A Sad Day

I love getting emails from adopters about how much they love their new buddies.  But today I received a different kind of email.  One that took me completely by surprise and had me crying within minutes. 

Ellie died yesterday. 

The vet was out a few weeks ago to worm her and said her heart was “slightly irregular”, and he thinks she died of heart failure.

Ellie was only here from April to August last year, but in that short time we all came to love her dearly.   She was a smart, sweet little mare that loved attention (and scratching her butt on my windows).  A lot of you were invested in Ellie and her progress from starving pony with a body score of 1 to a plump little girl with fat jiggles.  

Ellie would have been four years old this year.  

 

I don’t envy young Chole the heartache she must be feeling today.  I just hope she realizes the good she did for Ellie in the short time they had together. 

Ellie Goes Home

It’s a great feeling when you take an animal with an uncertain future, nourish and love it, then find the perfect home for it where it will be cared for and loved the rest of it’s days.  I can’t begin to describe what a wonderful sense of accomplishment that gives you!  This is what I feel every time I see one of my rescues headed off into the sunset with their new adopters. 

Multiply that feeling by 100 for this cheeky little pony!

 

 

Chloe and her mother found Ellie on the website and read her story, even though it broke their hearts to do so.  As soon as I put Ellie up as available, they contacted me and wanted to adopt her.  Chloe is only five years old, but has been taking lessons and showing and already has a first place trophy to show for it!  Chloe couldn’t come today to pick up her pony, but her cousin Shelby came instead.

Even better news… when Doc was out to stitch up Sadie yesterday he checked Ellie to see if she still had a heart murmur and he couldn’t hear it anymore!  So now there’s no limit to what Chloe and Ellie can accomplish together!

 

Well…  jumping 5’ oxers might be out of the question.

Equine Photo Overkill

I have a new volunteer and her name is Amy. She’s 18 and wants to be a vet. She has long blonde hair, legs up to her neck, and if I was half as beautiful when I was that age I would have been dangerous. Glenn is not allowed to meet her.

Amy loves horses. So much so that she wants to smell like them. All the time. Except for the beautiful part, she reminds me a lot of me at that age.

Amy’s mom has an awesome camera, even better than my new toy. She even knows how to use hers, unlike someone else I know. They both came out on Thursday morning to take pictures of the horses in the rain. Not only that, she took one hundred and fifty pictures! And I thought I was crazy for taking 50 pictures of a rabbit!

Well yeah, ok. Maybe that really was crazy.

So here are the ones that I really liked. Yes, there are a lot of Kita pictures. So sue me.

Somebody help me, these mares are nothing but trouble, especially with Willow in the lead.

Beet pulp nose. Kind of like a milk mustache, but even cuter.

Oddly, out of all of those pictures I didn’t see Jewel, Duchess, Maggie, Marbles, Frisky, or Kenzie. She did get a couple of pics of Ellie, but they were very far off. It turns out Ellie was terrified of the umbrella. Did you know umbrellas can eat small ponies? I didn’t either, but it must be true!

Knowing my limits

I’ve always known my limits – what I’m capable of doing and what I’m not.  It’s just the part about admitting my limits to myself that I have problems with.   For instance, when Glenn and I first started discussing him becoming a truck driver I knew I wouldn’t be able to take care of and train all these horses, take care of the garden, work full time, and keep up with all the farm maintenance by myself.  But, I was more than willing to kill myself trying.

Last week when one of the many thunderstorms rolled through the area and the rain was coming down in buckets, I took a break and chilled out on the porch to watch it rain.  That was the first time I had really stopped, taken inventory, and made a mental list of everything that had to be done.  Like the yard grass being over a foot high in places.  The trash that has blown in that I haven’t picked up yet.  The burn pile growing out of control.   The pasture fence that I keep hastily fixing just for Ellie to push down again with her butt so she can come back into the yard.  The outhouse, which is still an outhouse and has not made the magical transformation into a chicken coop for the meat birds and guineas.  The porch, which is still a disaster area from all the times Ellie has done a midnight raid looking for food.  The round pen that isn’t built yet.   The gutters that still aren’t on the big barn.  The run-in sheds in the top pasture that still aren’t built.  All the plants and seeds that are still waiting to go into the garden.  All the rotted manure that’s still waiting to top off the garden beds.  The perennial flower bed that I need to make.

The list just keeps going on, ya’ll.

And let’s not think about all the riding and training I need to be doing.  Really, let’s not think about it.  Please?

