two years later? When I checked the latest stats and realized we were closing in on the 100 mark for rescued horses (not including the babies born here, and only counting returned rescues once), it finally hit me that maybe this thing was real. Maybe, just maybe, we were doing something right. So it was only fitting that we corrected our spelling.

The new website is up and here are a few of the new pages that are either on there now, or coming soon:

1) How you can help page

2) How to report abuse and neglect in West Virginia

3) A listing of horses ‘free to good homes’ that are not owned by us, and are listed to help people that want to find good homes for their horses and don’t want them ending up at the auction. I’ll do the reference and facility check (within a reasonable distance), but the transfer of ownership will be completely up to the owner of the horse(s). I have several young purebred, but unregistered, Arabian geldings that I need to get up there tomorrow night for anyone interested!

4) The Rescue Recoveries and Training the Unwanted blogs will now be on Wordpress and accessible through the new site. I’ve still got a lot of posts to move over from Blogger, but a few of the more recent posts are there now.

5) The Success Stories page is now part of the Wordpress blog. I’ll be doing one monthly update with the horses adopted that month, rather than listing them willy nilly.

This blog will stay on Blogger, where it’s made a place for itself and is quite content to stay -- much like Stormy on my couch.

So go check out the new website and let me know what you think. And be honest! I can take it. I think.

Lucille says “thank you” for being there for us. And send more cookies.

Lucky kitten

2010-08-10T09:09:00.001-04:00

What’s that saying? Keep your enemies close…

And your dinner closer?

I wonder if it hurts his ego to know that the chickens are lower on the food chain, but still aren’t afraid of him? Poor little ignored kitten.

Garden? What garden?

2010-08-03T17:17:00.001-04:00

Yes, I planted a few things this year. I even spent a few hours out there pulling weeds and trying to clean things up. Little good that did me.

When people ask me how my garden is doing this year I just tell them that the weeds are growing great! I will give credit where credit is due… the guineas and chickens have done an incredible job on the bugs this year! Last year I had ONE summer squash because the squash beetles killed the plant before it had much of a chance to do anything. The same thing happened to the winter squash and cucumbers. The eggplants last year were killed early on by flea beetles because I never got them covered with Remay.

This year is a different story! The eggplants were covered early with Remay, then it was blown off but the plants were large and healthy enough to withstand the flea beetle onslaught and they’re still going strong. I’ve got some small eggplants growing happily and can’t wait for the first eggplant parmesan of the summer! I have seen only ONE lonely Japanese beetle this year!!! The two winter squash plants are growing like crazy and taking over everything in their path. The summer squash plants are also going nuts and are covered in flowers. I’ve picked a few squash already and tried something a little new last night. Cut the squash in half, spoon out the seeds, fill with pepper jack cheese, italian bread crumbs, and chopped tomato. Sprinkle with garlic salt and drizzle with olive oil. Put in the toaster oven at 350. YUM!

I cut way back on the tomatoes this year and only planted a few of each variety that were tried and true in my garden in years past. I didn’t get the cages planted well enough and they keep blowing over in storms. I’ve given up on them since I rarely get out to the garden more than once or twice a week (remember when it used to be every day, sometimes more than once? Those were the good ol’ days!).

At least my Donkey crop is doing well this year.

I am speechless

2010-08-01T23:14:00.001-04:00

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/13/bp-killing-horses-public-land-oil-leases

I boycotted BP after the oil spill in the gulf and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Now I’m thinking boycotting is not enough.

Baby Update

2010-08-01T10:35:00.001-04:00

I moved Blondie, River, Riley, and Casper over to my place yesterday after putting up electric fence and trying unsuccessfully to mow down all the weeds in their new “pasture”. Now the only horses left on the quarantine farm are the studs: Don Juan, Dagwood, Chip, Rusty, Fraggle, and Kincaid. Everyone else has moved on to their new homes already, and Rusty will be leaving for his home once the weather cools and he’s castrated. I’m going to try and get electric up on the quarantine paddock here on the farm today so the studs can be moved here tomorrow. No more running back and forth between farms! Woot!

