Upcoming Weather

I haven't been paying much attention to the weather lately. We haven't had any rain or snow in so long that I forget that we are now into winter. I've taken to leaving stuff out because I know it won't rain. I was leaving stuff out during the summer months in hopes that it would rain. You know what I'm talking about. If you leave your windows rolled down, it'll rain. If you leave something outside that you don't want to get wet, it'll surely rain. Nope, hasn't happened. We have been leaving stuff all around the place in hopes of rain but no such luck. Unfortunately, we were caught the other day with all our clutter scattered about. A company that does arial photography flew over the other day and stopped out. Yup, we looked really trashy with everything sitting out. Least to say, we passed on the photo.

But I digress.

I caught some rumblings the other day about potential snow in the forecast for later this week. I'm a little excited and a little apprehensive. We desperately need the moisture but I hate dealing with snow. There's still a bunch of stuff sitting out that we need to put away. I tried to put some of the stuff away or at least tuck it under cover for the night because I wasn't sure exactly when it's supposed to snow. It'll be a full day project to get everything ready for snowfall. So we finally got caught with our pants down. I guess I won't complain. We are finally getting moisture.

I know we are desprate for moisture but I hope the snow doesn't make it too difficult to push the round bales in to the big herd on Saturday. The mares and the hospital ward ran out of their round bales last night. I decided I wouldn't even bother trying to tip a bale by myself in the dark last night. It was easier to just cut a big bale open. I swear the minute the big herd heard me cut that twine, they were lined up along the fence. Apparently the bales we have out there now for them aren't the greatest. Usually by now, they have the bale without the cinch net on completely gone. Guess that bale is junk. I'm not surprised. We'll get a few bad bales in the bunch.

But the herd was eyeing me when I tossed the good hay over to Rabbit, Mayhem, and the ponies. I also figured that I would give Bo some extra hay just to help with putting on more weight. He's been slowly putting on weight and I'm excited to see his ribs go away. I knew he was a hard keeper and figured that in the summer that he could handle not being grained. I was wrong. He has to be grained year round. Maybe when he's out on pasture he won't need as much grain but this year has been such an odd year that he requires grain no  matter what. It won't be long before he's back to his right weight. He's definitely taught me a lot. Apparently with Bo there is a huge learning curve for feeding a very hard keeper. Even the oldsters were never this difficult to keep weight on. But he's worth it.

I can't believe that it's already December. I lost so many months this late summer/early fall. I don't think I can make up for lost time. Everyone in the herd seems to be doing well now. I swear that fall is the worst time of year for the horses. Every time I start thinking that we can take in another horse to save them from starvation, auction circuit, or the slaughter pipeline something comes up and we are faced with  massive vet bills. No one is lame (knock on wood), no one is colicing (knock on wood), no one has any medical emergencies (knock on wood). Babe is recovering nicely from her puncture wound. You can barely tell there was anything wrong. King has some weird skin condition but we've dealt with it before so it's nothing too earth shattering. It's a little mind boggling because I can't figure out what it is or what caused it but I know it'll go away soon so it's not an emergency vet visit.

We had a very successful fundraising brainstorming meeting last week. We have a few ideas in the works. I'm looking forward to focusing our attention on fundraising so that we can stop saying no to the old horses that really need a soft place to land for their retirement years. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear about them. You can leave your ideas on our Facebook page or email them to borderlandshorsesanctuary@yahoo.com.  I'm really hoping to get our name out there for 2013 so that we can do more good for the horses. Apparently there is a poll going on in a couple of the Facebook groups I belong to and what a disappointment it is. They asked if people were pro or against horse slaughter. So disappointing to see that my fellow horse people are pro slaughter. I simply can't stomach the thought that anyone could be pro slaughter. Just look at Bo. He was headed to slaughter had we not been there. Same goes for Savanna (and Jett), and a bunch of other horses that we've taken in either through auctions or prior to them reachin the auction circuit. The world is a better place because those horses are in it. It's devistating to think that well trained horses are ending up in the slaughter pipeline simply because people believe that slaughter is the right decision. It's not a discussion I want to discuss right now but there are good horses that deserve better. And I want to make sure that happens in 2013.