This is our most busy time of year, what with trying to get the horses out to pasture and cleaning up the mess that's accumulated over the winter.  We've had some real highs and some terrible lows over the last month.

The saddest news is that we lost both Coal and Montego within a few days of each other.  Coal colicked on May 30th and even though we rushed him to the vet clinic in Calgary, he was in so much distress that euthanizing him was about the only option.  Then the next day Montego had a very swollen leg up by his stifle and he was completely lame.  I was hoping it was only an abscess, as Dingo had the same sort of injury back in April, but it turned out that Montego had a broken bone in his upper leg and we had to have him euthanized as well.  It was so tragic, they were both such sweet boys.

There is loss but there is also birth. We had a lot of babies arrive over the last month.  Thelma foaled on May 18, and what a surprise, she had a bay paint filly with blue eyes!  Gabby, one of the Clydesdales, foaled a colt, Valour, at her foster home on May 21st.  Esperanza had a filly on May 22nd, she's been named Isobel2.
Quill, who we got at auction last summer and has been fostered out, also turned out to be pregnant and had THE most handsome colt, born June 2nd.  Quill is being adopted, along with her foal, by the foster home.  Gabby is being adopted, along with her foal.  Dixie has already been adopted too, and especially nice is that they will be fostering Thelma as well!

We took in a few new animals this past month.  We got Oliver the piglet, and he was immediately rehomed to The Alice Sanctuary as we had no place to keep him.  Coming in to the Rescue were a sorrel mare we've named Cola, (she was supposed to be a gelding!) and a pony stallion we've named Lincoln (who was also supposed to be a gelding).  Cola is a bit nervous but she seems very well halterbroke, picks up her feet (fronts, anyway), and trailer loads.  Lincoln seems to be completely untouched.  His hooves are very overgrown and his front legs are slightly crooked, though he's not unsound.  Also when Mike went to an auction to look at skidsteers he came home with a horse instead!  Sunny is a lovely papered QH palomino mare, very well mannered, quiet, halter and foot broke but not broke to ride.   We took in another 20 chickens that were being culled, these are all very nice red hens about a year old.  We are going to have to sort and isolate all the roosters as they've become way too aggressive with the hens (hence the reason for getting more hens, to try and spread out the roosters a bit, but it hasn't worked!).

There have been a few adoptions (thank goodness) - Yoshi, Quill and her foal, Gunner, Flora and Marshall, Jara, Jax, Sigmund, Spark & Peso, and Dixie the foal.  We took Powder, Spitfire, Boston, Salsa, Tivio and Estelle up to Trendsetting Stable by Edmonton, as they have offered to work with the horses for us to help make them more adoptable.  Thank you Lara Ulan, owner of the stable!  Mercy went to her new foster home, as did Wilbur the bottle calf.  We took Frank the steer in to have his feet trimmed, and Oreo the bull to have his one testicle removed, then dropped Oreo at his foster home, along with Mercy.

Flame and Elvis were gelded.  We had some wire cuts happen (Abby, Gypsy#1 and Morgan) but fortunately none were really terribly serious.  I took Emmy in to Moore's for an evaluation of her suspensory ligament issues.  Unfortunately there's nothing that can be done, but we can make her as comfortable as possible hopefully through the summer at least.  She is moving a lot better now, but we're pretty sure we won't make her go through another winter.  Prince also is starting to have more trouble with his arthritic knee, so we'll have to see how he does through the summer.  Maggie(#3) had her first trim, which we sedated her for because she's had so much trouble with her hind feet and abscesses.  Turns out she has some weird proud flesh corn-type thingy coming out the bottom of her hoof as a result of the abscesses, so between the vet and the farrier it was lanced and hopefully will start to heal over.  Speaking of the farrier, Pat was out for 3 days in late May and trimmed as many as we could do, including Maggie.  We also sedated Biscuit to trim him up as his front hooves tend to break off too short and then he ends up lame.  We had a few youngsters who had their first trim, including Chaplain, Leo and Dingo!

