Blog Posts

January 27, 2013 Update

1/27/2013

Our upcoming fundraising casino has been moved up from the first quarter of 2014 to the last quarter of 2013. The casino will be held in Red Deer. We will be advised of the actual dates in May. There will be accommodation provided for volunteers to stay overnight in Red Deer if required. We had a lot of fun at the previous casino, so let us know if you are interested in helping out!

Sue Chataway, one of our older foster horses (and former pmu mare) was euthanized at her foster home last week due to a sudden debilitating illness. Thank you Jenn and Mike for fostering her for a number of years. Shandra developed pneumonia in one lung, we believe from inhaling some fluid from a draining abscess in her nasal cavity or throat. She's on antibiotics now to treat it. She's not coughing or showing other symptoms other than pus coming out one nostril (and of course the congestion in one lung). The smell from the one nostril was pretty bad, but it's improving so hopefully that means the antibiotics are working. We think that Lucky had a minor stroke a couple of days ago. His tongue is tending to hang out the right side of his mouth and he's drooling quite a bit. He thankfully doesn't have any other visible symptoms and we're hoping with time he'll recover fully. He is able to eat his mash and doesn't have any trouble walking, was even still being his normal playful self this morning, goofing around with Old Red.

We delivered Mugsy to her new foster home last week, she's going to keep another old pony company. Tomorrow we'll be delivering Blizzard and Kiwi to their new foster home, along with Cassie who has been adopted to the same home. Today I dropped Twobits off at her new foster home just down the road. Max is adopted! He's such a cute little guy, I'm really happy he's going to have his own person. Poncho the donkey and Lexus the Thoroughbred mare have each been adopted by their respective foster homes. Smudge is back and up for adoption; he was fostered out for 2 1/2 years with the Christman family and it worked out wonderfully that we were able to deliver Mugsy and pick up Smudge on the same day, as they were within about 10 kms of each other. I haven't had a chance yet to spend much time with him but Smudge seems to be much quieter and better mannered than when he left. Trouble is also adopted! She'll be leaving for BC at the end of February.

Our farrier Pat was out for 3 days last week and we got lots of horses trimmed again. Thank you to everyone who was able to help on the farrier days. We also were able to deworm all but 2 of the weanlings. The last 2 (Girl and Atticus) will be done next week once they're halter-broke. Of course I had to do the poop inspection afterwards and see who's pooping out worms. Boy, some of them were pretty infested. I'm so glad we got them done. By the time we do them again in the spring they should all be halter-broke and easy as pie to do, just like the previous year's bunch.

January 11, 2013 Update

1/11/2013

Wow, I don't know where the time went, it's been a month since the last update. The on-line auction went well, thank you again to Kyndra for all her hard work in collecting items and getting it going. Thank you as well to Mary Ellen for helping to get some items together. Our sincere appreciation to everyone who donated and bid - we will net over $3000! We should receive the funds shortly and any shipping credits should be taken care of this week as well. Please contact either me or Kyndra if there are any issues that still need to be resolved. We do have a couple of items that did not get sold. I have listed them on the fundraising page if you'd like to snap them up now. If anything got missed please let me know.

Very sadly, we lost both Major and Patches recently, about 10 days apart, both just about the same way, namely they went down in the cold for unknown reasons. Major was already gone when we discovered him, which is always a shock and so saddening, and Patches we worked on for 12 hours to try to help her recover but without success and she was euthanized quietly. We have to be reconciled to the fact that we did the best we could and their lives were good while they were here with us.

PQ and Vega have gone to their new home - PQ was very pregnant so I'm glad she's gone somewhere were they can keep a closer eye on her and have her inside to foal. Paloma, Amadeus, Max and Captain are back from school. They all did really well while they were there! We delivered Malone to his new home - our vet adopted him! Lilly sliced her shoulder open. We had Dr. Erickson out to clean it up and stitch it up as best she could. There was surprisingly little swelling and it's healing up nicely, though the vet did have to do some more cleaning up of the dead tissue as it died back. Lilly was a good patient and didn't seem to mind the week she had to spend in the barn even though it was probably her first time being indoors. Aric's bloodwork to check his testosterone level was... inconclusive! Due to the time of year, his results don't really tell us for sure what his status is as it's borderline between a gelding and a non-breeding stallion. However because he seems to think he is a breeding stallion we're fairly certain his reading shows he's a gelding, if that makes sense.

