Baby #3 – FINALLY!

Shortcake’s udder was practically empty last night at dinner, so when I realized that I was driving off without my camera this morning I didn’t bother turning around to go get it. 

That will NEVER happen again.

 

It’s a boy, and oh my, isn’t he just too cute for words?? 

 

Shortcake is producing plenty of milk now and the little one knows exactly where the milk bar is located. 

 

 

I’ll let Shortcake’s adopter name the little tyke and hopefully she’ll put it in the comments…  ;)

 

Jubilee has started to produce milk, so baby #4 will probably make it’s appearance soon.

 

And more good news!  The asshat that starved the Fairmont horses has his hearing on June 2nd!  Let’s hope this doesn’t need to go to trial and the judge makes the right decision!

There’s a donkey in my yard

 

But boy, is she ever cute!  Go check her out over on Rescue Recoveries!

Tiny Feet

When Brannon was out last week to trim horses it was too rainy and muddy to get up to my barn, so we went over to the quarantine farm and did some of the minis.  Peppermint was the only one of the six that gave us much trouble, but Tootsie more than made up for it!

At one point he said “it’s official, this is the smallest foot I’ve ever worked on”.

 

 

 

 

She was very interested in climbing all over his hoof stand, so he helped her out.

 

 

Her back toes look tons better now and her pasterns are a good bit straighter. 

 

Nothing like training them young! lol

 

Speaking of training… go check out today’s three posts on the Training the Unwanted blog.  You won’t want to miss Maverick’s first ride!!

I’ve been holding out on you

Don’t hate me.  But there’s something big happening on June 12th and I’ve only hinted about it once.  I haven’t told you anything, which is pretty amazing in itself because I typically can’t keep anything secret.  Especially when it’s this good.  But today I realized that there’s less than a month left before the event, and maybe, just maybe, I ought to fill you in. 

Remember my friend, Elizabeth?  Last year she told someone that now that she was retired, she’d really like to get a horse.  That someone pointed her in my direction and the rest is history.  Despite the age difference, we’ve become fairly close (and she feeds me, which helps).  Shortly after adopting Buddy and Donkey from me, she and another friend came up with a fundraising idea.  It started out as just a flea market type deal, but quickly blossomed into one big honkin’ shindig!  So big, in fact, that she reserved the Tyler County Fairgrounds for the affair!

I got to sit in on the first real “meeting” about the event, but was told that all I needed to worry my little head about was getting the horses ready.   Sounded like a plan to me!  Elizabeth and her friend are handling just about everything.  They’ve put flyers up all over the county and beyond.  They’ve contacted newspapers, radios, and TV stations.  They approached businesses for sponsors and donations.   What they’ve pulled together in just a short time is really incredible.  They didn’t even start working on this until February!

So listen up, ya’ll.  Here’s what’s happening that day:

Live music all day from 9am – 5pm

Adoptable dogs from Doddridge and Pleasants county shelters

Dog training demonstrations

Horseshoe throwing competition

Food, food, and more food

Pony rides for the kidos, as well as a ton of other kid-related activities that I don’t know much about

There’s going to be a clown there.  So if you have coulrophobia, beware. 

Tons of things will be raffled off, including an autographed picture of Brad Paisley!   Also a whole pallet of Nutrena feed, generously donated by the Tractor Supply in New Martinsville!  There’s a bunch of other stuff that will be raffled as well, but please don’t ask me to list it all.  I don’t even know half of what Elizabeth has collected from local businesses.

The day is not all about fun and games, either.  My main goal is education!  I can’t believe some of the things I’ve heard from people around here.  Like, you only have to deworm your horse once a year in the summer.  Or, you can tell how old a horse is by how many fingers you can get between their ribs.  Or, they don’t slaughter horses anymore since the plants in the U.S. closed down.  And my all time favorite, horses don’t need water every day if they’re not being worked.   ACK!

With that in mind, I’ve been working on brochures and pamphlets to hand out about deworming, vaccinating, the costs of horse ownership, horse slaughter, etc. 

Brannon will be there to do a farrier demo and talk about the importance of regular trimming. 

I’ve asked Doc to do a mini-clinic, but he hasn’t given me a yes or no answer yet.  Smartass that he is, he’ll probably just show up that day and ask me where he should set up. 

I wanted to get some people in to do riding demonstrations, but that just hasn’t come together as I had hoped.  I really wanted to show people dressage, mounted vaulting, jumping, etc.  And that’s only failed because of me.  Oddly, I just couldn’t find the time or energy to track people down and lure them into coming.

I’ll also have adoptable horses there.  People will not be allowed to ride the horses there, but will need to make appointments to come out to the farm if they are interested.  I can’t have five different people wanting to ride the same horse throughout the day!  Plus, I’ll need time to check references and facilities.   Unfortunately, the training of certain critters has not gone as planned this spring, thanks to all of the Fairmont horses coming in.  So most of the horses I’ll have there will be the cute, charming, adorable youngsters, including Traveler, Summer, Mick, Milo, Maggie, and possibly Quill.  Thunder will also go if he hasn’t found a new home by then. 

Want to know the best part?

Admission is FREE.  So I’ll see you there?

