Most of the horses have been moved to pasture (they are so happy to be on grass!) and with only about 50 left to move we thought things would slow down a bit and give us a break.  It was not to be.  We became aware of some animals at a feedlot and ended up purchasing them. With the help of some wonderful people who hauled them for us (a good 6 hour trip one way) they arrived on Sunday, May 22nd.  We've already found a foster home for Midas, the palomino gelding, and for Robin, the pony mare!

After agreeing to take in the above horses, we found out about a bunch of young horses at the same feedlot (sadly there's no shortage as every day he has more pregnant mares and yearlings and you name it, all heading to slaughter usually within a week).  I hoped we could take in the 10 yearlings and within a few hours of posting about it on facebook we'd managed to raise enough funds to do so!  A huge thanks to everyone who donated and to  Four Feet Companion Foundation for the emergency grant of $1250 to cover half the purchase price of the horses.  Once again people stepped up to help with the hauling which was sincerely appreciated.

In order to make room for the new arrivals we moved our other yearlings, that have been here since last year, down to pasture next to the main herd.  Comparing these youngsters to the sorry horses that arrived from the feedlot, you can see what neglect and poor nutrition does to them.   And of course with the moving around of the horses, the main herd had to come in to see what was up, which resulted in lots of running around and excitement. 

This coming week we will be very busy with our farrier who will be here for 3 days.  We'll also be taking Robin, Nosey and Warrior to their summer foster home.

Spring has been here for a while, which is SO appreciated  as we can often have snow into May.  The grass is growing and we are moving the horses out to pasture as we are able.  We've had quite a few intakes, adoptions and a couple of foals born at the Rescue, which has kept us very busy.

Adopted since February were Preston, Aero, Zendaya, Idle Promises,  Renegade (who  was adopted out about 5 years ago and just came back), Bullet, Trigger, Charger (who was adoption pending but that fell through but he was adopted by someone else), Lido, Savannah, Chloe and her foal, Checkers and her foal-to-be, Nicker and her foal, Moritz,  Augin, Dallas,  Fuji, Mercy and Safftron (to The Alice Sanctuary, along with Lilly and Logan, 2 of the cows),  Roche, Simba, and Chaplain!  Highway, Cider,  and Stoney are going out to be worked with and if they are suitable will also be adopted.  

 We had some intakes in addition to the 2 foals that were born.  New additions include Nosey, Warrior, Presto, Honey,  Shantique, and Pogo.     Several of them were in bad shape but all are now doing well.

We had some extremely sad events in April and May.   Pet, our oldest resident horse, was euthanized quietly 12 days before her 40th birthday.  Pet was here for nine years, years we will forever be grateful for.  She was such a kind old spirit and her passing has left a huge void.    Silver Wishes had to be euthanized due to a severe colic episode that she could not recover from.  She came to us in such bad shape in December but  she captured everyone's heart.    Our heartfelt thanks to Barrie and Karen for fostering her and giving her a wonderful few months.   Yola, our female turkey, passed suddenly one night.  She was such a lovely bird,  and she is also missed.  Very tragically, Wilbur the steer passed suddenly  in May.  Our hearts go out to  Krystle, his foster mom.  She was rushing him to the vet because he was sick, but he died in the trailer before he could be helped.

We had an online auction this spring and raised over $2,800!  Thanks also go out to:  Lisa Cameron for your donation from your 7th birthday; Kathy Hetherington from Wild Ridge Stables for coming out and working with some of the youngsters; Pets for Life Society for the grants toward our vet bills;  Community Natural Foods in Calgary for the donation of  $1,069.75 (!) from their bag program in April;  Shelby Hirsch for creating some nice posters for us;  Hands of Hope-School of Hope for the donation of hay and for coming out for a tour;  Donna for the donation of a trailer to sell, what a big donation!; Courier Equine Park in Androssan for the $50 donation from Christmas;  and Sarah Walters and Sonny for the $200 donation from Sonny's 30th birthday party! We had a good bit of support at The Mane Event, we raised $775 through 'Donate A Bale' (thanks Leane and Tracy!). 

Thank you once again to Denis and Ted from Denis Gobet Hoof Trimming for coming down with your tipping table and trimming all the 'unhandled' horses. We did 70 horses over 2 days.  So good to see everyone with nicely trimmed feet!

​We have been offered 40 acres of hay in the Okotoks area and are looking for someone to hay it for us.  If you can help, please email us at bearvalleyab@aol.com

We started doing freeze branding again (we did 12 horses this week) and hope to be able to get all our horses done this year.  Freeze branding them with our brand will help us to ensure that they never end up at auction  or at the slaughterhouse.  We hope to offer  previous adopters the option of bringing their Bear Valley horses to the Rescue for branding in the near future.  We'll keep everyone posted about that through this blog.  We had several of the horses' teeth floated in May and have more to do later this week.  Spirit, Denali, Zebity and Simon were gelded.  Denali also managed to get a nasty cut on his front leg but at least he did that about 5 minutes before the vet arrived to float teeth, so he got stitched right up and it is healing nicely.

I have collected some figures from 2015, a busy and successful year! - 
Intakes  -   2 foals born, 1 calf born; 2 mules, 5 donkeys, 8 rabbits, 294 poultry, 1 goat, and 71 horses (includes 19 returns)
In foster homes -  45 horses (including 2 mules and 2 donkeys) and 4 cows
Adopted to new homes - 53 horses (including 2 donkeys) and  245 poultry
Raised funds through:  used tack sales - $8,513; online auction sales - $7,178; donated through The Tack Collector - $3,251!!  Thank you so much to Mary Ellen Lickfold for your hard work and to Kathleen from The Tack Collector for your support.
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