The Herd

Hadn't posted pics in a while. Finally downloaded pictures from over the past year (oops). Found this one and wanted to share.

Horse(s) of the Month - Rabbit and Mayhem

Horse of the Month - Rabbit and Mayhem

 

So it seems I let the ball drop and didn't do a horse of the month for September and October is tomorrow. But it does seem a bit fitting to put these two together.

 

Rabbit and Mayhem.

 

Originally I was looking for an older mare that would join the current mare herd. Queen had coliced and left Babe alone in her pen.  I didn't want her alone but didn't really think the few geldings that would tolerate Babe would work because I pull them for rides and she'd still be alone. So I went in search of an older mare. I knew at some point one of the two old mares would go and then they'd be left alone standing in a pen.

 

I found Rabbit.

 

Rabbit

She's a registered Quarter Horse, with a registered name of Rabbit Choker Nikki. Her previous owners called her Nikki but I couldn't do it. Her sire was Rabbit Choker (hence the name).

The person selling Rabbit had only had her for a few short months. She'd been bred when the person bought her and the foal was guaranteed to be a blue roan, which is what that person wanted.

What came out, was a replica of Rabbit. We affectionately call her Mayhem. She's register-able but there was some issues with the paperwork and we never got her registered. Mayhem was born on June 24, 2010 and as the pictures show, she's sorrel. She's a bit different in sorrel color. Rabbit has a bit more red when the sun shines in her and Mayhem is a little less fiery red when the sun shines on her coat.

But being that Mayhem wasn't a blue roan, the person didn't want the combo and put them up for sale in September 2010. I had thought Rabbit would be a good fit for Babe and Queen. She wasn't. She was much younger than those two older mares (late 20s early 30s while Rabbit was only late teens). I don't remember the specifics of how I introduced the mares, but it didn't go well and so we were left with two mare herds. Well, Rabbit actually prefers the company of geldings. She's a no nonsense kind of gal.

Mayhem and Rabbit

Unfortunately, Rabbit has heaves. I've tried an antihistamine and it doesn't seem to work. Humidity makes it way worse. She actually seems to do ok when she's on hay (not rounds mind you). But if I grain her with the antihistamine, she coughs. I'm not sure what to do with her. I was told she was broke to ride but she's off in the back end. I've not had her evaluated but didnt' figure on riding her. So she's been retired from riding and making babies ever since. I didn't think that she needed to be pregnant when she has to deal with heaves. It was too much stress on her body. After she'd had Mayhem, she'd dropped a considerable amount of weight and it took a full four months to get her up to the weight that I wanted her at.

Mayhem and Rabbit (Rabbit was shaking her head and about to clear her nose so that's why the funny look)

Mayhem was born with an umbilical hernia (which I have yet to repair. Every time there's money, someone else gets sick and there goes the funds to get it repaired). Mayhem always seemed a little on the small side so I never pushed her. In fact, I still see her as the little filly that jumped off the trailer at three months old, rather than the four year old that she currently is. (I know, I really should have gotten the hernia taken care of but the $400-$800 price tag slowed me down and saving for it is always a challenge when someone keeps getting sick).

This spring Mayhem did get sick (May 2014) and we hauled her in to Dakota Large Vet Clinic to discover that she also has a heart murmur. So that explains why she isn't as big as her momma. She isn't disproportionate but she seems a lot more petite than she should be.  So she's had a few hard knocks against her in her short life (born the wrong color, umbilical hernia, heart murmur). I'm still collecting funds for her umbilical hernia, but if anyone wants to help it would be greatly appreciated.

When I weaned Mayhem, I put her in with the ponies because they were the same size. The ponies tormented her but that kept her mind occupied. Rabbit had to hang out by herself. She's since been pasture mates with a few of the others that have come and gone (Dick the Percheron, Savanna, and Sahara).

I've also put Rabbit in with the ponies. She'll pin her ears and give them the stink eye but I really think she likes their company. I think she prefers to have a flock to look after rather than just her own daughter.

After awhile I put Mayhem in with the old mares. There's something about a young horse in with old horses that helps both. The old horses feel young again and the young horse learns so much from the old horses. I was able to teach Mayhem how to stand tied rather quickly. In fact, within days of teaching her to put a halter on, she was trained to stand tied for hours (I had to tie her so that she wouldn't steal the old mares' grain).