The ponies seem to like it here -- the boys spent most of yesterday chasing each other through the weeds, running and bucking, and playing several entertaining games of bite face. Riley thought it was fun to charge at me, stop right in front of me, and rear. That’s a habit I had to break quick! He hasn’t done it yet today,so hopefully I’ve made it clear that it was unacceptable behavior.

He loves River and Casper and spends more time with the two of them than he does his mother.

These four are still available for adoption if anyone is interested. It’s also looking more and more like River is pregnant. Doc can’t palpate because he says his hands are too large for the little ones, but her belly is getting bigger and it’s a “lumpy” kind of large. It’s not the smooth roundness that you’d have with a pony that was just fat. Her teats are still hidden by a large fat deposit, so I’m guessing she’s still a few months away from foaling.

In other news, Jubilee’s little long-eared baby is turning herself into an adorable nuisance. She spends her days chasing goats and charging at the local goose population. Tootsie has been learning new tricks at her new home and the whole neighborhood just adores her. You can ask her for a kiss and she comes at you with lips flapping like a chimpanzee! She will not accept a kiss on the cheek, but insists on a big wet kiss on the lips. Huey is also doing well and has made a new friend that he can see eye to eye with…

And they all lived happily ever after. The end. :)

Sketches and Eve

2010-07-29T09:40:00.001-04:00

I’ve been practicing saying NO. I have, really. People call me and want me to take their young and healthy horses just because they don’t want them anymore and don’t want to take them to auction. I have been saying NO and getting quite good at it! I know I can’t save them all. Even my super powers have limits, no matter how much I hate to admit it. My goal is to be below 25 horses before this winter simply because we still don’t have a tractor and feeding those round bales physically kills me in the mud and snow, so saying NO when I already have 44 horses is a must.

So would someone please tell me why I couldn’t say no when I got a call from an older gentleman who has been diagnosed with cancer and will no longer be able to care for his two Thoroughbred broodmares once the chemo and radiation treatments start??? Probably because I have a soft spot for TBs (especially the older broodmares) and watched both of my grandfathers die from lung cancer. Good enough excuse?

Like the Holly herd from last year, these two girls came with big thick folders that included every piece of paper ever accumulated on them, including their Jockey Club registrations. They are current on their vaccinations and worming schedule, but their feet need a trim. If only they all came in like this!

Summer Sketches is a 1992 chestnut mare by Cure the Blues, out of Host of Angels. I have to stick her to be sure, but she seems to be about 15.2h tall. Since we already had girl named Summer, I suppose we’ll call this lady Sketches. She’s got something funky going on under her chin, but the owner said the vet had removed it once and it just came back. It is not a tumor and his vet didn’t know what it was. Hmmm. Sounds like a job for Super Doc! At least it doesn’t seem to hinder her chewing or bother her in any way.

Evening Stardrift (Eve) is a 1997 dark bay mare by Fly So Free, out of Enchanted Acorn. Um, enchanted acorn? Nevermind. Eve is ginormous, standing around 16.3h, possibly even 17h. She wasn’t really interested in standing still for me yesterday -- too many other horses to see and sniff. I was like a big annoying horse fly that wouldn’t leave her alone and kept pointing a silly black thing at her.

Neither of the mares have been ridden since coming off the track years ago, so I’ll give them some time to settle in then get on them for evaluation. They are both sound in the pasture and I just love riding those old broodmares. They are usually so laid back and willing to please. And I have to admit, I can’t wait to get on Eve! I can just picture her jumping a hunter course or doing flying changes down the diagonal…

Ahem. Sorry, I’m back from dreamland now. The two girls have hooked up with the Dallas/Bo/Sapphire crew this morning and are munching on a hay roll a good ways from the rest of the herd. When they first arrived yesterday, Matilda came down to meet them and I think she was a little surprised to see Eve was taller than her!

Don’t worry girl, your place in the herd as Sky’s girlfriend isn’t in any danger.

Baby #5

2010-07-25T11:06:00.001-04:00

When Dahlia first arrived, she was ribby and thin with a bit of a pot belly.

When Doc first examined her shortly after arriving here, he felt her udder and thought she might foal within a month. But there was a lot of edema in her udder and he couldn’t tell for sure without palpating her. Since she was far from friendly at that point, palpation was out of the question.

