We lost Crystal this past week. It was that awful thing that happens when you go out to check everyone and count heads and realize one is missing, and then you're frantic to find them, knowing it can't be good because you don't hear any whinnying from a horse that has been separated from its pasturemates and you know they wouldn't be off by themselves on purpose. Then you think maybe they've been stolen, which would actually probably be better than the alternative, which in this case it turned out to be. We found her dead in the pasture, most likely she colicked. Thank you to Greg from 'Just Passing' for coming out on short notice, in the rain, to help afterwards.
We had Riley gelded this week, that went well but the poor guy is pretty sore. We removed Phoebe's cannula from her eye, but unfortunately it hasn't healed as much as we'd hoped so we may have to insert another one. Fritzy foaled on Jun 10th - right after I typed the last update I went out and checked her and there she was with her foal - a nice dun colt. A big thankyou to the dedicated rabbit volunteers who came out and laid sod in the rabbit pen in the pouring rain. I hope none of you get sick as a result, you were all soaked through! Allie and Carter, and Cooper left for their new homes. Kiwi and Gemma left for a summer foster, thank you so much Carol, they will be very happy on pasture! Kiwi, being blind, needs good wood fencing so it must have been karma that Carol called and was able to provide exactly what Kiwi needs. A big thankyou and hug for Emily Johnson, she collected money to donate to the rescue in place of birthday presents this year! Thank you Emily for caring about the horses. We vaccinated the yearlings with their boosters yesterday. Boy it sure is nice to be able to just walk out and vaccinate them all without any fuss - Susanne has done such a great job handling them all. Also both Cooper and Carter, when they left for their new homes, loaded without any trouble, even though they hadn't been taught to load. They were just so calm and trusting. Things haven't slowed down much at all, the days are getting longer but they aren't long enough. Mike's come down sick and now today I feel like I'm coming down with something too. No time to be sick! We've had some major stress from personal issues outside the rescue, which hasn't helped I'm sure. My apologies to people who have called, it's taking me up to a week sometimes to return calls - we hit the ground running in the morning and don't stop until late evening. If you don't get a callback please feel free to call again!
I've posted all the new horses on the website, including the 4 started 3 year olds. I'm not sure how started they are, some of them can be quite nervous but at least they are halterbroke. I was kind of hoping they'd all be footbroke too but it doesn't look like it. Also posted is a nice looking 2 yr old QH colt, Riley. Norma, an older mare had been here only 1 day before she'd already been selected as a foster by someone looking for a couple of horses. Sarcee went to a foster home. We had seem some improvement in her leg and then we tried a couple of injections of another drug, one used for dairy cows with udder swelling, and it really seems to have helped even more. Thank you Carolyn for taking on Sarcee. Fleury is adopted and Norma will be going to the same home as a foster. Burton, Traveller, Cooper and Popcorn all look like they're going to be adopted, but I'm not counting on it until deposits are paid or they've actually left for their new homes as all too often we've had was seems like definite adoptions and then they fall through at the last minute. There's been a fair bit of interest in the horses lately, mostly the youngsters. Josephine and General finally left the their new home, though I'm not sure if Josephine will work out - we may see her back again by fall. Zeke has been adopted! We moved many of the horses out to summer pasture. Fifteen went to a pasture about 20 minutes east of us (thank you Nancy!) and nineteen went to pasture about 1/2 hour south of us (thank you Sarah!). Four of the horses have gone to the cow pasture (but not the cows as there isn't enough grass yet) and five have gone to Janine's. Today we are taking three to pasture for the summer at the mini's foster home and we'll be picking up the remaining Munson estate dispersal horses, which unfortunately will include a stallion or two. We're going to have to create a separate area for stallions (ex-stallions, as they do all get gelded). Three of the last four days we spent with Pat, our farrier - thank you Susanne for helping every day! We only trimmed about 35-40 horses this round but that was enough! Also had our vet out to do some teeth and deal with some health issues. Phoebe punctured her eye and we had to sedate her and insert a cannula in order to medicate her eye. What an ordeal! Phoebe was so stressed because she can't see out one eye and she did not cooperate at all. We ended up having to knock her right down in order to do it and even then she became quite frantic when she came out of the sedation. We also dealt with Brandy, who had an abscess on her face caused by a missing tooth, and we have gelded some of the young colts and will be doing the rest next week. Mellow had her hernia banded and Mercy was sedated in order to trim up her crooked foot really well. Slinky was sedated and trimmed again, her first actual 'farrier standing next to her and picking up her feet' type of trim! Her feet finally look really normal. A big thanks to Sherral for holding down the fort on Saturdays, especially for coming early and doing the morning feed. Also thank you to Linda and Sue for helping out, and again to Susanne, you've been a life-saver the last few weeks! |
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August 2024
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