I was able to spend about 12 hours yesterday working on the website (one can get a lot done when starting at 4 am lol!), so I've finally got pretty well all the newer horses posted, moved some around (sadly, all too many had to be moved to the rainbow bridge page), and hopefully today I can get the new 'hungry herd' posted as well. For now they'll all go on the foster page. On the plus side I moved Dingo and Simba from 'foster' to 'available for adoption' as both of them have improved immensely and no longer have issues with contracted tendons. Now I just have to create and add the links for the 'montage' pics for those most recent that don't have them yet. Oh and I think some picture links are missing from when the new website was created so I'll go through and find which are missing and add those as well. I did find a few of them yesterday.
It's getting a little easier as I'm becoming more comfortable using the new website developer. Just wish our internet/computer were faster!

I spent a few more hours on it today and got all the missing 'collage' pics linked to the thumbnails, except for the newer horses which I still need to create them for.  The newest 'hungry herd' is posted on the 'fosters' page.  I noticed that a LOT of the youngsters need new pictures, they've all grown so much and look so much better than they did last year.  A good project for anyone who wants to come out and take pictures in the spring/summer!

We had a good turnout for our annual general meeting on the 8th, thank you to everyone who came out and for your contributions and input during the meeting.  The potluck lunch was great!

A heads up that we'll have a booth at the Mane Event in Red Deer again this year, April 25-27th.  If you would like to volunteer to help man the booth during that weekend please send us an email.  There's a Mane Event planning meeting here at the Rescue on March 1st that you can also attend if interested. We'll  have an info table at the adopt-a-thon at Bowdog in Calgary on March 15th.

More sad news in that we lost Hannah on February 9th.  She hadn't been quite right for a couple of months and though we thought we'd worked through her issues with a teeth floating and other health management she passed unexpectedly overnight.  Thank you Stephanie Fulton for sponsoring her and Janine for caring for her, and to Kelly for bringing her under our wing back in 2008.  Hannah would have been 31 years old this spring.  I'm not great with dates and always find it surprising when I figure out how old some of our residents are.  The years go by and we're all getting older.  We have so many horses that have gotten up to and over 30 years of age without our even realizing it and sadly with advanced age come more health problems and eventually end of life.  We are glad, even during the sad times when we lose one, that we are able to make their lives a little better while they are with us.

We received an urgent email on Feb 15th requesting our help regarding a situation with 20+ starving horses located in southern Alberta.  After a flurry of emails and phone calls over the next few days we were able to arrange to drive down to pick up the horses on Tuesday the 18th.  We borrowed a bigger stock trailer (thank you to our vet Dr. Erickson for the loaner), Janneane came along to help, and 2 more volunteers, Kim and her son Jamie, pulled our smaller stock trailer with their truck.  The horses were in very bad shape and four had already been euthanized.  They had been fed now for a week or so, though they were being fed hay that was too rich for their depleted systems.  We were able to take 18 of the horses while another smaller rescue took 3 of them.  It was a 4 hour drive to pick up the horses and over 4 hours to bring them back, as we were stopping to rest the horses and check on them during the drive.  We arrived back at the Rescue at about 8 pm that night. 

Right away when we arrived home 4 of the horses were in trouble and went straight into the barn for immediate care.  Phoenix, the stallion, and DJ, a sorrel mare, seemed to be in better shape while 2 younger fillies, Nova, a sorrel filly, and Jasper, a bay filly, were in worse shape, though all 4 were eating and drinking and able to sit up during the first night.  Because the horses were down (unable to stand), they had to be rolled over regularly and massaged and constantly monitored to ensure they didn't injure themselves or each other if they struggled to rise.  We are so thankful for the army of volunteers who rallied together at such short notice to help care for these horses during this stressful and sad situation, giving them love and compassion and such tender care.  Dr. Erickson, our vet, arrived by 6 am on Wed. morning to assess and tend to the horses.  We had made the decision to euthanize little Jasper as her condition was quite bad by this point, but she passed away before we could do so.  Phoenix and DJ were doing well and Dr. Erickson felt they should both pull through, though we believe Phoenix had minimal handling prior to this (was probably not even halter-broke) which added to his stress.  Nova was not doing as well but we decided we had to give her a chance and hope for improvement during the day.  Sadly and unexpectedly Phoenix took a turn for the worse by that afternoon and there was no improvement in Nova's condition throughout the day so when our vet returned that evening we decided it was best to let both of them go.  They were euthanized quietly.