So once I got over the depression caused by thinking about all the stuff I need to do, I had to come up with a solution.   I needed to hire some help, but who?  I really didn’t want to put an ad in the paper and go through the process of interviewing people.  That would be just one more thing on my to do list until I found someone reliable and sober.  Emphasis on sober.

Well, duh.  Anastasia teaches adult re-education classes and also has about a million nieces and nephews.   So I sent her an email to see if she knew anyone reliable and hard working looking for some part time work.  She called me back within two hours with the perfect family!   Dad used to be a truck driver, but was held at gun point at a truck stop and is ready for a new career.  Mom has always been a mom, but is now getting ready to start college in the Fall.  They came over Friday evening to meet me and talk about hours and pay. 

Dad has carpentry and mechanical skills, mom will be cleaning the house once a week, and their two teenage boys will be keeping up with the mowing and weedeating.  I warned dad that he will  be put to work!  He’ll be tackling all those building projects that I’ll never get to and the whole family will be replacing fence while I take care of the horses and finally do some riding.

Keep your fingers crossed that this works out because I’m really excited about finally getting some projects done around here and having more time to spend with all these horses!  They start tomorrow evening so I’ll let you know how it goes!

 

Because nature abhors a vacuum and I abhor a post without pictures, here’s a pop quiz for you!  Don’t worry, it’s an easy one.  Who does this muzzle belong to?

 

 

If you don’t know who belongs to that adorable, velvety little muzzle, then I know you all know who this is!

What’s one more?

Since Marbles and Maggie won the name poll for the last filly and colt that came to the farm, the second place filly name, Kenzie, goes to the latest addition. She’s an 8 month old spotted Tennessee Walker, and guess what? She’s not halter broke. What is it with people not working with their babies around here??? Her owners bought her from a cattle auction about a month ago for 40 bucks. She’s in good shape, and is a tall leggy little girl. She seems to have a very sweet personality and while I was standing with her tonight she kept breathing in my face trying to introduce herself. She knows what treats and carrots are and seems to have a calm demeanor. When she got off the trailer, she simply looked around and stood quietly beside me. When I let her loose in the pasture she just moseyed off and found some grass to munch on, ignoring Maverick calling to her from the next pasture over.

Glenn fell in love with her the minute he laid eyes on her. He even said that if she turned out to be a good sized mare that gaits, he’d be willing to sell Willow and keep Kenzie. You have no idea how much I like that idea! Anyone want to buy a conceited little hussy too smart for her own good in a couple of years? :)

Anyway, what do you think? I think she’s just a cutie pie.

It took about five minutes for her to see Ellie at the bottom of the hill and rush down to meet her.

Ellie was, of course, on her way up to me to beg for more food. She’s a professional beggar by now.

Ellie really didn’t care if Kenzie wanted to hang out with her or not. She was on a mission for food and nothing and no one was getting in her way.

I know, I know. Yet another youngster that’s just going to hang out around the farm for a couple of years until she can be broke to ride. And another baby that I need to halter break. I guess I need to hurry up and win the lottery so I can quit my job and work with these guys full time.

Is it true that you have to play to win?

Random Lunch – 04/24/09

It’s so warm and wonderful out today that I took my laptop out to the porch to work.  The bunnies have provided endless entertainment, the chickens visit regularly to see if I’d like to throw out some scratch, and I’ve had snoring dogs surrounding me all day.   I also left Ellie out in the yard to graze after her brunch earlier. 

It all started innocently enough.

 

But then she figured I may want to feed her again and it warranted closer investigation (read:  begging).

 

 

The next thing I knew, I had a muzzle in my lap.

 

Thankfully, she didn’t sneeze on the laptop.  I hear they don’t particularly react well to moisture, but I wouldn’t know that firsthand. 

I’m so glad it’s Monday

I never thought I’d say that, but I actually mean it.  Glenn came back from school on Friday night and he’s been lashing me with the whip all weekend.  On Saturday we spent most the day putting up 200’ of woven wire fence on the quarantine pasture.  Yes, I said most of the day.  Because fencers, we are not.  We have a woven wire fence stretcher that works wonders when you know how to use it and don’t need to use it between each and every fence post on a crooked and hilly stretch of fence.  I imagine it would be really nice to use on a straight run of 20 or 30 posts.  Too bad this is West Virginia. 

We spent all day cleaning house and rearranging furniture on Sunday.  And I’m not just talking a quick pick up and vacuum.  We actually dusted, yaw’ll.  And scrubbed.  And mopped.  It was horrible, I tell ya.  Just horrible.