Thank you to Darcy & Karen Grudeski for the hay donation.

A reminder to all our foster homes, further to the email I sent out (let me know if you didn't get it!), if you would like to receive a tax receipt for fostering we need to address it within the next week or so. I've sent out all the year end charitable receipts, so if you made a donation in 2012 and don't receive your receipt by late next week, please let me know.

We have a new application for volunteering - check out the 'how you can help' section of the website. Thank you Carmen for volunteering to be our volunteer coordinator! You can contact Carmen about volunteering at bear.valley.volunteer@gmail.com.

December 8, 2012 Update

12/8/2012

The on-line auction is up and running! It runs until Dec 20th, but I'm not sure exactly what time it ends (for those of you who will want to sneak in those last minute bids!). I'll find out and post it here and on facebook.

We'll be picking up the second Olds College group on Tuesday. Susanne and I went out there and watched them last week, it was really nice to see how much they'd already progressed.

Fritz has come back to the rescue and is up for adoption again - drove all the way to Hanna (practically to the Saskatchewan border!) to pick him up. We also picked up Blizzard from his foster home in Edmonton, along with 2 other surrenders. Neither day was great driving weather but we made in home okay. Jara and Cassie are the 2 new additions, both very nice girls! I have also relisted Peso and Faith. They were adopted out a few years ago and came back last winter (2011) for what was supposed to be a temporary stay until spring (2012), while their owner was getting knee surgery and then relocating to Quebec, at which point he was supposed to pick up the horses to take back to Quebec with him. However we haven't heard or been able to get hold of him since early this year. We are worried and hope he is okay, but would also like to have know what to do with the horses. I think it's been long enough now that we can be pretty sure they're ours to rehome. Unfortunately neither of the horses have had any work done or handling since they've been here so they're in dire need of a refresher! Finn is back, he injured his face in the trailer when he went out but for all that he's a lot quieter from being handled to treat his injury.

Holly is back, just for the winter, as she needs some extra feed to keep her weight up. Aric is also back temporarily, he's got some 'man' issues, ie thinks he a stallion, so we're having blood work done on him as, even though he was sold at the auction as a gelding, he could actually be a bilateral cryptorchid, which we've seen before, in which case he'll need to be gelded!

Mackenzie and Samia are pregnant but Nina is not. Turns out PQ is pregnant as well, but she is adopted out and will be leaving for her new home soon. Anyone else who purchased a mare from the Medicine Hat group at the Innisfail auction in August, check your mare as she may be bred back! We'll have to keep an eye on Smoothie and Dee, as they may be pregnant then too. I'm still not sure if Glory is pregnant or not, she's not showing much if she is, but she'd be due a lot later. Mackenzie and Samia will be due in winter, and PQ I'm pretty sure is going to be due very soon as well.

I did some counting and this is what I came up with:

We currently have 69 horses available for adoption

30 horses available for fostering

21 permanent residents

6 of our own horses

5 horses adopted out but not yet gone to their new homes

6 horses belonging to others and here for various reasons

36 animals fostered out (including 4 llamas and 2 donkeys)

75 horses adopted out so far this year

No wonder we've been so busy. We bought bagged feed for December, it came to almost 3 tons (6000 lbs or over 2700 kgs) of feed! A big 'thanks' to Terri for coming out and giving us a lesson on blankets and for helping to sort and size them. Thank you to Colton and Wyatt, and Jessie and Levi, for the donations!

November 29, 2012 Update

11/29/2012

Four more youngsters have gone to Olds College for the equine program - Amadeus, Paloma, Max, and Captain. They'll be back end of next week. Flint, Lena and Trump left for their new homes. Our farrier, Pat, was out last week and over 4 days we did about 60 or 70 horses. We even did Slinky the mule; though she did need some sedation it went quite well and her feet look great now. Susanne has been very busy working with the horses; as you can see from those that went to Olds College this time around, she halterbroke Paloma and Captain. Sphinx is now almost halterbroke and Salsa is halter- broke as well. Mackenzie is just about there, and Glory is getting ready to be started. I've started playing with Vita a bit, and even Ocean is coming around. Java and Valentino are now down with the main herd. Java halters and leads and today she loaded well for the short trip across the road.