The Hungry Herd is doing really well, we'll have to start calling them the Happy Herd instead.  I still have to get Ivor and Valiant haltered so we can geld them.  We moved a lot of the horses out to pasture already.  Sixteen went up to one pasture north of us, 22 went to a neighbour to the east, 5 went to a summer foster down on Horse Creek Rd. and we moved the 2 mares with foals and Louise, Maggie and Sunny to another pasture.  We have 5 or 6 more to move next weekend, and hopefully the 10 or 12 already adopted ones will be leaving in the next couple of weeks as well.  We have a few more fosters to drop off too yet this week.

Thank you to Karyn for holding a horse handling clinic for some of the volunteers last month.  We also are so thankful to everyone for the support during the fundraising blitz for the a new skidsteer, which we have now purchased.  It will make Mike's manure-shoveling a lot easier!  The Dueling Pianos fundraiser was a smashing success, thank you Krystle for arranging the whole show!  We made the leap to leasing a new stock trailer, it's a 24 foot and will hold 9-10 horses, which saves so much time and fuel when hauling it didn't make sense to NOT get it.

Thank you Meadowlark Stables for the donation in memory of Eileen Day.

We are now set up to accept donations of Aeroplan miles -

http://beyondmiles.aeroplan.com/eng/charity/612

I've added a couple of new things to our Wish List.

We had a good time at the Mane Event, thank you to the volunteers who helped man the booth.  I was only there the one day but it was nice to reconnect with some previous adopters who stopped by the booth.  I'm sorry I missed some of you on the days I wasn't there but it was nice to read the notes you left!  We held a raffle during the Mane Event and the winners were:
Timberline Tours (Lake Louise) trail ride for 2:  Greg Creencia
Photo print of Zane:  Rebecca Nichols
Bucket of horsey stuff:  Madison Stepp
We raised $945 between the raffle and t-shirt and hoodie sales.
A big thank you to Kathleen of The Tack Collector (used tack sales, located in Calgary).  They held a raffle benefiting the Rescue at their Mane Event booth and raised $630!

There was an article about Bear Valley in the Calgary Herald Neighbours paper - here's a link to the article:
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=ad1a934c-195f-4346-ac75-62dd083ce485

Ellie and Dru left for their new foster home, thank you Linda and Ken for fostering!
Yoshi got a small cut on his hock, Zane had to come up to the house for a few days when he developed an abscess, and Saffron had a scary colic episode last week.  Our vet here did what she could but because Saffron's heart rate remained high we rushed her in to Moore's clinic in Calgary that evening for an ultrasound.  She stayed at Moore's for 2 days and everything returned to normal.  Colic is such a terrible diagnosis and is so often fatal, and we are SO thankful that she recovered.  She is back with the herd and doing fine.  Django has had ongoing issues with sarcoids, he's got several now - 2 on his chest, one on his neck, and one on the side of his face, and possibly one more on the other side of his face right by his mouth.  I've been diligently treating them with Xxterra and the biggest one is starting to fall off so hopefully we'll get rid of them all within a few weeks. 

New additions:
I can't recall if I mentioned Missy in the last blog.  Missy is a big Thoroughbred mare, over 20 years old.  She was badly neglected but is doing well now.  She might even be a good mount for someone with experience looking for an occasional ride around the pasture.  She is very food motivated and can be a bit pushy.
This past weekend we picked up a beautiful 2 yr old bald-face bay gelding named Mac.  We bought him from one of the local horse dealers who had asked us if we'd be interested in him because he was too nice a horse to ship. His owner was moving out of the country and apparently couldn't be bothered to try and find Mac a home.  Mac is a nice horse, beautifully put together, a good height, nice and straight and correct, halterbroke, great feet, but we've discovered that he has serious food aggression issues which will have to be worked out before he is safe to be around.  I assume Mac was badly spoiled as he doesn't seem to have any concept of personal space or respect for people and is downright dangerous where food is concerned.

If you haven't already done so, check out our home page!  Through the efforts of our great volunteers and our good friends at AARCS, we have the opportunity of matching a donation of up to $10,000 (for a total of $20,000 raised) towards a skidsteer (generic term for a 'bobcat').  Mike is SO excited.
Please consider making a donation, any amount is appreciated, which will double through the matching donation and allow us to purchase this much needed piece of equipment.  So far we've raised almost $6,000 and it's only been a week!  Thank you to the anonymous donor who donated tack, including SEVEN saddles, to our used tack sales to add to this fundraiser. 

