Between the rain and the cool temperatures, we had about a week of warm summer weather. I was noticing the other day that there are already leaves changing to red and yellow on the trees. I really don't like this time of year. It's depressing to see everything dying and stop growing. And you know what is just around the corner. Snow and cold. Bleck.
Remember the emaciated gelding and mare I helped my cousin rescue earlier this year? Well, she is putting him up for sale, and, with my husbands blessing, I'm gong to pick him up on Saturday. So, I will be posting pictures as soon as he is here and settled in. I'm sure he will be getting nice and chunky - like all the others in my pasture.
It's that time of year. People are starting to dump horses left and right. Too many to count. Don't have hay in the barn, don't have money to feed them. Don't have time to take care of them now the kids are back in school. Too many excuses. Too many slackers out there that aren't taking their responsibilities seriously.
If you have horses, please commit to them for their life. Let them kn ow that they have a place to live until it's time to make the hard decision to put them down in peace and comfort.
If you know of a horse in need, please visit www.missyshopeerr.freehostia.com/ and list it with her. There are horses on the site from all over the country that are in need of homes. Scroll down the home page and they are listed (by state) on the pages. Too many pages.
Local rescues and humane society's also need help. If you can't have a horse and would like to help one out, I know that NONE of them would turn away a donation.
More pictures and updates soon! :)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hay, hay, hay!
It's been such a wonderful, sunny week. Been riding twice this week already, with rides planned Thursday and Saturday! Mingo is doing great. His face is mostly healed.
My friends horse was injured in an accident in the pasture and we don't know how it happened. Severely injured. And we can't find out what she was injured on. She is mostly past the serious stage part in her healing, but she has a long way to go before she is completely healed. She's a fighter and she is in great health. My friend is cleaning, soaking and packing/wrapping the wound twice a day. The meds are just tablets now, no more shots of antibiotics.
So, pray for her healing and continued path to getting better. She's a great asset to the program my friend does and one of the most used horses.
Enjoy your week and hope you all get out to enjoy the sunshine:)
My friends horse was injured in an accident in the pasture and we don't know how it happened. Severely injured. And we can't find out what she was injured on. She is mostly past the serious stage part in her healing, but she has a long way to go before she is completely healed. She's a fighter and she is in great health. My friend is cleaning, soaking and packing/wrapping the wound twice a day. The meds are just tablets now, no more shots of antibiotics.
So, pray for her healing and continued path to getting better. She's a great asset to the program my friend does and one of the most used horses.
Enjoy your week and hope you all get out to enjoy the sunshine:)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
When the turkeys are on the barn roof....
Was sitting in my living room, check on my email. And cars were stopping on the road, pointing and looking. Oops - are the horses out again? Rushed out side to see what was going on. A few more cars slowed down. Couldn't figure out what they were looking for.
Then my daughter pointed at the roof of the barn. The darn turkeys were on the ridge of the roof, sliding down the sides and then flying back up to sit on the top. Think it might have been too hot for their feet up there and they were going up and down.
They are such idiots.
As soon as I figure out how to download all the pictures from my camera on this new computer, I will have pictures of the girls. And boys. And horses.
It's never dull around here.
:)
Then my daughter pointed at the roof of the barn. The darn turkeys were on the ridge of the roof, sliding down the sides and then flying back up to sit on the top. Think it might have been too hot for their feet up there and they were going up and down.
They are such idiots.
As soon as I figure out how to download all the pictures from my camera on this new computer, I will have pictures of the girls. And boys. And horses.
It's never dull around here.
:)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
I'm Back..
Well, guess I really have fallen behind. Things have been so hectic and stressful over the past month and a half that I don't quite know where to start.
My computer died. Thank you, my teenagers. Can you spell password protection? The truck broke down. Was fixed. Working at the Horse Partners Vt barn. Had to pick up a rescue horse in mid-Vermont for a rescue in Connecticut. I housed her at the barn where the mom I adopted used to live before she moved to South Carolina. No more mares at my barn. (Now doing chores and working at three barns for 1 1/2 weeks.) Working on re-homing Elias. Trying to make ethical and emotional decisions about Buddy. Adopted out one of the dogs, Mia. Mia decided she didn't want to leave, so escaped from their house and spent 6 days on the run. We drove over an hour, one way, two nights in a row to walk the woods, roads and back yard, setting up a crate with our dog blankets in it trying to entice her in. Set up a tent and planned on spending the night in it to get her. It worked. She's back home and staying.