The 50/50 draw was made on Nov 25th at Red Lodge Guest Ranch. Congratulations to the winner, Jane Smyth of Bowden. Her share of the pot was $460.50, which means Bear Valley made $460.50 as well! Thank you Mary Ellen for running the event. We also took in some additional funds through a bake sale and the sale of tack, again thanks to Mary Ellen and also Laurie.

We have some new fundraising partnerships going. If you'd like a T-shirt with the Bear Valley logo, you can order a shirt through the link on our fundraising page or facebook page. We are signed up with Donate-A-Car, so if you have a junker car you'd like to donate, you can select Bear Valley as the recipient of the proceeds. We also are linked with Smart Betty shopping, check out the fundraising page or facebook page for the link.

We took in some more auction rescues last weekend - 12 weanlings, 1 2-year-old, 1 3-year-old (already adopted by Mary Ellen!), and a 17-year-old broke mare. There are some pictures of the new additions on our facebook page. I'll try and get pictures and info on the website in the next week or so.

Our sincerest condolences to Janine, our friend and Bear Valley's treasurer, on the passing of her father. Thank you Janine, and to your mom, Anita, for the donations made to Bear Valley in his memory. Last but definitely not least, we are having an on-line auction hosted through Vonality. The auction is supposed to start Monday, Dec 3rd, 2012 (delayed from Nov 29th) and will run until Dec 12th I believe. We have some really nice things donated for the auction - original artwork, jewelry, a getaway weekend, an inukshuk(!), and lots of other exciting items! The link to the auction site will be posted on Monday on the website and on our facebook page. Spread the word, together we can make the auction a big success! Thank you to Kyndra for managing the auction for us.

November 11, 2012 Update

11/11/2012

Some important updates and thank-yous! Thank you to Rebecca for the donation in lieu of birthday presents - The horses appreciate it!

We had 7 youngsters at Olds College and they are back from school. They all did really well! Check out our facebook page for pictures of them showing off their stuff. We have lots of new fundraising initiatives under way. Mary Ellen in doing a 50/50 draw, Kyndra is arranging an on-line auction for November, and Dot will be arranging a garage sale for next June. Please check out our fundraising page for more information. I feel terrible that I forgot to get info on the on-line auction posted here on our website sooner. The auction is slated to start Nov 22 so there isn't a lot of time left if you have something you'd like to donate to be auctioned off! We already have some nice things that will be available. I'll post the auction link as soon as it is launched. The 50/50 draw is over $500, contact Mary Ellen (see fundraising page) or myself (Kathy) if you haven't got your ticket(s)! Mary Ellen also held a bake sale yesterday in Bowden, she tells me it was pretty successful in spite of the weather and road conditions. Thank you to everyone who made it out. We have Donate-A-Car, Lacroix T-shirts, and Smart Betty Shopping on the fundraising page, please support us any way you can!

October 31, 2012 Update

10/31/2012

Where did October go?! Winter jumped right in with both feet - From one day to the next we went from beautiful fall weather, plus temperatures in the high teens and warmer, to cloud and snow and ice and COLD! We're already feeding hay and everyone is trying to stay warm and dry.

All the horses are back for the winter with the exception of Zaz and Bella, who we were going to pick up today but it's way too cold and snowy, so we'll be picking them up on Friday instead. It's supposed to be warmer by then but THEY have been saying that for days - the little suns on the weather page never get any closer! A huge thanks to Paul from Timberline Tours for stopping by and helping with the hauling of some of the horses coming home from pasture - you saved us several trips back and forth. We had to leave a few of them behind as they didn't want to be caught, but when we went back to pick them up they decided to cooperate. I'm really glad to have them all back, it's nice to be able to interact with them again every day and they settle down a lot from how they are when they're running loose on acres and acres of pasture.

Trump was gelded a couple of weeks ago. It went very well but the poor guy swelled up a lot. Right now he's in with Clare the cow and her calf, Clare injured her back and is needing some R&R so we separated her from the rest of the herd. I think Trump was really desperate for some companionship as he and the calf are now great friends. We also had Patches' and Lexus' teeth floated. They were actually not too bad, considering last year when Lexus was done she had a bad tooth that wouldn't come out.