This was what she looked like on 5/4.

After I moved her here to the farm, her tummy tucked up even more, she muscled up, and the edema in her udder went down. She has the hill of death to thank for the muscle tone! Doc took another look and agreed that her original pot belly must have just been worms and she didn’t even look pregnant any more.

Just a few weeks ago, the pot belly returned, but she was still very small. If she was pregnant, she didn’t look that far along. Then her udder started filling up with milk shortly after... here we go again!

Cadence was born early this morning out in the pasture and is doing just fine!

Of course, she’s adorable. Aren’t all foals adorable?

Check out those long legs! Cadence is going to be a pretty good sized horse. No pony here!

Because of her color, my guess would be that Don Juan is her sire, but there’s no guarantee since we don’t know what other stallions were at that hell hole that died before we were able to save them.

I’m glad little Cadence has finally been born. This means she and Mariah are only three months apart and can grow and play together. Poor Mariah hasn’t played much at all for lack of a play mate. Hopefully that will change soon!

Bo, Sapphire, and Dallas

2010-07-20T12:27:00.001-04:00

These are the other three horses that were seized in Wetzel county. Bo is a cute little 8yo pony and in the best shape out of all six horses. He’s also the one that had been kept in the barn because he liked to squeeze through the barbed wire and get out to eat the neighbor’s grass – which probably explains why he’s in the best shape!

Sapphire is a 10yo pony and seems to think she’s in charge. She’s a sweet girl and one of the first in line for attention when I’m out in the pasture. She’s got some sun burn on her face and I’m putting sunscreen on her to help protect those pink-skinned areas around her muzzle and eyes. Sky has the same problem with his face, but he rubs the sunscreen off or dips his head in the water tank as soon as I put it on. Little turd.

Brannon did her poor feet yesterday and she was good except for the right hind. She never tried kicking him, but was very nervous and danced all over the yard with us. I’m terrible at taking hoof pictures, so you’ll just have to believe when I say her back feet were terrible. They were very overgrown on the inside, causing her ankles to twist.

They looked much better after Brannon trimmed them, but it’s going to take some time to straighten those back legs up.

Dallas is an 11yo Quarterhorse gelding. He’s a bit shy and he’d move away every time I pointed the camera in his direction. The previous owner told me that he hasn’t had his feet trimmed in five years!!! because he rears for the farrier and can’t be done. His feet aren’t terrible, so I’ll spend some time with him in the round pen before asking Brannon to give it a go.

Since Doc vaccinated these guys back in March I put these three in with the main herd yesterday. I’m feeding the starved mares four times a day right now and it’s easier for them to be by themselves in the quarantine paddock, than it is to have to separate them from the healthier three each time I feed. Dallas, Sapphire, and Bo should all fatten up nicely with just being grained twice a day with the main herd.

In other news, Dahlia has still not foaled. I hate having foals this late in the year. Ugh!

Yesterday started out pretty normal

2010-07-17T11:09:00.001-04:00

I was up and out at 6AM to feed then run to town for diesel. I was supposed to meet the hay guy by 9:30, but on my way home from town I got stuck behind a house. We crawled down the windy road at 5mph, stopping to make sure the trailer would make it around tight curves and the house wouldn’t hit power lines or low-hanging trees. I didn’t even get home until 9:45 and the hay guy is another 20-25 minutes in the other direction. When I got home I rescheduled hay pickup for 11 and returned a call to the Wetzel county sheriff’s office about some starving horses they wanted to seize, but had to leave a message with the officer in charge of the arrest. Left for hay at 10:30 and was back home and unloaded by 12:30, at which point there were several phone messages and emails from Michelle saying the officer wanted us there NOW to get those horses and cows.

That’s where the day deviated from normalcy.

