Summer Goes Home

Remember little Summer when she and Traveler arrived here on 11/8/09?

 

Here’s the picture I took for her adoption flyer back on 6/8/10.  Is that the same pony?  Really???

She’s a little over a year old and growing like a weed!  That’s Traveler next to her in that top picture… see how much smaller she is?  Now she’s the same height!

But most importantly, she’s still a big sweetheart that loves to be held and petted and will climb into your lap if you let her.  Which is why resistance was futile for Lawrence and his wife when they were here to ride Cinnamon and Thunder the other day.  Summer kept following them around wanting love and they couldn’t stop thinking about her.  So when I talked to them today and they said they wanted to adopt Summer as well, of course I had to say yes!

I can just see her being best buddies with that little mini and the donkey in no time!  What a lucky girl!

Farm Days II

What is it with Farm Days being held on really windy days??  We had 40mph gusts today and were constantly chasing around papers and trash, but had a ton of fun regardless!  Even though Anne and I both left our homes without our cameras, Anne was able to take a few pictures with her cell phone. 

There were cute and cuddly little Alpacas next to us and I want one.

There were cute, cuddly, and needy little billy goats across from us and I want two.  One of them tried climbing the fence just to be closer to me and get more attention than the others.  If I had a better fence around my garden, he would have fit nicely in the front seat of my truck.

 

There were also these incredibly docile and lovable water buffalo and I want five.  There was an adorable three week old calf and I kept trying to sneak her away, but her owners had a sharp eye on the little one.   Dang it.

 

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering which horses I took.  The plan was to take Mick and Cinnamon, but neither one of them cooperated when it came to getting on the trailer.  Cinnamon broke her lead rope and took off back to her herd and I was running late already so I let her go.  Mick didn’t even want to walk down to the gate away from the rest of the herd and I wasn’t in the mood to play tug of war with him, so I left him as well.  As I was walking around the pasture trying to figure out who else I could take, Summer kept following me around. 

Mom?  You can take me, right?  Maverick says I might get cookies all day if I get on the trailer… please take me?  I’d love lots of cookies.

Yeah, ok.  You can go, Summer.  Any other volunteers?  At that point, Milo walked over to me and said howdy.  Well, ok then.  Guess you’re going too, Milo. 

I put a butt rope behind Milo and he hopped on the trailer after a little fussing.  I didn’t even need to lead Summer, I just let her go and she walked on right beside Milo.  I guess she really wanted those cookies that Maverick promised her!  They both rode like pros and never even broke a sweat.  When I got to Tractor Supply they both exited the trailer with ease and followed me dutifully past the overturned shopping cart, flapping black table cloth, water buffalo, goats, and alpacas.  The only thing that even gave them a little pause was the shopping cart.  Once they were in their “stalls”, they both stood there calmly looking around and checking out their surroundings. 

 

On one side of us was a newcomer to Farm Days, an equine dentist who calls himself Mr. Ed.   Ed just happens to have studied under my old vet/dentist in VA, Ray Hyde.  I haven’t seen Ray since Kita was born 13 years ago and he was still doing a little general vet work on the side of his dental practice.  Now he runs an incredible equine dental school and sends instructors world wide!  Like Ray, Ed is also very passionate about horse welfare and is more than happy to give discounts to rescues for dental work.  Woohoo!  I took one of his cards and promised him many mini teeth to look at soon.  I’ll be sure to take many pictures to share for educational purposes.   You know, cause I’m all about the equine educating here on this blog.   And pictures of the pus coming out of Shortcake’s tooth abscess will be cool.  Kind of like the pictures of Marbles’ testicles.

Brannon, my farrier, was also there again this year.  He wanted to do another demo on one of the horses that I brought and Summer was due again so it worked out just fine.  He adores Summer because she’s always so well behaved for him and today was no different!  Unfortunately, Anne wasn’t able to get any pictures of her pedicure, only the aftermath…

 

Apparently, eating a bajillion cookies and getting a pedicure is tiring work.  She was passed out and dreaming by 11:00 while about 10 people stood around the outside of her stall watching and laughing at her.   Once she woke up, Milo took his turn for a quick cat nap.  They were obviously both very nervous and upset about being surrounded by so many strange people in a strange place.  