Oh, yeah - and I still live with three teenagers. One who left for college last Friday. One who is a Senior in high school this year. And a sophomore who hasn't taken driver's ed yet. And a mostly understanding and supportive husband. I love him, just celebrated 20 years of marriage together, but he is still a full blooded american male. Sigh. You all get the picture.
We came to a decision about Buddy after many conversations with trusted horse people in my life and a long evaluation with the vet and Elias was adopted out on a trail basis. Buddy was gently laid to rest on the farm. Just after, a bald eagle and an immature bald eagle were flying over the pasture (we had never seen these around the farm before.) Elias is in a good place where he will be safe and happy.
So, there are only two ponies at the barn. What a difference a few months make. We went from 4 horses and two ponies to just Smokey and Abner. The pony boys. The fields got a break, I got a break and things were very quiet.
So, I have worked out a deal on a new horse. Had many, many horses offered to me. Still getting emails on a weekly basis of people offering me their horse that they can't keep any more. Sigh. I'm having just as hard a time as everyone else to guarantee that there will be hay in the barn come spring so I can feed my horses. Just like everyone else. Mostly older teens, early 20's. Decided after putting to rest 4 horses in the last 5 years that I wanted a horse that was going to be around for quite a while.
After much searching and much consideration, I found one. I worked with him for a good month at the farm he was at before making a decision to take him. He is a 7 year old 7/8 Lippitt Morgan, 1/8 pinto gelding. I am in the process of purchasing him from the owner/breeder who owned/bred his grandparents. It's a wonderful line. His father is still in breeding condition at 30 and lives next door to his previous barn. (He is owned by the sister & husband of Kate at http://www.horsepartnersvt.blogspot.com/ .
So, my new boy came home. His registered name is Spark of Royalty. I named him Mingo. The name came from a search I did online. He's a pinto morgan. I wanted a unique name for him. Mingo means beloved in a native american language. I don't remember which one right now. And, supposedly, Mingo was Daniel Boone's best friend who helped him in his adventures and is supposedly a good name for a trail horse as it is someone who is good on the trails and surefooted.
So, in the process of trailering to the Horse Partners Program 6 miles from my house, the unthinkable happened. Everything is ok. At the time it wasn't, but he is fine now. It was 8:30 am on Monday morning and we were headed to a week long camp at Kate's. We pulled out of the drive way and went down the road. And got stopped at road construction. Next to the shooting range. Where there was a man and two children shooting a shotgun. Mingo did fine through the first two shots, but at the third shot, all hell broke loose. The truck was shaking, the trailer was rocking. My daughter MJ was with me. We both ran back to the horse trailer that was, literally, rocking on it's wheels. I was expecting bad, but was totally shocked by the picture that awaited me when I opened the side door of the trailer.
Mingo had broken his halter. Thank god it was a breakaway halter. Don't even want to go there. Mingo was over the chest bar, hanging by his back legs, the rest of the body in the fore compartment with his head on the floor. And it seemed there was blood everywhere. The window on the front was broken out. His eyes were almost all white and he was shaking all over.
Now take a deep breath. That is what I did. Went into survival mode. Sucked it up and dealt with what I had to do. My MJ started shaking and said, "Mom, what do we do?" I looked at her and said "Just do what I tell you and we will deal with everything else later." She then looked over her shoulder and yelled at the guy at the range to stop shooting. And then turned to help me.
In talking with the kids at the barn last week, and in trailering to a horse show with Kate, and having packed for trailering and emergencies, I had packed an emergency halter, which came in very handy. After getting my hands on Mingo and soothing him with my voice and hands, somehow, MJ got the halter on Mingo. By this time, other people in the line of cars and trucks had come up to see what they could do to help. I told everyone to stay out of the trailer as I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. I don't know how - in talking with MJ and others, we still don't know how he did it - Mingo managed to calm himself with me there talking to him, working with him, and got him to the point where he was eventually standing in the trailer with his front ankles over the chest bar.