If you are looking for good used tack, check out our facebook tack sales page, managed by Mary Ellen - just message her to get added to the group. - https://www.facebook.com/groups/bvrusedtack/

Wow I thought for sure I'd posted an update since March, but I guess not!
What has been happening...?
Fonda and Bitsy were adopted, together, and went to a fantastic new home (thank you Rachel, Adrian & Ashleigh!).  Three of the drafts, Isobel (renamed Dolly), another pregnant mare now named June, and the stallion now named Ragner, were adopted to another great home, and talk about good timing, Dolly foaled a beautiful colt that evening after they got home, and his name is Johnny (there's a country and western theme going)!   The two young drafts (now named Itsy and Bitsy) were adopted together and left for their new home.  We have a group of five going to a new home shortly - Spark, Jax, Jara, and Foxy, along with Sigmund the donkey - they are going to be SO happy to get out on pasture.  Also Ellie and possibly Dru (depending on how friendly she presents herself!) will be going to a new permanent foster home next week.  Sonata and Diamond, two horses that were out on foster, were adopted by their respective foster families!  Diamond Dan went to Janine's, to join the other six older horses that she is fostering. 

We brought Gemma back from foster as she'd injured her neck getting her head stuck between a gate and post (that's why I posted the reminder for all our volunteers here about making sure there's no slack on the chain when latching gates!).  She was presenting with a head lilt when eating so we got her teeth done, which she really needed, but she still has the head tilt so she's going to have massage to see if that helps. I think she's happy to be back as she's in a quiet group with Pet, Russa and Twenty.  Reba also got her teeth done and I moved her to a different paddock, giving Prince, Ellie and Emmy a little more space and quiet.  Thelma is about ready to foal, we keep expecting to see a little one every morning but nothing yet.  Elvis came down with distemper which is rather odd as he wasn't in any area that contained the horses from the previous outbreak last year (which came in with some auction rescues).  Sigmund and Flame, who are in with Elvis, haven't come down with it , which I can see that with Sigmund, as he's older and has probably been exposed prior to this, but I would have thought Flame would come down with it too.  Elvis is now healed up, he didn't have it very bad, and we'll wait a few more weeks to ensure Flame doesn't get it before we have the two of them gelded, after which they can join the herd.  I have haltered them both now in preparation for their gelding.  Sigmund was gelded at the same time that Reba and Gemma had their teeth done, in anticipation of him going to his new home, but again we're waiting for the quarantine period to pass before sending him to his new home.

Mike and I were able to get away for a few days to Banff at the beginning of April.  A huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped hold down the fort while we were gone!  Only casualties while we were away were Dingo, who got a puncture to his thigh and had to be brought up to the house for meds, and the boiler, which had a major meltdown!  Thank you to our vet for helping the volunteers with getting Dingo up to the house and providing for his care.

We've had a lot of used tack donations and Mary Ellen raised over $1000 selling it!  There's still more available on the facebook page mentioned in the last post, plus there's more coming in all the time.  Thank you to everyone who's donating, and buying.

We took in 2 chickens needing a home.  They are very lovely red ones and very friendly. Currently they are in with the silkies and frizzles.  We need to re-evaluate our chicken coop situation as we have so many roosters and they are hard on the poor hens!  Either that or we need more hens. 
Other new arrivals are:
Missy/Shakira, an older (over 20) Thoroughbred mare - she is friendly, sound and healthy, though she hasn't really been ridden in a while, and she can be a bit pushy especially around food.  She will be available for fostering.  She was badly neglected and subsequently cared for and rehabbed by some caring people.  We had committed to taking her last fall as they knew at that time that they would only be able to care for her until spring.
Sundance, a 12 year old palomino gelding, originally adopted out 9 years ago.  He was returned due to divorce and health concerns of his owner.  Like the majority of broke horses we get, he found a new home within a couple of days of arriving here.
Cecil, Samia and Nina were returned together, due to financial reasons.  Not sure what was going on with that, as Cecil was a foster to start with and his adoption was just finalized a couple of months ago, but in any case we're happy to have them back.