We did let Ellie out with the main herd Saturday morning and boy, was that ever uneventful.  Everyone accepted her without a squeal or kick from the bunch.  She didn’t even bother with the mares, but went straight for the bottom of the gelding pack and worked her way up to the top.  First, she spent some time hanging with Indy while he cribbed on every fence post he could find.  She found that boring (who wouldn’t?) so moved on to Quest.  Quest looked down at her, gave her a quick sniff, then led her off to the barn for dinner.  After everyone ate,  she and Gentry went off to graze apart from the rest of the herd.  On Sunday morning she and Junior were hanging out in the barn together and Junior wouldn’t let any of the other horses get close to her.  

She still shows up at the small gate by the house right on schedule for her other meals, then races up the hill of death to be back with the herd when she’s done.  This is one very smart little pony!  I just hope she’s not too smart for my own good.

A room with a view

 

Between ticks, worms, shedding, and her current skin problems, Ellie will use anything for a scratching post.  After I took this picture, she swung around and used the rabbit hutch.  I’m pretty sure the bunnies are scarred for life now.

If you haven’t already, go check out Ellie’s update over on Rescue Recoveries. 

Put yourself in my shoes

Which will be hard since I’m not wearing any.  As usual.

But if you were me and you felt the need to lay on your stomach in the grass and call “chickie chickie chickie”, this is what the world would look like.

 

 

And you would tremble in fear at the thunder of stampeding chickens.  You would gratefully throw out scratch grain if they would but spare your life.  Alas, you have no grain, so you just lie there awaiting your doom.  Your life flashes before your eyes and it was boring.   You wonder how many will show up at your funeral and what Glenn will do with your ashes.

 

Then you realize that your brain has gone off on it’s own and that you really need some sleep. 

Turn to the left and you find Ellie, who has no fear of the feathered beasts that follow her around most of the day.

 

Have a great weekend, yaw’ll!!

Snow is Evil

There’s something inherently evil with snow in April.  It’s just plain wrong.   I didn’t want to take a picture for you because it’s way too depressing.  I also blame the snow for making me feel worse just as I was getting better.  Glenn is back in truck driving school (hooray for finally passing the CDL tests!) so I have no one to whine to except you.  Don’t you feel special??

Ellie has decided that she does not want to eat unless I’m either holding the bucket for her or petting her while she’s eating.  As soon as I walk away to do something else she stops eating and comes with me.  She’s also still trying to find a way into the house.

I’ve got a blanket on her, but it was Megalia’s and is WAY too big.  Unfortunately, it’s also the smallest one I have that isn’t too small for her.  She’s in no danger of getting the straps caught in her legs so it’s better than nothing.  When I first put a blanket on her I could tell she hadn’t ever had one one before.  She was so nervous that she actually stopped chewing.  The first blanket was too small, so when I put the second blanket on she was done being terrified and just kept chewing.

Yesterday I proved my worthiness to ride the short bus.  When I go out to check for eggs, I usually leave the small gate to the pasture open if there are no horses from the main herd anywhere near.   The big herd was way in the top pasture and Ellie was on the other side of the pond hanging out with Stride, so I left the gate open.  In the time it took me to get the eggs and get back out of the coop, Ellie had made it across the stream, through the yard, and was trotting up the hill towards the main herd.  Of course I panicked, as she really isn’t strong enough to go out with the herd yet and I didn’t want her getting hurt.  She must have heard me because she stopped, turned around, and came walking up to me to sniff the eggs.  I had to make promises of sweet feed and ear scratches to get her to follow me back through the gate and into the yard.

At least I know she’s getting stronger and feeling better.  Pretty soon she’ll be feeling good enough to cause all sorts of mischief.

Oh boy, I can’t wait!

Ellie it is!

Ellie won the pony name contest by a landslide, but I have a feeling a certain someone that suggested the name voted more than once.   But that’s ok, because I already started calling her Ellie this morning before I had even checked the poll stats and she seems to like it.  Or maybe it’s the bucket of grain that she likes. 

Ellie has no idea what treats are.  Carrots, peppermints, and apple wafers have all been tossed out of her grain bucket and ignored.   I think that’s always the saddest part about some of these rescues.  It’s so obvious that no one has ever shown them the simple kindness of a treat.

Because I’m a fruitcake addicted to this blogging thing and have an almost obsessive compulsion about documenting stuff, I’ve created a new blog.   Rescue Recoveries will document the ups and downs, failures and triumphs of bringing a horse like Ellie back to health.  I’ll try to keep it as clinical as I can, with feed amounts and times, weekly weight gain or loss, ailments or lameness, etc.  I’ll take new pictures of the horse at least bi-weekly so everyone  can follow along with his/her progress. 