Mayhem looks a lot like her momma. But she also looks a lot like Maverick. I've on occasion had to do a double take to make sure Maverick wasn't in with the mares. When summers come around, Rabbit also has problems with bug bites and a weepy eye. We try desperately to keep a fly mask on her but she's amazing at getting them off. She also is turning into a hard keeper so I like to put a blanket or a sheet on her when the weather turns (or we get wet rain/snow). But she is a mare that prefers to keep her wardrobe to a minimum. She's destroyed every blanket or sheet I've ever put on her. She's also now teaching Mayhem to destroy blankets. Like mother, like daughter.

I am thankful to have the pair at the Sanctuary. Both deserve a save haven. Rabbit will enjoy the life of retirement, and Mayhem will start her education under saddle in the next year or two. I want to ensure that her body can handle the rigors of training before we proceed with further education.

Rabbit and Mayhem have come a long way in the few years they've been at the Sanctuary.

Missed the Memo

I somehow missed the memo that it's dark out when doing chores. I have to have my chores done by 7:30 if I want to see the horses in the daylight. Right now the horses are on auto pilot for morning chores so I don't go out and do anything. But this morning it was D.A.R.K. I am SO not ready for winter chores when I have to be out at 5 am in the dark to throw hay.  I'm going to have to break the bad habit of waking up just in time to head to work instead of waking up an hour earlier so that I can get all my chores done.

Evening chores are going to be difficult as well. I know daylight savings time will be here but it won't help me get chores done in the daylight. If only I didn't have to go to the paying job to support he Sanctuary. I guess it's time I better check the batteries in all my flashlights and get ready for winter to be here soon.

Quietly Plugging Along

We've been fairly quiet at the Sanctuary as of late. We've been so swamped with life in general that we haven't had much time to do anything extra with the Sanctuary. But yesterday we did get a little bit of free time.

In the evening, I moved Rabbit and Mayhem to the road pasture. I'd pulled them off that pasture the first of August. Two months later and the pasture is coming back nicely (thanks to all the rain). I wish I would have had the time and good sense to divide the big pasture when I said I would so that I could switch the big herd back and forth instead of letting them roam the entire pasture. Now there's no real new growth.

Having been on vacation in August and again in September, I didn't grain Bo over those days. You can see the weight loss. I'm disappointed. He was looking so good but within just a few days with no grain, it's very apparent that he's lost weight. I'm not sure what winter will bring with him or what to do.

A couple weeks ago, we picked up a flatbed full of alfalfa. We are still trying to find time to unload all 100 bales. We'd originally asked our neighbor farmer but he wasn't sure when he'd get to cutting his alfalfa and when the 100 alfalfa bales popped up, we decided to go with those. The neighbor farmer called on Saturday to say that he's planning on baling alfalfa this week (if it doesn't rain) so our order will be ready. So we'll have a few extra bales on hand, which is a good thing if winter is as hard is I'm afraid it will be. The neighbor farmer said he was going to bale today but we got a good downpour last night so I doubt it'll be ready to bale until the end of the week. Unfortunately, we didn't get the alfalfa bales until AFTER we got the big squares and we are planning on putting them in the hay barn. So that means a bit of tricky work to get them in the hay barn. I could maybe put them in the red shed but that  means i'd have to carry alfalfa bales through snow drifts this winter and that doesn't sound very appealing. Anyone want to help move alfalfa?

We also had volunteers come out Sunday evening to help groom horses. When I picked Brego and Ivan up, they were covered in cockleburs. Some days I really think I should roach everyone and be done with it. The pasture and drylot are starting to sport more cockleburs (the hard prickly ones that hurt) so now everyone is going to be covered in burs. Luckily, the volunteers were able to groom three horses and make them look ready for as photo shoot.

Sunday afternoon I had a little bit of downtime so I worked on mending horse blankets. I cheated and used the iron on patches on one blanket and one sheet. I still need to do some repairs on the sheet as the patches didn't hold (the tears were that big). I was able to water proof the two that I repaired and another blanket that still needs repair.  I'm out of water proofing but at least I'm that much closer to being ready for winter (I'll never be 100% ready for winter).

We also had one of our supporters stop out with a box full of apples for the horses. I know they will devour them! She also brought out a saddle pad for when I ride some of the more sway backed horses. She also brought out a sheet (it's in MINT condition!) I'm excited to try it on some of the Sanctuary horses to see who it'll fit the best on. I'm sure one of the Sanctuary horses will claim the sheet as his own (Rabbit and Mayhem will be stalled when the weather gets bad...they are death on blankets. The blanket and sheet I half way repaired were from Rabbit and Mayhem's escapades with their outer wear.)