We had to have Esther, our oldest cow, euthanized last week as she was down and couldn't get up.  She was almost twenty years old, which is very old for cow, especially one that had had a lot of calves in her life.  She had a good long retirement at least.

We still have 4 of the Clydesdales here.  Gabby hasn't yet left for her new home, Esperanza is going to be available for fostering only, once she foals, and Marshall the gelding and Flora the sorrel are available for adoption.  Marshall is having more issues with his rear hooves, it looks like the other one has broken off really short as well and he's quite lame on it.  We have to get them trimmed up one way or another.  I'm pretty sure I saw a farrier with a tipping table advertising on kijiji.  The hungry herd is doing really well, though I discovered just the other day that Valiant and Ivor are, in fact, stallions and not geldings!  They had so much swelling around their sheaths when they arrived that you couldn't tell.  Good thing I noticed, and the priority now is to get them separated, halter-broke, and gelded! 

Percy has a special trim at his foster home, we're hoping to encourage his crooked leg to grow as straight as possible.  He may even be sound for riding at some point.  Sadly little Maydie's crooked joint has deteriorated and she will have to be euthanized at some point as surgery is neither practical nor affordable, but for now she's still feeling okay and being her usual spunky self.  Her foster home is monitoring her and as long as any pain she has can be managed and she can get around we'll let her be.  I dewormed the drafts, the hungry herd, the mares and foals group, and Slinky's group.  The drafts were VERY wormy.

The Mane Event is Red Deer is under way.  Stop by and visit the booth if you are there, we are booth #802.
We have hoodies and t-shirts available for sale, I'll get pictures and info posted as soon as possible.  The hoodies are embroidered and will be $50, while the t-shirts are silk screen and $20.

A reminder about our May 31st fundraiser in Cremona - Dueling Pianos!  Lots of tickets still available, and there will be a silent auction as well!

We are on the lookout for an affordable skidsteer, if anyone knows of one.  Preferably under $20,000 and at least partly finance-able.

Where to start...

The Hungry Herd from the February rescue is doing well.  The littlest mare, Maggie, is so thin and is having trouble with abscesses, but she is eating well and is putting on some weight.  It just seems such a slow process.  You want them to get better, right now!, but rehabilitating them takes time and can't be hurried.  I put her in the barn the other day thinking I can soak her foot easier if she's inside and give her extra groceries, plus she'll be warm and dry.  I opened the top of the dutch door so she could see out and get some fresh air.  I came back a little while later and she'd jumped over the door!  I don't know how she managed it, but I decided to put her back outside with the rest of the herd, figuring if she's that upset about being separated the stress won't help her at all.  I've been able to halter her and clean the burrs out of her tail and poultice and soak her foot so she's getting some good handling at least.  Haven't had a chance to work with the others at all, but they do come running as soon as they hear the chain on the gate rattling!

On March 9th we went to a local horse dealer's lot to check out a herd of Clydesdales that were there.  There were 7 geldings, a stallion, a yearling filly, a two year old filly, and 6 mares - four of which were pregnant and one that had just foaled that morning.  All were in pretty rough shape, underweight and with terribly neglected hooves.  Some of the mares seemed friendly but most of the horses were nervous and seemed unhandled.  Not surprising, given their situation.   Six of the geldings had already been sold and were going to Iowa to be trained to drive.  The remaining horses' prospects weren't too bright.  We ended up buying the rest, 10 plus the foal that had just been born.

We happened to have our horse trailer with us as we'd just dropped off some horses at Janine's and made what turned out to be the fortuitous decision to bring the mare and foal home with us that evening.  We named the mare Philomena and the foal Fonda.

The next morning it because apparent that the mare was very ill.  We suspected retained placenta and Mike rushed her to the vet where an exam confirmed it.  Retained placenta in horses is extremely dangerous, becoming toxic very quickly and often being fatal, especially if not caught early enough, and it can also lead to founder and laminitis.  She was flushed out numerous times and put on a variety of medications to try to counteract the toxicity.  Philly came back to the Rescue that afternoon and over the next 10 days we battled to keep her going.  Mike set up a system in the barn so our vet could easily flush out Philomena's uterus, as she needed to be done twice a day for the first several days, then daily for a couple of days, and then less often after that.  