He was breathing heavy, blood running from many wounds on his head and from his leg. He was still scared but in control. I had MJ wait by his head, still talking to him, as I got the ramp down on the back of the trailer and went in the trailer with him. I had MJ get out and talked to him and encouraged him and he reared up and got his legs off the chest bar. He then backed out of the trailer, with me beside him, onto the road (that was shut down with cars being blocked by us and the trailer with cars parked in every direction).
Mingo was snorting, blowing and was still very upset, but under control. As we were only a little over a 1/2 mile from the house, I walked him along the road, on a path along the shoulder, and walked home. There was blood all over the horse, blood all over me. MJ was standing in the middle of the road, with broken glass and a truck she couldn't drive (it's a standard) and me leading home a horse we thought was going to need an emergency visit from the vet for stitches. I can just imagine what all the other people in their cars in that line we were passing were thinking. We must have looked frightful. Something out of a horror movie.
I got Mingo home, called the vet, and went inside to wash up to make sure I wasn't bleeding from anywhere and loose my mind. I was hyperventilating, sobbing, beside myself. Then MJ called and wanted to know what to do with the truck. I told her to pull it off the side of the road, lock it and come home. She still had to go to help out at camp - where we had been heading for the week with Mingo. She came home and got her truck and left.
I was still waiting for the vet. And waiting. It always seems like forever in an emergency - whether it be for the kids or the animals - when you are waiting for the doctor to call you back. It seems as my vet and his wife had their new baby and the vet on call was over 2 hours away on another emergency. Finally, Roger called me and said he would come up as the other vet was still busy and we only had a small window of time to do stitches.
In the meantime, I had taken cold water, betadine and some soft washcloths to get most of the blood and wounds cleaned up. He wasn't a pretty picture. I was almost sick to my stomach. There were a few deep gouges that I knew wouldn't be able to be stitched as there was nothing left to stitch to. So, on with goops of bag balm. I love that stuff. It keeps bugs off the wound and it doesn't promote proud flesh and it's not harmful if they somehow ingest it. I fed him a little grain with some bute in it to help with the swelling and pain that I knew were well on the way and sat down and cried. And apologised to my new boy. And tried to figure out what went wrong.
He had a deep scrape on his nose, on the bridge of his face, over his right eye, between his eyes, in his forelock area and two on his poll. He also had a deep scrape on his leg that ended where his chestnut had been ripped off. However, that was nothing compared to the very deep v-shaped large cut over his left eye. I left that wound alone as I knew if it needed stitching, they wouldn't want me gooping it all up with bag balm. I did clean it up and cleaned up the blood the best I could, but it was painful so I didn't mess with it much. Figured it could be done better with some pain meds on board.
Ashley drove me up the road to pick up the truck and trailer, parked by the side of the road and partially blocking the road. I drove down the shoulder, and did a big circle around the flag guy standing in the road and drove home, shaking all the way.
So, the vet comes. Says that everything I did looked good and asked if I wanted the good news or the bad news. I cried and told Roger, "I can't handle any more bad news." He just smiled at me and told me the farm call would cost more than the antibiotics I needed to purchase. He didn't want to stitch it - he wanted to leave it alone and let it heal on it's own as it was too close to the bones in the eye and it was cut in such a way that it would drain down his face.
So, I put some bag balm on his eye, put a fly mask on, and kept him in his stall that first day, with the pony boys in the barn with him to keep him company.
Now, almost 2 1/2 weeks later, there is little evidence that he had such a tragic accident. His most damaging wound over his eye has a little bit of healing left to do. Most of the others have almost totally healed and are starting to grow a little hair back.
And we have trailered twice since then. Thursday the same week in the same trailer, but a different route. And Sunday that week. And he walked right on the trailer with me both times. Not any hesitation. Total trust that I would take care of him.
