We had Pat, our farrier, out for one day, on the 5th, and got about 23 or 24 horses done.  I also had our barefoot trimmer, Julie, out on the 9th to do the minis and Farrah.  Because she tends to get abscesses Farrah can be difficult to trim, which is understandable, but she was very good for trimming this time and we're accomplishing a lot with her.

We delivered 6 of the youngsters, Zora, Rasta, Marnie, Gizmo, Quentin, and Morgan, to Susanne for summer school.  Although most of them have been haltered and are very friendly, Susanne will be working with them on more groundwork, such as leading, tying, picking up feet, and desensitization.  We do have to pay a some board for them while they are there.  If you'd like to sponsor one of the youngsters for summer school, at $100/month, please indicate that on your donation.  We anticipate sending more youngsters when these six come back in a month or two (depending on how quickly they progress) so the total cost will be about $2400 this season.  We're already received some summer school donations (about $500), thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!

Snow White is adopted, we'll be delivering her to her new home at the end of the month.  Boston is pending adoption, though we haven't received a deposit on her yet.  Burlesque left for her new home and is fitting is very quickly.  She's already been ridden and her adopter said she was great!

We have had a few intakes, including:
Colton, a grey 9 yr old TB gelding who has gone straight to a foster home for some work - thank you Shelley for picking him up and for fostering him.  He may have found his permanent home too, as Shelley may adopt him too;
Beans, a young pygmy goat, and 5 hens from the Calgary Humane Society.  Beans was found wandering loose in the Chestermere area.  He needs to be castrated but he is very sweet!  The hens were apparently let loose at a Calgary high school as a year-end prank, obviously without any thought to their well-being;
Sebastian, who was born here at the Rescue 2 years ago and adopted out as a foal, was returned due to a family crisis that resulted in his owners having to sell their farm here and move to Ontario on short notice.  Sebastian is a very nice, friendly gelding, halterbroke and footbroke, who is now looking for a new, permanent, home;
and Beth, an emaciated and injured 2 year old filly.  Thank you to Steven and Kate, for noticing her and doing something about it, and to Rory, for contacting us to help.  Beth has a long road ahead of her to regain her health.  She seems such a gentle soul but she's also a fighter - she had to be to have survived as she did - and we are doing everything we can to help her in her recovery.

Thank you to Terri, Linda, and Mac & Judy, for the hay donations, and to Sheena of Blazing Saddles for the straw donation.

The Rescue was really hopping last weekend!  First off, thank you Carmen, our volunteer coordinator, for bringing everything together for the weekend.  On Saturday we had some of our 'regular' volunteers out (though I wouldn't describe any of you as ordinary, lol!), and Carmen also did an orientation for 6 new volunteers.  Thank you Pat and Sasha for coming out and fixing fences and stuff - Sasha's birthday present from her husband Pat was to come out to the Rescue and be put to work.  What a special guy and thank you for doing that for the Rescue, Sasha!  On Saturday we had a volunteer team here from Spectra Energy.  A huge thanks for everyone's hard work (and the great lunch too) over the course of the day.  They rebuilt a shelter, put up a new length of fence, cut down trees for the goats and llamas, shoveled poop, fixed fences, cleaned waterers, and more!  Thank you Leane and Tracey (two more of our 'regulars') for helping with the day.  A LOT of things got crossed off our 'to-do' list!  Thank you to Jenn of Spectra Enegry and Kaitlin Rogers on behalf of Four Feet Companion Foundation for bringing this about.

There are so many things we are thankful for, because we can't do this without the support of all of you out there.  Whether it is donations (either monetary or items), fundraising, adopting or fostering, volunteering,
or simply 'getting the word out', it all comes together to make the lives of these animals better, safer, healthier and happier.  I know 'team' is an overused word of late, but it IS a team effort.  Thank you!

I've posted a newsletter for the first half of 2014. I missed a few things so I've updated it.

We had been contacted late last year about a situation involving a small herd of Morgan horses that were (was?) going to need to be rehomed by spring.  The owner had returned to the States due to ill health and was not going to be coming back to Canada.  Fortunately he had arranged for a caretaker to look after the horses over the winter, but when it was determined that he would not be coming back, come spring, when the hay ran out and the property was repossessed or the power cut off, the horses would have nowhere to go.  After a bit of finagling we were able to obtain legal permission to take in the horses.  Mid June, with two trucks and trailers we drove all the way to the Saskatchewan/Alberta border to pick up the twelve Morgans.  Of course there’s always a ‘but’, and in this case it was that two of the twelve were stallions. No matter, we got them all home, the stallions have already been gelded and 2 of the Morgans have already been adopted.  At least in this case all twelve horses are halterbroke.  That’s a big plus when we’re used to dealing with horses with no history and often little or no handling!  Thank you Mary Ellen for hauling one of the trailers, and thank you once again to our vet, Dr. Erickson, for meeting us that evening when we got home, to stitch up the one horse that got a serious cut over his eye in the trailer.

The Morgans are all posted on the website now, plus I updated the Hungry Herd horses' pics, and some of the youngsters'.

We took three of the Morgans to Colette's for summer foster but Silhouette went through a fence less than an hour after we dropped them off, so back we went to pick them up and bring them home. I guess they're just a 'little' herd-bound.  Not surprising, considering they've lived together for years and most of them are related to each other.

We delivered Flora and Marshall to their new home.  Mercy was fostered but has come back as she jumped the fence again.

Quill has been adopted by her foster home, along with her foal that was born there.

Adopted are Burlesque, Cash #3 (two of the Morgans), Zane, Peso, Isobel Too, Tacoma, and possibly Snow White.  Foxy #2 is relisted, we decided she wasn't going to be a good fit at her adoption.  Dixie was picked up by her new owners, along with her mom Thelma who they are also fostering.

We delivered Macie and Kahlua to their summer foster.  Just as we left, Mike spotted a baby moose tangled in a barb wire fence.  We were able to untangle it but it was pretty seriously injured.  Thank you Charlene for watching over the little moose during the day.  It went to Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, but sadly it did not make it due to shock and stress.

The llamas were sheared, finally.  Then two of them decided to jump the fence (not on the same day), we believe they were spooked by a bear.  We went walking through the neighbouring quarter section looking for them.  We didn't find the llamas that day, but we did find the bear!

Thank you Christian and Marcie for taking on Felicity, Kirby, and Trixie for the summer, to work with them. 
We have some other youngsters we would like to send out for some work to someone else as well, but we will have to pay $100/month board for them, so we are fundraising for that.  If you'd like to sponsor a youngster to go to summer school, please indicate that on your donation.  We are hoping to send at least Marnie, Morgan, Quentin, Gizmo, Rasta and Zora, and more if we raise enough funds.

Thank you Linda & Ken McEwan for the donation of really nice electric clippers, and also the fence posts and other misc. stuff.

Thanks also to Terri Bodell for donating more hay, Ginia for donating feed, Linda Paget for donating hay, Four Feet Companions Foundation for donating feed, and Linda Somers for donating to cover the cost of gelding one of the stallions.  We are also fundraising for that, as we have 5 stallions to geld.  It is at least $350 to geld one mature stallion, including the gelding and aftercare.