Like the training blog, each post will be titled with the horse’s name and the date, and labeled with the horse’s name.  Eventually, there will be a new page on the rescue site that links to that blog as well.

The first post about Ellie is there now and provides an update on her since Doc was here this morning to look her over.  So head on over, and please don’t hate me because I like to type.  :)

One smart cookie

The new rescue has been fed four times since arriving last night. Apparently she paid attention when I got her food from the can on the porch. Also apparent is that I have some fence to fix.

Hello? Hey human, I seeeeeee you! Want to come out and give me some more food?

She’s a pullin’ horse

Pony pulling is a big time sport around these parts and before we moved up here I had never even heard of it. Now I seem to be surrounded by idiots that seem to think their pony/horse can sit in a pasture with no food and little water and just be pulled out and harnessed up at the next competition. Why feed them?? They’re ponies, they don’t need to eat! And as I was told today, they only need to be wormed once a year. And those shoes that got them through competition last year will be fine again this year. Just leave ‘em on and save you some money!

On the way to the feed store there is a pasture with a run-down barn and several horses. Two months ago a few of them started to look a little ribby. We had no idea who owned them, and due to the county that they were in, I was reluctant to call the police. There is one specific officer, who shall remain unnamed for now, that likes to seize horses for his own back yard breeding program. And at that point the horses weren’t thin enough for the county to even be able to seize them.

The pasture they are in is 75 acres of hills and trees. You can only see a small corner of the pasture from the road, so you couldn’t be sure you’d even see the horses when you drove by. Last month one of the horses started dropping weight more than the others, but still wasn’t in dire straights yet. Then we didn’t see that horse again until yesterday.

This is what we saw.

We tried to find out who owned the horses, but there was no one home in the surrounding houses. We went back today during my lunch break to see if we could catch someone and in the house across the street we found a wonderful old gentleman that owns the property and leases it to the owner of the horses. He told us where the owner lived and said the owner usually comes by to check on the horses around 6pm every day.

So… wait a minute here. The owner comes by every day, sees how thin his horses are, and what? Still doesn’t put anything but moldy hay in the pasture for them? Doesn’t feed them grain, according to the neighbor, and there was no water in sight? Granted, there could have been a stream or pond somewhere in the pasture that we didn’t see. All we did see were oily mud puddles and a roll of mold that may have been hay at some point.

We went back at 5:30 and drove past the pasture to find the owner’s trailer. I wish I had had my camera with me! He had a boxer dog tied up in the yard that was about the size of Heidi and MIGHT have weighed 25 pounds. Heidi is 60lbs. He was nothing but skin and bone! I wanted to put him in the truck and take him home with us since the owner wasn’t even home. We drove back to the pasture to wait and didn’t have to wait long. Ol’ D.S. came driving by shortly after and when Glenn told him we were interested in a horse and wanted the skinny one, he immediately said he’d give us the horse. As it turns out, D.S. has been in trouble with the law before when it comes to cruelty to animals. We were the opportunity that fell into his lap to rid himself of a critter he didn’t want to take care of.

We also offered to take one of the very skinny Belgians off his hands, but he wasn’t really skinny you see. That’s one of his pullin’ horses and “that’s just the way he looks”. Right. Because a horse’s back bone should stick up several inches, his hips should be visible a mile away, and he really should have a great big bloated belly full of worms. I’m beginning to learn that this is the way “pullin’ horses” look up here. Instead he tried to sell us one of the seven foals that he’s expecting this year from his stallion and broodmare herd on another farm. How did I just know he’d be another idiot backyard breeder??? Might as well call him an auction supplier instead of breeder, especially in this economy.

On our way home with the mare Glenn mentioned that it’s a very good thing that I have laryngitis right now.

We hooked up with Michelle who brought her trailer over to pick up the pony. The poor girl practically pushed me onto the trailer. GET ME OUT OF HERE! We were worried she might fall down on the ride home, but she is stronger than she looks and got home safe and sound. Michelle took these pictures once we got her off the trailer.

How adorable is that face???

We put Stride and Maverick back in the pasture behind the house and put the pony in the quarantine paddock. She was tickled to have grass and water at her disposal and dove right in to the handful of sweet feed I gave her for dinner. When a horse is this bad you have start off slow with the grain or you could do more harm than good. For now she’ll be getting two cups of food 5 times a day and we’ll gradually increase the feed and decrease the feedings over the next few weeks. Doc is coming out today to examine her and hopefully he won’t find anything more than worms and starvation. She seems bright-eyed and healthy other than the malnourishment and long feet.

I think we’re going to call her Daisy until something better comes along. Suggestions?