We delivered Lexus to her new foster home, thank you Sylvia for taking her in. Lexus gets to be companion to Sylvia's retired dressage horse and she'll get to enjoy daily mash and love while she's at it. We took in 2 new horses - Neva, a little shetland pony who's already found a new home, and Cheyenne, a nice appaloosa mare, blind in one eye, who also looks like she's already got a new home pending. Harley and Candy also left for a new home. Amadeus, Flint and Remi have been adopted. Flint, Saffron, Mellow, Shadow, Sterling, Noah, and Sofie are the horses we sent to Olds College for the equine program. We were so proud of them, they all were on their best behaviour when we delivered them and they are great ambassadors for the Rescue. We'll be picking them up on November 8th. Hopefully we can get more of them in for the next session in November. Now that we've done it once and are familiar with the program and the type of horses they are looking for, we know which horses would be good choices to send. Also Duchess is back, her adoption did not work out. She'll be going back to Samantha with Elation Equine to continue her training.

Samia and Nina are back from Gregg Garvie's, they're so much quieter and can be handled now. Susanne has been working with the horses from the auction. Captain is pretty well halterbroke now, can be touched all over and is working on picking up his feet. Paloma, Sphinx and Salsa are getting pretty close to being halterbroke. I did some leading with Java and she's very smart. Susanne has also started working with Flicka. Shandra gave us a scare with a colic episode on Oct 15th. Fortunately, after having the vet out and doing all sorts of shots and tests and palpations, it was determined to just be gas colic and she's recovered completely. Millie has a small puncture on her upper front leg, and Scoops also did the exact same thing to his leg today. Phoebe cut her front pastern and upper inside front leg. There was a post on facebook from another rescue just today about why is it that it's always the most skittish or unhandled horses that injure themselves?! Lena and Max came down with some fungal ringworm-y thing a few weeks ago. Fortunately it hasn't spread to anyone else. We also had pinkeye going around. It's a tough one to treat when there are so many flies and they're spreading it from horse to horse. That's the ONE plus of the cold, the flies are pretty well gone so the pinkeye is gone as well. With all this cold and damp, Summer was very chilled this morning so we've moved her and Malone into the barn for a few days.

October 10, 2012 Update

10/10/2012

We've started bringing home some of the horses that were out on foster for the summer. Kiwi and Gemma are back, thank you Carol for giving them a good summer on pasture. Sasha, Farrah, and Brandy are back as well, thank you Deanna for summering them with the minis. We're picking up Sylvia this coming weekend, along with Harley, Raffles and Joker. Raffles was ridden, has an issue with bolting but at least not with bucking any more (I think that's a plus!). Harley was packed and saddled/ridden a few times but can be headstrong and stubborn - just needs more time put into him. Joker has some apparent lameness in his rear fetlock that was injured at some point in the past so wasn't worked with much - we will look at maybe having him xrayed and see if there are any options for it. Remi, Duchess, Promise, Aurora and Neeka all left for their new homes. Dee, Promise's dam, also went out on foster with Promise. Trouble is back, as Thor is now weaned and leaving for his new home.

We started chiro/massage on Valentino and have seen some improvement already. Poor guy was SO nervous during the session, it took him a long time to settle down but eventually he started to relax and enjoy it. I don't think he's at all used to being fussed over and he seems to expect something bad will happen at any moment. Thank you Tralauney for working on him.

We are working with the new youngsters, would like to get at least a few of them halterbroke in the next few days, as there are 8 yearling/2-year-olds we have to select to send to Olds College next week for 4 weeks of handling. I think we will send Flint, Noah, Mellow, Sterling, and Shadow, and possibly Saffron, and 2 or 3 of the new ones - Amadeus, Captain, and maybe Sphinx. We might be able to send more in November as well.

Samia and Nina will be coming back in just over a week, after spending some time in training with Gregg Garvie. Can't wait to see how they've done!