Philomena was on several different antibiotics and other drugs, most twice a day, to help her recover and to try to prevent founder.  While we seemed to win the battle with the toxicity, as her temperature returned to normal, she exhibited signs of heaves, her heart rate remained high and, worse, she was not eating.  

Meanwhile, Fonda the foal, such a sweetheart!, was doing well in spite of all that her mom was going through.  We began supplementing the mare's milk to try to take the burden off Philly of having to nurse Fonda continuously.  Fortunately Fonda took to drinking from a bucket right away.  But in spite of everything, we could not get Philomena to eat anything but a bit of sweet feed.  She would only nibble at hay or cubes and as soon as we added anything else to the sweet feed, like supplement or broodmare mix, she wouldn't touch it.  The following Thursday, after 10 days, she laid down and we couldn't get her up.   We'd IV'd her and tubed her with everything we could throw at her to try and boost her energy and get her going again but it was not to be.  Philly was euthanized on the 20th.  We were so heartbroken.

With Philomena gone, Fonda became an orphan and we had to figure out what we could do to make her and our lives a little easier, as raising an orphan foal is no small matter.  The next day we were advised of a mare for sale a couple of hours away that had aborted twins the day before.  We made the immediate decision to purchase the mare and try and get her to take Fonda as her own foal.  A huge thank you to Gigi and her family for driving out to pick up the mare and bring her to the Rescue!  It was a really long day for you.  And thank you to everyone else who offered to help.  The new mare, who we named Bitsy, is a beautiful 14 year old registered QH mare (Ima Bit Te).  She has a scar on one hock, looks like an old wire cut, and she was very lame.  We were told she'd been recently kicked.  Thankfully within a day she was fine though.  Gigi and family arrived with Bitsy late in the evening.  We put Bitsy in the stocks and gave her a bit of sedation, then allowed Fonda to nurse a little.  Fonda was happy to do so!  Bitsy wasn't too crazy about it but she didn't fuss much.  The next morning we did the same thing.  By that afternoon after a couple of more feedings without having to sedate Bitsy, foal and mom started to nicker to each other and Bitsy even faced towards Fonda's stall when they were separated.  Mike and I had to go out that evening (thank you Judy and Sherral for taking over while we were gone!) but by the time we got home late that night Fonda and Bitsy were definitely bonded and got to spend the night together and have been together since!

The reason I said earlier that it was fortuitous that we'd decided to bring Philly and Fonda home that first day (as we weren't able to go back to pick up the remaining drafts until later) is that, even though we lost Philly after a 10 day battle, I'm sure that had she still been at the horse dealer's the next day, she and Fonda would both be dead.  I cannot believe that Philly would have been noticed to be ill and would have died there almost immediately, and in all likelihood Fonda would have been euthanized immediately as I know they would not have taken on the trouble of trying to raise an orphan foal or to find her a replacement mom.  So even though Philly is gone, Fonda is healthy and happy, and we also now have Bitsy, who we have taken out of a breeding cycle that is perpetuating so many of the unwanted horses.

Thank you to Four Feet Companions Foundation for the grant towards the care of the 'Hungry Herd'; to Trendsetting Stable Riders and Noble Riders 4-H Club for the donations; and Shay-Ann Rangen for donating for your birthday!  Thank you to Calgary Regional Trail Riders for once again generously supporting the Rescue through your donation.  Thank you Annalise Blishen for doing massage therapy for Emmy.  Thank you Linda Somers for arranging the weekly fruit and vegetable donation from Planet Organic Calgary North. The pigs, goats and poultry love it! 