So, sometimes even when you do everything right, when you do everything in your power to make sure things will be ok, things can still go wrong. Horribly and in a heart-beat. And then they can go right again.
A quote from the movie the Whale Rider, my friend told me... Sometimes it's nobodys fault. Sometimes things just happen.
What a kind friend with kind words.
My computer died. Thank you, my teenagers. Can you spell password protection? The truck broke down. Was fixed. Working at the Horse Partners Vt barn. Had to pick up a rescue horse in mid-Vermont for a rescue in Connecticut. I housed her at the barn where the mom I adopted used to live before she moved to South Carolina. No more mares at my barn. (Now doing chores and working at three barns for 1 1/2 weeks.) Working on re-homing Elias. Trying to make ethical and emotional decisions about Buddy. Adopted out one of the dogs, Mia. Mia decided she didn't want to leave, so escaped from their house and spent 6 days on the run. We drove over an hour, one way, two nights in a row to walk the woods, roads and back yard, setting up a crate with our dog blankets in it trying to entice her in. Set up a tent and planned on spending the night in it to get her. It worked. She's back home and staying.
Oh, yeah - and I still live with three teenagers. One who left for college last Friday. One who is a Senior in high school this year. And a sophomore who hasn't taken driver's ed yet. And a mostly understanding and supportive husband. I love him, just celebrated 20 years of marriage together, but he is still a full blooded american male. Sigh. You all get the picture.
We came to a decision about Buddy after many conversations with trusted horse people in my life and a long evaluation with the vet and Elias was adopted out on a trail basis. Buddy was gently laid to rest on the farm. Just after, a bald eagle and an immature bald eagle were flying over the pasture (we had never seen these around the farm before.) Elias is in a good place where he will be safe and happy.
So, there are only two ponies at the barn. What a difference a few months make. We went from 4 horses and two ponies to just Smokey and Abner. The pony boys. The fields got a break, I got a break and things were very quiet.
So, I have worked out a deal on a new horse. Had many, many horses offered to me. Still getting emails on a weekly basis of people offering me their horse that they can't keep any more. Sigh. I'm having just as hard a time as everyone else to guarantee that there will be hay in the barn come spring so I can feed my horses. Just like everyone else. Mostly older teens, early 20's. Decided after putting to rest 4 horses in the last 5 years that I wanted a horse that was going to be around for quite a while.
After much searching and much consideration, I found one. I worked with him for a good month at the farm he was at before making a decision to take him. He is a 7 year old 7/8 Lippitt Morgan, 1/8 pinto gelding. I am in the process of purchasing him from the owner/breeder who owned/bred his grandparents. It's a wonderful line. His father is still in breeding condition at 30 and lives next door to his previous barn. (He is owned by the sister & husband of Kate at http://www.horsepartnersvt.blogspot.com/ .
So, my new boy came home. His registered name is Spark of Royalty. I named him Mingo. The name came from a search I did online. He's a pinto morgan. I wanted a unique name for him. Mingo means beloved in a native american language. I don't remember which one right now. And, supposedly, Mingo was Daniel Boone's best friend who helped him in his adventures and is supposedly a good name for a trail horse as it is someone who is good on the trails and surefooted.
So, in the process of trailering to the Horse Partners Program 6 miles from my house, the unthinkable happened. Everything is ok. At the time it wasn't, but he is fine now. It was 8:30 am on Monday morning and we were headed to a week long camp at Kate's. We pulled out of the drive way and went down the road. And got stopped at road construction. Next to the shooting range. Where there was a man and two children shooting a shotgun. Mingo did fine through the first two shots, but at the third shot, all hell broke loose. The truck was shaking, the trailer was rocking. My daughter MJ was with me. We both ran back to the horse trailer that was, literally, rocking on it's wheels. I was expecting bad, but was totally shocked by the picture that awaited me when I opened the side door of the trailer.
Mingo had broken his halter. Thank god it was a breakaway halter. Don't even want to go there. Mingo was over the chest bar, hanging by his back legs, the rest of the body in the fore compartment with his head on the floor. And it seemed there was blood everywhere. The window on the front was broken out. His eyes were almost all white and he was shaking all over.
