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!
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