Mary Ellen has set up a facebook page for used tack sales to benefit the Rescue - https://www.facebook.com/groups/bvrusedtack/  If you aren't on facebook, you can contact her directly if you have tack to donate or are looking for something  to purchase - email maryellen.lickfold@yahoo.ca

Krystle has arranged a wonderful fundraiser for Bear Valley!  Dueling Pianos LIVE! from Las Vegas - Come join us for an exciting evening filled with LIVE dueling pianos (all the way from Las Vegas!), May 31, 2014 at Cremona Community Hall. $40 per ticket, $5 drinks, silent auction! You will not want to miss this fantastically fun evening!  Call Krystle at 403-836-4096 for tickets.  If I can find a website for the venue I'll post it on the fundraising page.  There is a facebook page set up for the event - https://www.facebook.com/events/628812433879006/ 

Snuffy and Isis have been adopted together, and Cecil, who was out on foster, has now been adopted by his foster home.  Janine, our treasurer, has taken on some of the special care horses - Monkey, Joanie, Munsie, Torque, Snips and Sasha.

We have a lot of new sponsors - Isobel, Shay, Dan, Saffron, Marnie, Eclipse, the goats Isabel and Waffle, have all been sponsored in the last month, in addition to the sponsors of the Hungry Herd!  Thank you to all  sponsors, past and present.  Your continued support helps us to meet the needs of all the animals in our care.

Torque, Snips and Ellie had their teeth floated at the beginning of March.  We have about 10 more that need doing this spring - just have to get to it!  Also once the weather warms up we have to do some gelding - Sigmund, Elvis, Flame and the Clydesdale stallion need to be done.  Mike hauled home another 100 round bales, with another 50 still to pick up.  We also purchased over 500 more square bales.  Can't wait for winter to finally end!!  We now have 96 horses in the main herd and 44 at the house, and lots more fostered out.  Adoptions have been slow while intakes have been overwhelming.  It has been such a long, cold winter, I think everyone, us included, has been in survival mode.  Hopefully things will pick up once winter loosens its grip.  It is, after all, almost April!

It has been an incredibly hectic month.  I'm part way through updating the horses, adding the new ones that have come in.  We took in 10 Clydesdales (and 1 foal) and lost the mare of the foal as she'd retained a piece of her placenta, then found a nurse mare for the foal.  I'll post more info in the next couple of days on what's been happening. 

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'!

It has been a long, hard winter so far.  We complained about getting so much snow but now that we've had some milder weather we can complain about all the ice!  It is so treacherous out there we have to walk like penguins just to keep from slipping, and even then it doesn't always help as we've taken a few spills. 

We received that sad news that Chance the pony passed away at his foster home.  Chance came to us in very bad shape, a result of extreme neglect.  He was surrendered to the Rescue by a caring individual.  He recovered well though and thank you to his foster family for caring for him for quite a number of years!   Hannah came back from foster temporarily as she had gone completely off her feed.  We had her teeth checked and it turned out she had a very sharp spur sticking out the side of one tooth, causing her to develop some abscesses and sores on the inside of her cheek.  It must have been very painful to chew, which is why she pretty well stopped eating!  Our vet said she'd never seen anything like it as it wasn't a fracture but an actual growth.  Thankfully she was able to grind it down and Hannah is back to eating well and enjoying her mash.  Cisco received a serious kick from Sasha at his foster home that resulted in quite a large swelling in his groin area.  After a round of pain medication he seems to be fine, though the swelling hasn't gone down much yet. 

Torque and Snips are back from foster, unfortunately not in the best shape.  Another instance of someone looking at them from a distance and thinking they're fine, when it's obvious as you run your hand along their sides that they've got no fat on them at all.  They are both doing well now and gaining weight. 

Gracey has been adopted to a wonderful home, thank you Betty!  At the end of December we took in three horses - Ellie, Plume and Tawny.  Ellie is an older (20+) mare, very underweight and louse-infested, with an injury to one leg (we were told she'd gone over a fence).  We had her stifle joint xrayed but it was inconclusive.  It is quite evident however that Ellie has Cushing's Disease as she has the bleached long coat that is indicative of the disease.  We have had her tested to confirm but the results will take a couple of weeks to come back.  Plume and Tawny are weanlings, both very pretty, though wormy.  They were pretty well un-handled but are starting to settle in.  Plume had her first butt and chest scratching session with me today.  Tawny is a bit more shy still. 