Now take a deep breath. That is what I did. Went into survival mode. Sucked it up and dealt with what I had to do. My MJ started shaking and said, "Mom, what do we do?" I looked at her and said "Just do what I tell you and we will deal with everything else later." She then looked over her shoulder and yelled at the guy at the range to stop shooting. And then turned to help me.
In talking with the kids at the barn last week, and in trailering to a horse show with Kate, and having packed for trailering and emergencies, I had packed an emergency halter, which came in very handy. After getting my hands on Mingo and soothing him with my voice and hands, somehow, MJ got the halter on Mingo. By this time, other people in the line of cars and trucks had come up to see what they could do to help. I told everyone to stay out of the trailer as I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. I don't know how - in talking with MJ and others, we still don't know how he did it - Mingo managed to calm himself with me there talking to him, working with him, and got him to the point where he was eventually standing in the trailer with his front ankles over the chest bar.
He was breathing heavy, blood running from many wounds on his head and from his leg. He was still scared but in control. I had MJ wait by his head, still talking to him, as I got the ramp down on the back of the trailer and went in the trailer with him. I had MJ get out and talked to him and encouraged him and he reared up and got his legs off the chest bar. He then backed out of the trailer, with me beside him, onto the road (that was shut down with cars being blocked by us and the trailer with cars parked in every direction).
Mingo was snorting, blowing and was still very upset, but under control. As we were only a little over a 1/2 mile from the house, I walked him along the road, on a path along the shoulder, and walked home. There was blood all over the horse, blood all over me. MJ was standing in the middle of the road, with broken glass and a truck she couldn't drive (it's a standard) and me leading home a horse we thought was going to need an emergency visit from the vet for stitches. I can just imagine what all the other people in their cars in that line we were passing were thinking. We must have looked frightful. Something out of a horror movie.
I got Mingo home, called the vet, and went inside to wash up to make sure I wasn't bleeding from anywhere and loose my mind. I was hyperventilating, sobbing, beside myself. Then MJ called and wanted to know what to do with the truck. I told her to pull it off the side of the road, lock it and come home. She still had to go to help out at camp - where we had been heading for the week with Mingo. She came home and got her truck and left.
I was still waiting for the vet. And waiting. It always seems like forever in an emergency - whether it be for the kids or the animals - when you are waiting for the doctor to call you back. It seems as my vet and his wife had their new baby and the vet on call was over 2 hours away on another emergency. Finally, Roger called me and said he would come up as the other vet was still busy and we only had a small window of time to do stitches.
In the meantime, I had taken cold water, betadine and some soft washcloths to get most of the blood and wounds cleaned up. He wasn't a pretty picture. I was almost sick to my stomach. There were a few deep gouges that I knew wouldn't be able to be stitched as there was nothing left to stitch to. So, on with goops of bag balm. I love that stuff. It keeps bugs off the wound and it doesn't promote proud flesh and it's not harmful if they somehow ingest it. I fed him a little grain with some bute in it to help with the swelling and pain that I knew were well on the way and sat down and cried. And apologised to my new boy. And tried to figure out what went wrong.
He had a deep scrape on his nose, on the bridge of his face, over his right eye, between his eyes, in his forelock area and two on his poll. He also had a deep scrape on his leg that ended where his chestnut had been ripped off. However, that was nothing compared to the very deep v-shaped large cut over his left eye. I left that wound alone as I knew if it needed stitching, they wouldn't want me gooping it all up with bag balm. I did clean it up and cleaned up the blood the best I could, but it was painful so I didn't mess with it much. Figured it could be done better with some pain meds on board.
Ashley drove me up the road to pick up the truck and trailer, parked by the side of the road and partially blocking the road. I drove down the shoulder, and did a big circle around the flag guy standing in the road and drove home, shaking all the way.
So, the vet comes. Says that everything I did looked good and asked if I wanted the good news or the bad news. I cried and told Roger, "I can't handle any more bad news." He just smiled at me and told me the farm call would cost more than the antibiotics I needed to purchase. He didn't want to stitch it - he wanted to leave it alone and let it heal on it's own as it was too close to the bones in the eye and it was cut in such a way that it would drain down his face.