DJ the mare was doing well at this point, however she was still not able to stand and we knew we had to get her standing as she had been down for 24 hours.  With everyone's help we were able to lift her with the tractor and straps and she was able to stand for an hour before she became too tired and had to lie down again.  We decided to let her rest overnight and when we lifted her in the morning she was able to stand for three whole hours before laying down.  Again we allowed her to rest for a bit and lifted her and this time she was able to stay standing!  We thought she was definitely out of the woods and after monitoring her for 24 hours a day for the next couple of days we moved her into a stall where she could look out and see her pasture mates.  She was doing so well that is was a shock when after 4 days we found her down again and unable to stand.  Despite everyone's best efforts over the next 2 days we were unable to get her standing and by Tues afternoon she started to become distressed.  We made the sad decision to have her euthanized but she passed at 3:15 pm on Tues. Feb. 18th just as the vet pulled up to the door.  Everyone who spent time with DJ during her struggle was amazed at her calm and friendly demeanor.  She was such a lovely mare and we are so saddened that she didn't make it.

This tragedy was difficult for all of us to deal with.  Over the course of a week we lost 4 horses, but we saved 14 others and have many more here that still needed care and attention during this time.  We are amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support and compassion from all the people who cared about these horses and stepped in to help wherever they could.  Thankfully the remaining 14 horses from this rescue seem to be doing well and already are settling in and improving daily.   A special thank you to Celine Myers of The Ark Watch Foundation for the donation towards the care of these horses.

You can find more pictures of this rescue on our facebook page:
- the trip to pick up the horses - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152224228558728.1073741876.91031233727&
- the horses - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152223917348728.1073741875.91031233727&
- DJ - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152233466193728.1073741877.91031233727&

With the new rescues here we had to move some horses around to fit them in.  Thank you to Terri, Kaitlin, Katherine, Lindsay, Eve and Vanessa for the help leading the little herd down to the big herd.  Thank you Terri and Kaitlin for starting on deworming the big herd. 

Thank you to Uschi and the Calgary Gymnastics Club for fundraising over $660 for the Rescue!

Thank you to Jim Muma, our accountant, for donating the year end accounting, and for the donation made in conjunction with my dad, Louis Kelemen!

Thank you to Craig and Todd for unloading a whole lot of feed and loading a whole lot of hay!

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who volunteered, donated, and just plain cared, about these horses! 

It's been a rough start to February.  We lost one of our long time residents, Bennie, when he passed away suddenly on February 2nd.  We believe he may have had a heart attack.  Then Cisco became ill on February 3rd and after a vet exam it was determined that he had in fact sustained a torn abdominal wall when he was kicked in December and was colicking as a result.  He was euthanized the same day, but we are thankful that up until that day he was active and happy.  Teresa was euthanized on February 4th as her front fetlock joints had deteriorated to the point that she was having difficulty standing.  Thank you Janine for caring for Cisco, Debra for sponsoring him, Mary Ellen and Deanna for caring for Teresa during her short stay with us, and Karen for sponsoring Bennie.  Thank you to Bruce from Didsbury Vet and Greg from Just Passing for your compassion.

We had Pat our farrier out for 3 days over the last week and trimmed up 59 horses.  Sadly Pat will be returning to Quebec permanently so we'll be looking for a new farrier here pretty quick.  Thank you Pat for all your hard work over the years -  I'm sure you'll agree that it's been quite the experience working with all the different horses at Bear Valley!

Thank you to our volunteers for the help with all the physical labour over the last while, what with loading and unloading hay and feed and moving it around.  We did pick up another 3 tons of feed yesterday and have a small gang lined up to unload it for us on Sunday.  We also hope to pick up another 200 square bales on Sunday that will need to be loaded and unloaded.

We took in 2 horses and a donkey from the Alberta SPCA earlier this week.  The 2 yearlings are quite thin (and this still after gaining weight over the last couple of weeks while in the care of the SPCA) but the donkey is in good shape, though all three do need to be gelded.  We were told there was also a filly but she died before the animals were able to be seized.  We took in 20 chickens from the Calgary Humane Society that were found abandoned in a garage. They are silkies in a lovely mix of colours and fairly young.

I'm glad to say that I finally got the year end financials finished and to the accountant.  I'd also like to welcome some new sponsors - Eve and Vanessa for Django and Zane, Sophia and Jim for Gunner and Penelope, and Alex for the new sorrel colt whom she's had the honor of naming 'Flame'!