Mike and I attended the Alberta SPCA conference last week, in Edmonton. It was a very interesting event, our 3rd time attending. They always have interesting speakers and cover a variety of topics. You'd think they'd run out of things to talk about that focus on animal shelter and rescue, but not so! The Alberta Veterinary Association has come out with guidelines for shelters and rescues, which I'm happy to say we seem to follow very well. You can find a copy of the guidelines on their website.Thanks to some really dedicated supporters and their hard work, we're happy to announce that we've been approved as one of the charitable organizations that Husky Energy's employees can support in their charitable giving through work. Another big one that I forgot to mention in the prior update - Thank you to Spruce Meadows for the donation of the leftover feed from this year's Masters tournament! We got about 20 bags of really, really nice feed mixes, the stuff the elite equine athletes get. I'm not a horse but boy, some of it smells so good I'd eat it too!

September 28, 2012 Update

9/28/2012

Of course I forgot some really important things in yesterday's update. We had a really nice visit from Midnight Express 4H Light Horse Club! They brought us bags and bags of feed, and blankets collected from Lazy S Arena. Thank you! We would like to thank the following Sundre businesses for their support of our open house and fencing bee:
Sobey's - provided hamburger patties
Wild's Home Hardware - supplied 50lb box of fencing staples
Kodiak Grill - provided some really yummy scalloped potatoes

Poor Mike just finally finished the construction he's been working on and is now spending his next couple of weeks in the truck, hauling hay. And after that he can look forward to doing firewood for a few weeks. And then it's winter!

September 27, 2012 Update

9/27/2012

Lots of things to write about! We had our first annual Fencing Bee and Open House last weekend and it was a great success! We got so much done, thanks to all the volunteers, new and old, who came out to lend a hand. A big THANK YOU to Mary Ellen, she ran the tack sale & bake sale, along with Dana, and we raised almost $700! Be sure to look at the fundraising page of the website to see what else she's got going on - there's a 50/50 draw that will run until November. Thank you to George of 'George's Kitchen' at Red Lodge Guest Ranch for donating the baked goods, along with Gigi for the cupcakes and brownies! Thank you to Michele, our new neighbour, for the salads! Sorry if I've forgotten to thank you individually; everyone worked so hard and contributed to a great event!

We attended the Innisfail Auction on Aug 30 and purchased 26 horses, of which 16 were from the Medicine Hat herd. We were able to purchase some broke horses and pretty well all of the broke ones were adopted within the first week! We've also taken in a little old, underweight, pony mare and a nice grey pony mare that had foundered and is still a bit sore. The interesting thing about the grey pony is that she belonged to the owner of a certain auction mart, who shall remain nameless. He contacted us to buy this mare because he didn't want to sell her through his own auction because he didn't want her to go for meat! We've also taken in a flashy young paint mare that, unfortunately, has a tendency to buck, and a retired, older QH mare.

Sarcee came back from her foster home as her lymphangitis has flared up again. We're trying laser on it this time. Sonata came back from Elation Equine, she got as far as having someone sit on her back but she was so nervous about moving forward at that point that it was decided we'd leave her and send a different horse. Duchess, who was also at Elation, was adopted and Willie, who took Sonata's place, was adopted almost immediately. We are going to select 2 more horses, perhaps Kiki and Foxy, to send over to Samantha at Elation Equine. Samia and Nina have gone to Gregg Garvie to be started. We believe both of them are pregnant and due late winter or early spring, so it's imperative that we be able to handle them as they will have to go into the barn if they foal. Gregg will work with them for 2 weeks so that they are halterbroke, footbroke and able to be led. We are going to be sending 8 yearlings/2 year olds to Olds College in October to be used in the equine studies program. They'll get lots of good handling! There is a fee ($7/day) to put a horse into the program, so again a big thanks to Mary Ellen and Laurie for raising funds to sponsor some of these horses. So far they've raised money to cover 6 of the 8 horses!

We had quite a time dealing with the illness of Pancho, the stallion from Medicine Hat. He was sick prior to the auction and had so much trouble breathing. We went through at least 4 or 5 different medications. Eventually the one thing that worked was ventipulmin. He's all better now and ready to leave for his new home. He's also put on weight and looks great! Monkey also had a nasty attack of heaves and the ventipulmin helped him too. Summer has healed up nicely from her wire cuts. Shay had a really bad abscess which had her lame for about 3 weeks and took forever to drain. She's just now on the mend from it. In addition to Pancho, Duchess and Willie, Neeka is adopted, along with Soliel, and the new horses: Terry, Aurora, Finn, Delilah, Arnie, Aric, Promise, Stella, and Shiner. Our farrier was out for 4 days over a 3 week period and we got lots of the horses trimmed. Surprisingly, quite a few of the ones out on pasture didn't required trimming at all. I've been spending a lot of time lately working on a couple of grant applications and looking for new fundraising opportunities. Funding, as always, is a major concern, especially when it's time to buy hay! Check out the fundraising page - we've been nominated for the Calgary Real Estate Board's '25 for 25' grant - if you know any realtors please encourage them to vote for us!