I also kept working on scraping the garage. It'll look nice when I can finally get a coat of paint on it. It'll be one step closer to getting our place looking nice. Four years of not being able to work on the place makes a huge difference on the appearance. My hope is that the bad weather will hold off long enough for me to get the garage completely done and maybe let me do some touch up work on the hay barn. We'll see (Mike is working on the foundation of the house so we'll be lucky if we get more than the garage primed). If anyone knows any masonry people or brick layers, I'd sure appreciate the names and numbers of those people. If we can get someone to fix the house, maybe I can side track Mike into putting in fence posts in the drylot. We have one that we can't use because the fencing is bad and the other, the horses started climbing over it when I had to lock them in. So if we can find someone to help with either the fencing or the house, that would alleviate some major stress for us.

I'm sure we'll keep plugging away but can always use the help.

#NPCommPix Challenge

If I didn't have enough to do as it is... I'm going to play this game too! So keep an eye out every day in October to find some picture around the Sanctuary to describe each day listed below.

Hopefully this way, you'll get to see a little bit of each day of Sanctuary life. Can't wait for the fun to begin!

#NPCommPix

Empowerment Ventures

Today was the first of eight sessions in Kilians Empowerment Ventures program. It's a program that will help me push to get more focused on the Sanctuary and look at other avenues to possibly follow. And hopefully we can get that pesky non-profit paperwork figured out (after a full time job, caring for horses, and caring for a toddler, there's really nothing left of me...so hopefully this program will help me)

And it wasn't an ol' stuffy class where you fall asleep within 20 minutes. I was disappointed to have to quit. Stacy made the time go by so quickly I didnt' even realize that it was time to go (and I was bummed that we had to quit).

This year's session is full but if you have an idea for a program/business/non profit, check out Empowerment Ventures.

It's definitely a great way to learn and a great way to open your eyes to new ways of looking (and a great way to listen to others with ideas). I was actually surprised...this wasn't a class that focused on how to make money, it was a class to see how we, as a community, can help give back to the community, to make this world a little bit better. These sessions are REFRESHING! I'm excited for the next opportunity in October!

Check them out on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KilianEmpowermentVentures

Apples, Grass, and Quandary

The days are definitely getting shorter. I'm going out earlier and earlier to do chores. The horses are starting to fuzz up just a little. The horses have been enjoying apples these past few days. We had apples donated for the horses and they've been devouring them ever since.

I've been throwing hay to the ponies, much to my and their dismay. There's really no more grass left on the lawn for them to eat. I was going to put them by the red shed a few weeks ago but then we had our hay delivered and that was the end of that idea. Until now. I think there's just enough grass for them to graze on for the next few days. So I'm planning on putting them back on grass for about the next five days. Even a few days is better than no days. I'm running low on small squares of hay and I'm not yet ready to break open a big bale. I don't want to open up my winter hay supply when it's only the middle of September.

Tonight I'm going up to Madison to pick up Ivan and Brego. I was hoping to keep them up there for another month but they ate down the main pasture. What's still available is pasture that requires some fencing. So instead, I'll be happy that we had three mouths up there until last weekend (I brought Dude home with me last weekend when I was up to Madison for a trail ride).  After I loaded Dude last weekend, Ivan and Brego let out a collective sigh. When I got home, the herd was happy to see Dude. Dude is the leader although there's little packs within the big herd. But I think Chaos was happy to have Dude home. Chaos is second in command and was in charge while Dude was away.

I'm also in a bit of a quandary. My head and my heart are on the same page but my ability to speak out is my stumbling block. I am rather outspoken when behind a computer but very timid and shy in person. On my way to and from my daily travels, I've noticed a horse out in a pasture losing weight. I questioned a couple of friends to find out the status because maybe there's something wrong. I was told the horse was simply old. That's no excuse for a thin horse with an entire pasture to eat and no competition. My horses look plump with an overgrazed pasture (except for Bo but he looks ok.). It could be that the horse has finally hit that stage where he/she can no longer maintain his weight without extra grain (like Bo). But this horse was fat last winter/spring. It's only been in the last two months that the horse has dropped weight. I don't know the people who own the horse and I have a hard time walking up to someone's door and saying that their horse is skinny. So what do I do? Perhaps there's something more going on behind the scenes that I don't know about so I dont' want to jump to conclusions but still....there stands this horse and I can't get over my fear. It's a total copout and I hate it.