Helping Out

People from afar keep asking me how they can help.  They read the blog and see the horses that I’m helping and understand that it costs a lot of money to keep these guys healthy and happy.  They just want to help, but until recently I was being pretty stubborn about it. 

 

When Glenn and I started this rescue we didn’t want to become completely reliant on donations and adoption fees to keep things going.  My theory was that if we couldn’t afford the expenses out of pocket, then we shouldn’t be doing it. 

 

Since starting this rescue in June of 2008 we’ve received $1,800 in donations.   I think that’s pretty good, considering we’re not 501c.3 yet and never even asked for donations.  The generosity and trust of people we don’t even know has really been astounding.  Because let’s face it, even 501c.3 rescues aren’t always on the up and up and take donations to line their own pockets, or sell horses to slaughter for money. 

 

So how do you know that I’m honest and will use the donations for the horses?  Well, you don’t.  I could show you all the feed, farrier, wormer, vaccines, and vet receipts.  I’m sure my hay guy would be happy to write a receipt for the 250 round bales I bought from him just in 2009.   You could come out and visit the farm for yourself, but beware the attack mule.  She’s cranky.

 

As I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, I do not charge a lot for adoption fees.  I base the fee on the usefulness of the horse (age, soundness, training, etc.) and try to keep it within a range that the current local market can bear.  I am smart enough to realize that you do NOT make money doing rescue, so I don’t even try.  What I do try to accomplish is placing horses in homes where both the adopter and the horse will be happy.  So while the purpose of this blog post is not to beg for money, I am going to provide ways to help for those that feel so inclined. 

 

For you Paypal people, I’ve setup a Paypal account for horsehavenholler@frontiernet.net. 

You could also call our vet and help out on our account:

Mountain Valley Vet

Dr. Shaun Meckley

RR 2 Box 305B
New Martinsville, WV 26155-9621
(304) 337-8080

 

 

As for volunteers -- anyone willing to sleep in the barn with Shortcake until she finally pops out that foal would have my undying gratitude.  Because I’m as tired as she looks!

Babies

 

I just thought I’d provide a little afternoon cuteness on this beautiful Spring Monday.

 

 

 

Nope, still no Shortcake foal, but her bag is starting to fill again.  Maybe this time she’ll follow through with it!

Lakota Goes Home

Remember what Lakota looked like when she got here?

 

She cleaned up well, don’t you think?

 

Lakota is one of those rescues that I just didn’t get to spend much time with, which is a shame because she is such a sweetheart!  And talk about a looker!  Some people don’t like those blue eyed horses, but I have a certain affinity for them – just ask Sky.

Lucky for me, she was adopted by someone about eight miles away and she’ll probably be bringing Lakota over here this summer to do some riding with me.  Top that off with her daughter wanting to do some volunteering, and I’m doing my happy dance - not to be confused with my rain dance or my saddle Jewel dance (patent pending).

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!

All sorts of stuff

First, I have pictures of the play time before dinner tonight.

Blondie and Riley, doing what Riley loves best. 

 

Jubilee running past the camera at breakneck speed (or at least top very pregnant pony speed).

 

Another video of Tootsie.  Because you know you want it.

 

Then I have updates on some of the larger Fairmont horses.

Dahlia has gotten so much friendlier and will walk up to anyone out in the pasture and stand there to be petted and admired.  She’s quite the little attention hound now, and looking more pregnant every day.  Ugh.

 

Poor Chester.  His skin is healed and his hair is finally growing back, but that doesn’t make him any less fugly.  At least he’s sweet.

 

Apollo would like to be groomed now.  Would someone else please take care of that?  Every time I do it, he looks like this five minutes later.  So I give up.

 

Quarantine is just about over so the big mares and geldings are moving to my farm on Thursday.  Hopefully, they’ll all jump on the trailer like they did the day we rescued them.  Cross your fingers, please!

Xena is my favorite dog to take over to the quarantine farm.  She does her herd dog thing and just lies in the grass and watches the mares and babies while they are out.  If one strays away from the others, she quietly gets up and follows them.  She knows she’s supposed to do something like that, and sometimes she even manages to gently push them back to the rest of the herd.   Tootsie has taken a strong interest in playing with Xena, but Xena tucks her tail between her legs and scurries off.  Who would have thought that little Tootsie was scary??

 

Finally, a picture of Willow’s filly.  She really deserves her own blog post, but I swear she’s camera shy.  Every time I break out the camera she either lays down, or gets right in my face and follows me around so I can’t get a good picture.   Little hussy takes after her mother!  The GBH named her Mariah. 

Comparisons

Since I see the horses over at the quarantine twice a day, I haven’t really noticed big improvements.  I mean, sure, it’s obvious that Matilda has gained weight, but I had no idea it was this big of a change until I started comparing pictures.

This is her on 4/11 – the day she was seized.

 

These pictures were taken just a couple of days later on 4/13.

 

 

 

These were taken on 4/29, just 18 days after she was removed from Fairmont.

 

 

It’s not just weight gain, either.  Look at the difference in her attitude!   On the 13th she looked so miserable and defeated, but on the 29th she’s bright-eyed and curious.  She now knows that humans = food and that’s something to look forward to.

The changes in just 16 days are amazing!  Funny what a little grain, grass, and grooming will do for a horse.  :)