Got the trailer hooked up and alerted another friend that wanted to rescue the two bull calves. It’s a 45 minute trip with an empty trailer to where the horses were kept. Serenity’s fuel filter light kept coming on and the poor truck had very little power going up hill. Lovely. Met up with Michelle and the officers at 2pm about six miles from the horses, then followed them in. We had heard that this woman, who was also charged with 18 counts of neglect in Ohio and was told she could no longer own horses in Ohio, likes to shoot first and ask questions later. While dodging bullets sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, we were told to wait a little ways down the road and the officers would go in first and come back for us when things were safe. The owner wasn’t even there for the first trip, so all was well. There were six horses, three of them in bad condition. There was no grass at all for them to eat and we didn’t see any evidence of hay in the paddock, but there were eight bales in the barn that the officer said wasn’t there the day before.

Channel 9 news was also there to cover the seizure. While I wasn’t happy about being on the lens side of a camera, I was tickled that those horses were getting the media coverage that they deserved!

We loaded the two ponies in Michelle’s trailer and two of the worst horses in mine, then headed home. Once we got to my place, Willow, Mariah, and Kita had to be kicked out of the quarantine paddock and put out with the main herd. Now they have a leader that actually leads and protects – good girl, Kita! The whole herd is very interested in Mariah and when I came home with the last two horses they were all standing around just staring at her and wondering where the little tyke had come from. It was adorable!

Anyways… Got the first four unloaded and in the quarantine, then Michelle went home and I hit the road leading the other friends that were taking the cattle. We got back to the officers around 5:20 and the owner of the horses was there. Unexpectedly, she was nice, polite, and willing to voluntarily surrender four of the horses! She also gave me her eight bales of hay and the remaining sweet feed that she had. After everything I had heard about this woman, this was a total shock! She gave me all the names and ages of the horses and claims they are all broke to ride. Doc had also seen these horses before and I had talked to him for insight about their health earlier that morning.

We got the two bull calves loaded into the other trailer and that was quite the adventure! One was easy and followed a bucket of feed with a rope around it’s neck. The other wasn’t so easy, but fortunately it was smaller and there were several men there to wrestle it into the trailer. These poor boys had not seen daylight since MARCH. They’ve been locked in the bottom of a bank barn and it looked like it had never been cleaned out. When the first one came out the door he had to shut his eyes and do a lot of blinking because he was unaccustomed to the light.

The other two horses loaded just fine and we were off once again for home. I got home around 7:10, unloaded the horses, hay, and grain, then loaded up the water tank and headed back the other direction to town to get water. The new horses were licking the hell out of the mineral block, but Kita and Willow hadn’t left them much water and there wasn’t any water that we could see in the paddock where they came from, so I knew they’d be thirsty. Stopped in town for a quick bite to eat since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, got water, then headed home again. Got home at 9PM, filled tanks and fed all the horses. Finished feeding by 10:30.

I gave Serenity a pat on the hood and thanked the old girl for working so hard and getting me through the day. Checked on the new horses one last time, but they wanted nothing to do with me since they were ear-deep in the hay roll I had just put there that morning.

I managed to hurt a few things during the day, between cattle wresting and my own exhausted klutziness, so falling asleep took a couple of hours. Then we got one hell of a thunderstorm which had Cody and Stormy trying to crawl into bed with me for protection. It was 2:30AM the last time I remember looking at the clock. Then up at 6AM to do it all over again. I must really love this work.

I’ll be blogging tonight over on Rescue Recoveries about the three horses in the worst shape and will let you know more about the other three tomorrow.

A dream come true

2010-07-14T09:17:00.001-04:00

Back in October of 2008 I did a blog post that included Jewel’s dream of becoming the herd leader. When Molly left a few weeks ago, Maverick took over as the herd leader. Now that Maverick has left (*sniff*), Jewel’s ambition has seen the light of day. She really doesn’t know what to do with her new power, other than panic when one of her “people” is out of sight. Matilda, Dahlia, and Sierra are still staying to themselves and only mingle at feeding time, or around the hay rolls. No one, and I mean NO ONE, tells Matilda what to do, but she gets along well with everyone else and doesn’t use her size to boss anyone around. I wish I had my camera the other day when she and Sky were standing belly to belly (or belly to back) at the water trough. It was so cute!

Mick is on the left and getting FAT. I sure wish Renee could come out more often and get him going under saddle. I’ve been working with him in the round pen, but he’s still turning into a big burly redneck.