 

Yeah.  Right.

It was another successful day at Tractor Supply and both Milo and Summer may have new homes soon, thanks to their eagerness to please everyone and take whatever cookies were offered.  It was a tough job, but I’m betting they were really happy they got on that trailer this morning!

So Much for Spring Fever

 

It’s group snooze day around here.

 

And I would just love to be curled up snoozing in the sun with Summer right now.  Except it’s cold, windy, and muddy.   So, nevermind.

 

 

I should be starting up with training next week, and will try to keep up with the Training the Unwanted blog.   Sassy and Miles are still my two holdouts, but both are starting to come around and see that I’m not totally evil.  Sassy follows me down to the house after every feeding, braying at me as if to say she’s still hungry and why did I not give her 10 times more food?  Miles allows me to lock him into a standing stall to eat and I’m allowed to touch his head while he’s eating.  Otherwise, he keeps one eye on me at all times, just to make sure I’m not going to turn into a lion and devour him whole.  Next week I’ll try luring him into the round pen at feeding time and see if I can convince him that halters aren’t all that bad.  What fun!

It’s raining testicles!

 

Sorry, but it is.   Doc finally made it out today to make some geldings and he got Buddy, Quill, Traveler, and Timmy done before dark.  Buddy was the most difficult of the four because one testicle hadn’t descended completely and we had to roll him over on his back so Doc could fish for it.  Each time he’d get a hold of the slimy little bugger, Buddy would suck it back in.  Even in his drugged state, he did his best to hold on to what was his!

Quill was the easiest, as both danglies were right there, just waiting to be snipped.  He was done and back up eating hay in no time.  Timmy was pretty easy as well, but the old guy is taking a little longer to recover and is still out there snoring in the hay. 

Traveler… oh my.   The poor little guy.  First of all, he had a pretty nasty case of spasmodic colic on Saturday night.   There was no impaction, but he was experiencing spasms in his gut due to finally having some nutrients to digest.  He lay in the grass for about an hour and I sat with him to keep him from rolling, since I didn’t know that there was no impaction at the time.  He stopped breathing for a few minutes, closed his eyes, gave one final grunt, and I thought he was gone.   But I still felt a pulse, and a few minutes later he took a deep breath, sat up, and started grazing.  WHEW!  Doc said he may have just been in so much pain that he was holding his breath.  Poor fellow!!

Since then, he’s been doing much better and Doc felt safe gelding him today.   He did well, and was up and eating just as quickly as Quill.  He does have a mild heart murmur, but Doc thinks it may go away, much like Ellie’s did when she got back to normal weight. 

Now, here’s the real gut wrencher.   I didn’t mention this earlier because it simply made me way too angry.  The very fat and well-fed people that starved these horses told me that they had had them for two years.  It was obvious to me that there was no way in hell Summer and Traveler were two years old!  So it made me want to beat the living crap out of those people when they told me they had planted their big fat asses on Traveler to try and ride him!!!!  TWICE!!!!  

According to Doc, Traveler is just barely over a year old and Summer is between 8 and 10 months.

Yeah, let that sink in for a minute.

 

Oh, and Summer’s gums are receding due to malnutrition and her baby teeth are a mess thanks to her only having trees and rocks to settle the rumbling in her empty tummy.

 

Ready to go with me to lynch those white trash pieces of crap now?  I would suggest starving them for a few months instead, but they may appreciate losing a few pounds.

Cheyenne Goes Home

No, I don’t have a picture.  It was almost dark when she left and I suck.  Need I say more?

It’s been a very long day, so please don’t pick on me too badly for the short post.   Just go check out Summer and Traveler over on Rescue Recoveries – I’m still way too angry and exhausted to rant about that particular situation here.   Tomorrow I’ll get pictures of the other two geldings that came in today with Traveler and Summer, and I’ll also need your help naming them.   So put your thinking caps on and come up with something good, okay?