In January we took in another older mare.  Emmy is a Peruvian Paso, 19 years old.  We were contacted by her owner as she was in a perilous personal situation and she feared for the safety of her horse.  Thank you to Greg from Just Passing for doing the quick save by driving down to pick her up for us on short notice.  Emmy does seem to have suspensory ligament issues in her back end.  Our vet feels it may be related to Emmy's poor physical condition (lack of protein) as she is quite underweight and had been nursing a foal.  We've started Emmy on weekly acupunture treatments and she seems not to mind it.   Joanie is still not healing up properly from her original injury that she had when she came in several years ago.  Carmen who fostered her for most of 2013 had a fair bit of success cleaning it up but after coming back to the Rescue Joanie developed more infection in the wound.  We have started a regimen of injecting antibiotic directly into her leg to try to clear it up.  If this doesn't work, come spring we may look at debriding the leg completely and starting over.  This morning, after the first injection yesterday, Joanie's leg seemed very itchy!  I hope that means it is working.  Thankfully Joanie has remained sound in spite of this injury.

I had Dr. Erickson take a quick look at Torque when she was out for Emmy, Ellie, and Joanie, as Torque has always had one eye that is 'weepy'.  Surprisingly (or not!) his eye didn't look that bad when she was here, but we'll keep a watch on it and may do a tear duct flush on him in the spring.  Django has developed a small sarcoid on his chest so we've started treating it with Xxterra. 

Bailey and Jax were returned to the Rescue due to a relationship breakdown of their adopters.  They both look great but do still need a lot of work as they didn't get that much handling as far as I can tell.  Preston was supposed to be coming back to the Rescue but his adopter found him a good new home.  Sundance, who was adopted out 9 years ago, will be coming back to the Rescue in a couple of months, due to divorce.

I hope to get the new horses posted on the website soon.  Tawny, Plume, Jax and Bailey will be up for adoption while Emmy and Ellie will most likely be available for fostering only.

I have posted our latest newsletter, check the 'newsletters' tab for the link.

Our annual general meeting is being held here at the Rescue on February 8th.  Check the 'events' tab for more information.  Please RSVP if you can attend.

Thank you to Janna So for sponsoring Tulip the pig, and to Jadwiga and Vanessa for sponsoring Django and Zane!  Thank you to the Greygates Foundation of the Vancouver Foundation for the $1,000 grant.

Please let us know if you find any missing links or other errors on the website as you navigate through the pages.  We're still ironing out the wrinkles of the new site!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season! 

We are thankful that the weather has settled down a bit, we've had so much snow it seems all Mike has been doing is plowing (which is taking a toll on the old tractor, it now needs a new clutch!).  The horses don't seem to mind the snow, even when it's bitter cold, as they've all got lots to eat.  We moved the goats into the barn when it was too cold outside for Izzy, and Waffle got to keep her company  They didn't seem to really enjoy being inside but better that they were warm. 

Sadly, we lost Hitch on Dec 20th.  She was down in the morning and in spite of our best efforts we were unable to get her standing.  She was euthanized early that afternoon.  Our thanks to Dr. Noeline Erickson and her husband Brent for coming out on short notice and helping to try and get her up.  NOeline felt that Hitch had some sort of problem with her heart as her pulse was very weak and irregular, though thankfully Hitch did not seem to be in pain or distress.  Our condolences to Janine, who was fostering Hitch, for losing her and so soon after losing Brandy in much the same way.  I am glad that Janine received some comfort from her conversation with Greg, of 'Just Passing', who came to pick up Hitch's body on Monday: "... as I was talking about with Greg (nice man!) this morning, it's not only likely that the ones here will die here--the whole plan is let them live out their lives and die as peacefully as possible, when they are ready, and not in the slaughter plant.  So as you'd said, she was indeed a "good save," and I'm really grateful that you trusted me to give her the care that she needed and deserved.  Also, I was so touched by all the supportive comments on the facebook page; thanks for posting the pictures."

Thank you to everyone who has made our first 'Christmas Tree' fundraiser a great success.  We will be picking up 5 tonnes of feed on Friday, the 27th, so if you're looking for something to do involving exercise and the outdoors, it all has to be unloaded here at the Rescue on Saturday!