I know it's not horse related but it is somewhat Sanctuary related. Our place looks dumpy. We've been there for nine years and the last four have been too chaotic to do any repairs on any buildings. So now the place is looking really tough (add horses to the mix and you can definitely see how much disrepair there is). So yesterday, I took time off the paying job to scrape and paint part of the garage. What a difference a coat of primer will do for a building. Of course the building is fairly old and that means very thirty wood! I'd already scraped and painted the hay shed doors. They'd been bothering me for a long time (since I go in and out every day twice a day in the winter I was fed up with bare wood). There's still plenty of scraping and painting to do but at least I'm one step further. So now I'm in the middle of scraping and painting the old garage and the hay shed. After seeing the fresh primer (not even the paint), I'm ready to tackle every building to make the place look new again! I doubt I'll get anything more than the garage done but if anyone wants to come out and help, it would be greatly appreciated. I think we'll get the opportunity to borrow a paint gun so after I scrape and prime the building(s), the actual painting should go lickity split (or at least that's my hope). Anyone willing to help out?

I'm going to take a blog hiatus for a few days and have some family time. I'll be back next week.

Suffolk Downs

If anyone is in the area of Suffolk Downs....

http://offtrackthoroughbreds.com/2014/09/18/well-do-whatever-they-need-for-100-suffolk-tbs/

Thank You

I just wanted to say Thank You to all those that turned out for the Farmers Market this past Sunday. I'll apologize for not being more vocal and outgoing. I hate to admit it, but I'm rather bashful in public but rather vocal when sitting behind a computer. So if you didn't get a chance to ask questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them or stop on out to the Sanctuary and meet the horses. I'd love to show off the herd.

And for the Where's Skippy contest, we held the drawing and Anne Carter-Wiess won! Congrats Anne! I'll be putting Skippy's horse hair keychain ring in the mail this week.

We still have some amazing items up for sale if anyone is interested in them but didn't want to purchase them during the farmers market. I may post a few of the items on our Facebook page to see if there's any interest.

I'm hoping to take Skippy to a few more events. So if you didn't get a chance to meet Skippy, there should be a few more public appearances during the fall. I'm also brainstorming a few ideas for fall and winter activities. I would like to do a playday before the snow flies but we'll see if I can get an indoor arena lined up. So, please keep an eye on the blog and on Facebook for upcoming events.

Thank you again for all your support during the Farmers Market. There's a standing open invitation for anyone and everyone to stop on out to meet the herd.

Thanks You!!

Hartford Farmers Market TODAY

Stop on out TODAY, Sunday, September 14th from 11-2 at the Hartford Farmers Market in Hartford, SD. We'll have Skippy, Tommy, and Jim to pet and play with. We'll also have a few items for sale. Come on out to meet the horses and to help in another very important fundraiser!

Hope to see you there!

Where In the World is Skippy - Day Six

Where's Skippy - Day Six

Sorry for the lateness in posting (but I was out playing with the Sanctuary horses). Just leave a comment to tell me where Skippy is at and you'll be entered to win a FREE  horse hair keychain ring. Drawing is Sunday, September 14th at 1pm at the Hartford Farmers Market.

Hartford Farmers Market Fundraiser

So, the Sanctuary is participating in a fundraiser for Joe Hellvig. We'll have Skippy and a couple of the other horses as well. But the main reason we'll be attending is for the benefit. We like to help support locals. Come on out to meet Skippy and some of the other Sanctuary horses and help with a good cause.

Where in the World is Skippy? -- Day Five

Where's Skippy? -- Day Five

We are on the final leg of the Where's Skippy game! Just leave a comment on this blog or on our Facebook page to enter to win a FREE horse hair keychain ring from Skippy. The drawing will be held Sunday, September 14th at 1pm.

If you want to meet Skippy, stop on out to the Hartford Farmers Market, Sunday, September 14th from 11-2pm. I know Skippy would love to meet some of his fans!

Where in the World is Skippy? -- Day Four

Where's Skippy? - Day Four

There's only two more days after today to FIND SKIPPY!!!!

 

Leave a comment on this post or on our Facebook page to tell me where Skippy is and enter to win a FREE Horse Hair Keychain Ring. We will hold the drawing at the Hartford Farmers Market on Sunday, September 14th at 1pm!