That big white glare in them middle of the picture is Jewel.

I wonder who will be the alpha leader once Jewel is adopted? Miles is the only gelding left above the age of three, but he’s not really interested in leadership. Dahlia will be popping out a foal any day now, Sierra is a follower, and Matilda’s philosophy is live and let live. I suppose Jolie Rose will be the next leader. I just hope the others don’t have to lower their IQ in order to follow the big dumb mare.

*sigh*

I just know I miss my Maverick. Did the two of them have to be so cute together??

Maverick Goes Home sniff

2010-07-12T17:45:00.001-04:00

I knew this day would come, but I still cried like a baby.

Maverick’s original adoption fell through due to unexpected health issues with the adopter’s husband. The kind of health issue that can make a person sell their home and move closer to the hospital and family. She made the right decision in not taking on another horse at this time and I applaud her for it. It’s better that people realize their new limitations before taking on the responsibility of a life that is completely dependant on them.

Unfortunately, there was a damn waiting list for Maverick! No kidding… people were on a list to adopt Maverick! And I’m still getting calls and emails about him from people I’ve never talked to before. Nobody wanted the little guy six months ago and now people are lining up for him. I guess it just goes to show that no one can resist the charm of The Mav!

So you’re probably wondering who the lucky adopter is that was #2 on the list… it’s everyone’s favorite farrier, Brannon! Brannon has the cutest four year old daughter, Sage, that will hop on anything with four legs and Maverick is her birthday present this month. Since Brannon happens to be in a pretty serious relationship with Renee (sorry, ladies), she’ll be able to finish up Maverick’s training and teach Brannon’s daughter to be an awesome little rider.

I took 53 pictures when I dropped him off. Sage took the lead rope out of my hands as soon as Maverick was off the trailer, then she led him around and around… and around the yard. He was such a good sport about it and followed her everywhere, even when he saw Brannon’s other horses up on the hill he readily followed her back down to the house. At one point, Sage lost her balance and fell under Maverick while he was grazing. Mr. Perfect Pony stood very still until she got her feet back under her and pulled him around the yard again.

Renee was also there and looking very pleased that Maverick had finally arrived.

I include this picture only because it may come in handy 12 years from now when Sage brings her first date home. You’re welcome, Brannon.

I give Sage a couple of weeks before she tries mounting from the swing set in true cowboy fashion.

Yes, they are adorable together. But that doesn’t make it any easier on me. I need to go buy some more Kleenex now.

Pullin’ Ponies

2010-07-04T20:17:00.001-04:00

I’ve made brief mention of this “sport” before, but had never actually seen it for myself until today. I was driving through town on my way home from picking up feed when I noticed a bunch of horse trailers down at the Fairgrounds. Enquiring minds want to know, so of course I had to go see what was going on.

After rescuing Ellie, who was used as a pulling pony, what I found today was pleasantly surprising: impeccably groomed, fit, shiny, HEALTHY ponies who seemed very happy!

From what I saw, none of the horses seemed afraid of their handlers, and not once did I see a horse pin an ear back at anyone.

They were all incredibly excited when it was their turn to be hitched to the cement block-filled wagon. Some of them were difficult to control and the handlers had to drop the hook into the wagon hitch then jump out of the way because as soon as the horses heard that “thunk” of the hook, they were off! But during their down time, they all stood quietly along the outside rail and were friendly to anyone passing by that wanted to pet them.

This pair was particularly high strung when they got close to the sled and there was one time when they knocked that poor kid in the purple shirt on his butt because he didn’t move out of the way of the sled in time.

There were times when I wondered how these horses are trained… to have that level of fear/excitement/anticipation when being hooked to the sled could mean that they’re training involved something that may have been unpleasant. I hear that Ellie’s previous owner used to take his pocket knife and stick his ponies in the rump. How nice.

I’m not saying all competitor’s use harsh methods, but it does make me wonder what methods are used. Either way, some of these ponies actually looked like they were having fun.

And some of them were just way too cute!

I only stayed for about 15 minutes… long enough to see what all the fuss was about. I’m just glad it was a good experience instead of what I was expecting!