So, I put some bag balm on his eye, put a fly mask on, and kept him in his stall that first day, with the pony boys in the barn with him to keep him company.
Now, almost 2 1/2 weeks later, there is little evidence that he had such a tragic accident. His most damaging wound over his eye has a little bit of healing left to do. Most of the others have almost totally healed and are starting to grow a little hair back.
And we have trailered twice since then. Thursday the same week in the same trailer, but a different route. And Sunday that week. And he walked right on the trailer with me both times. Not any hesitation. Total trust that I would take care of him.
So, sometimes even when you do everything right, when you do everything in your power to make sure things will be ok, things can still go wrong. Horribly and in a heart-beat. And then they can go right again.
A quote from the movie the Whale Rider, my friend told me... Sometimes it's nobodys fault. Sometimes things just happen.
What a kind friend with kind words.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Playing Catch Up...
Chores, chores, chores. Rain and mud and overgrown pastures. Way too many rain days and not enough daylight to get things done.
The horses are doing fine. The teenagers are, well, teenagers. The husband is still here after 20 years. I'm trying to figure out all the logistics of horses.
The good news is that it's July and the sun is shining and the weather forecast looks good for the next few days. Hopefully hay season isn't a bust and the economy will begin to pick up more.
Just in case you are in the area and want something to do next weekend, check out this new blog site. They were featured in the Message for the Week and the Eagle Times over the last two weeks... This is a barn I volunteer at and they are doing wonderful things.
www.horsepartnersvt.blogspot.com
Kate Adams is a wonderful lady with a great mission and a great program. It's not like I don't have enough to do without volunteering at another barn, but after seeing what her mission is and what she is doing, I'm sold. I like being around Kate and working with her and her horses. And the kids love the program. It's a wonderful thing. Stop by and visit and see for yourself!
:)
The horses are doing fine. The teenagers are, well, teenagers. The husband is still here after 20 years. I'm trying to figure out all the logistics of horses.
The good news is that it's July and the sun is shining and the weather forecast looks good for the next few days. Hopefully hay season isn't a bust and the economy will begin to pick up more.
Just in case you are in the area and want something to do next weekend, check out this new blog site. They were featured in the Message for the Week and the Eagle Times over the last two weeks... This is a barn I volunteer at and they are doing wonderful things.
www.horsepartnersvt.blogspot.com
Kate Adams is a wonderful lady with a great mission and a great program. It's not like I don't have enough to do without volunteering at another barn, but after seeing what her mission is and what she is doing, I'm sold. I like being around Kate and working with her and her horses. And the kids love the program. It's a wonderful thing. Stop by and visit and see for yourself!
:)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Growing Webbed Feet!
I'm slogging through the ankle deep mud, trying to keep shoes on my guys, and hoping that the sky is going to clear up any day not. Not - according to the weather forecast. The chickens need to be ducks in this weather.
SO, pending warmer weather and sunshine, I'll have more to tell you, other than just trying to keep ahead of chores and water overload and not enjoying the outside :(
SO, pending warmer weather and sunshine, I'll have more to tell you, other than just trying to keep ahead of chores and water overload and not enjoying the outside :(
Friday, June 26, 2009
Remember the Skinny Quarter Horse?
Remember the skinny quarter horse that we picked up - along with the black mare - earlier this spring? Well, after a couple of doses of worming medicine and his feet being trimmed, along with LOTS of groceries and some TLC grooming, here he is just two weeks ago... isn't it amazing that just FEEDING a horse will help it look lots better? He's going to be a great horse for the grandma and grandkids to ride - so we have been told. We're going to let grandma find out, in a few months, after he has gained a little more weight - he still has a ways to go.
The black mare was NOT pregnant - just loaded with worms and I'm supposed to go visit her in the next week or two, so will show you updated pictures.Doesn't he look great? And the Police did go to their residence and all the other horses are out of there. Don't quite know all the details, but according to friends and neighbors, they were supposively 'bankrupting' the owners with their feed bills. Hmmm... seems like they were finally getting the feedings they needed and deserved!
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