August 30, 2012 Update

8/30/2012

Things sure haven't slowed down. We are still busy, and now that fall is approaching all those 'get ready for winter' things are starting to creep up on us.

Very sadly, Soliel the warmblood mare foaled a beautiful paint colt but he passed away 3 days later. He had hypothyroidism. It was our first experience with that and hopefully the last. We worked so hard to save the little guy but to no avail. Thank you Susanne for helping through the whole ordeal. Also on a sad note, we lost Echo the Arab mare, we believe she was struck by lightning.

Our vet has been treating Monkey's and Joanie's old leg injuries with laser - one treatment every 2-3 days. It looks like we're having some real success in finally dealing with these injuries. The swelling is going down and the injuries themselves look a lot healthier and are closing up. On the downside, the cost is quite expensive due to the number of treatments required, but if it works it will certainly be worth it as they have both been dealing with these injuries for several years now.

Thank you for Calgary Polocrosse, they raised funds for us during their annual tournament and it was a huge success: almost $500 was raised through snack sales, a silent auction, and donations! Thank you to Sherral and Carment for manning a table for us at the tournament. They said it was a lot of fun. If you're looking for something exciting and athletic to do with your horse, consider polocrosse!

We've been very busy with visitors and adoptions this month. Popcorn, Dusky, Golddust, Sky, Fritz, Buddy, Mac, Pup, Rasmus, Sofie, Griffon, and Thor have all been adopted. Rasmus was just gelded last Friday and won't be leaving for a couple of weeks, Thor of course won't go to his new home until he is weaned, and Sofie won't be leaving until next spring. We took in 2 four month old foals last week, both beautiful buckskins. The colt is very cute and the poor little filly has some serious cuts to her chest/legs from going through a fence when she was weaned right before we picked her up. She's certainly getting used to being handled now as we've been having to clean her wounds and give her medicine twice a day. We also took in a 16 yr old mare with a crooked leg. I'm not sure how long her leg will remain stable, we have had horses with this sort of problem in the past (Navajo, Roz and Emma) and eventually the leg or joint does deteriorate past the point of being any good for the horse.

We took in a few more rabbits from the Canmore cull, these being the offspring of one of the rabbits that was caught and gave birth before being spayed. The babies had to grow up enough for themselves be fixed. One of our little black bantam hens raised one chick! Not sure how she ended up with just one, but it's grown enough that they're back with the regular flock. Speaking of babies, we're pretty sure Mackenzie and possibly Samia and Nina are pregnant - unfortunately looks like they'll be winter babies. Our condolences to Virginia Scott, she adopted Dollar from us 6 years ago and Dollar passed away suddenly the other day. Dollar was a nice older, Thoroughbred-type mare we bought at auction in 2005. I've fallen victim to the social media bug and a lot of what is going on is posted more regularly on our facebook page. Check us out on facebook if you haven't already done so! The latest big thing is that we were contacted by someone who's grandparents had to declare bankruptcy. They were raising quarterhorses and had a herd of at least fifteen mares with young foals at side and ten 2 year old colts. All their horses, including their personal riding horses, were seized as part of the bankruptcy and are going to auction today in Innisfail. This girl (lady?) was heartbroken as she feared (rightly so) that many of the horses could go for meat, and also that the young foals (3 months old) might be separated from their dams as they really are too young to be weaned. Through contacts and getting the word out, we've all been able to generate a LOT of interest in these horses so that it looks like there will be a lot of private buyers looking to save these horses at today's auction. On top of that, we've received some very generous donations towards saving some of them ourselves, so we will be at the auction tonight. Sadly horses from situations such as this are what populate a lot of the auctions and there isn't anyone to save them. Because we are a registered charity, and because horse slaughter is not illegal, we can't actually lobby against slaughter, but we don't condone it. It's not just the equine tragedy, it's the human tragedy that goes with it that also makes it all so sad.

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