 

Weather Change

Last night while fixing supper, I heard on the tv that there was a tornado (or at least winds acting like a potential tornado) was forming just west of the Sanctuary. I'm still spooked from the tornado that BARELY missed the Sanctuary three months ago (and we are still trying to repair buildings from all the damage). So when I heard the storm and potential tornado was headed straight east, I panicked. Luckily the winds died down and the suspected tornado never did get to the Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get outside to do chores before the big green blog that was the rain storm finally made it our way. It had been hanging out over the middle of the state ALL DAY. So I knew I was in for a soaker of a storm while doing chores. I opted for an umbrella but that only  made chores more difficult (and I was still wet at the end of chores).

But when I went to pull in the hard keepers for their nightly grain, I noticed that Bo was standing out in the middle of it all while everyone else was in the leanto. Zeke and made it in before it even started raining.

With the major cold front coming in and a drop in 20+ degrees, I was worried that the horses would get chilled. I shouldn't have worried. Tonight and tomorrow night we are supposed to be down in themed 30s for lows. But I was worried that the horses would be wet and then get chilled. So I opted to keep the hard keepers in the barn. That also meant rounding up the two kittens that have survived and putting them in the cat/dog kennel overnight so they wouldn't get stepped on. The Sanctuary horses have no respect for kittens.

I'm not ready yet for winter if I'm already putting horses in the barn overnight. It's going to be a LONG winter if that's the case. But I was able to crawl into bed and snuggle under the covers last night and not worry about the horses getting chilled. There's no point in having a barn and stalls if you can't use them.

But the old wives tale that says when the katydids start singing, you'll have six weeks until the first hard frost. Well, they started singing the first of August. And it'll be the middle of September when we get this cold front with 30 degree lows. So maybe it is true. I'm also wondering now if El Nino will be here. I've been keeping tabs on fog as well. The old wives tale is that 90 days from fog will be snow (or rain if you prefer). There's already talk of snow out in the Black Hills for later this week. My calendar shows October 29 will be some type of storm. 90 days prior to October 29th we had fog. Now if that was serious fog or not, I don't remember. But I kept track of it no matter what. Better to be prepared and not have a storm than have a major storm and be caught with your pants down.

Lets just hope that I'm wrong and that it'll be an open winter. At least I'm getting blankets taken care of now instead of right before a polar vortex. I definitely want to be ready in case we experience another polar vortex. Until then, I'll keep my eye to the weather. I had hoped to ignore the weather for a few more months but that doesn't seem to be the case. So now all these blog posts will talk about the weather. I guess I should add that I come from a farming family and the first question out of anyone's mouth is...how much rain did you get? or what's the weather like.

Fingers crossed for an easy winter.

Where In the World Is Skippy? - Day Three

Where's Skippy -- Day Three

We are on to Day THREE of Where's Skippy!

 

Just leave a comment on this blog page or leave a comment on our Facebook page to tell us where Skippy is today to enter into a drawing to win a FREE horsehair keychain ring (from Skippy)!

 

Hartford Farmers Market Fundraiser

This Sunday, Sept. 14th you will not want to miss the Hartford Farmers Market!! We have the entire community of Hartford and Colton invited to the Market for the Joe Hellvig Benefit. LOTS of activities and community participation. Check out the Hartford Paper for an update on Joe with an invitation to all to attend the market & fundraiser. Also, check out both the Hartford and Colton papers about the fundraiser event and market.

There's also going to be a raffle at the market on Sunday. Items up for raffle will be from local farmers market vendors/producers (and the Sanctuary), so there should be some really great opportunities to win some amazing items. This raffle will go to help Joe.

The Sanctuary will also hold a raffle based on the Where's Skippy contest. Just tell me where Skippy is at every day this week (see the pictures on FB and our blog) and your name will be entered to win. We'll draw the winner at 1pm on Sunday.

Hope to see you all there.

Cold Front

We are supposed to have a high today of 74 degrees. The high tomorrow is 55. I think fall is here. With this drastic cold front coming through, I'm thinking we are going to have a long and cold winter!

Anyone want to help get us ready for winter? We have a lot of projects that need to get finished (or started) before winter hits. We also need to do some major fundraising for our winter supply of hay. Any little bit is very helpful!

Where In the World Is Skippy - Day Two

Where's Skippy - Day Two

Leave a comment to tell us where Skippy is at. Each time you comment on where Skippy is at, you'll enter into a chance to win a horse hair keychain ring from Skippy! We'll announce the winner at the Hartford Farmers Market on Sunday, September 14th at 1pm.

 

 



Where In the World Is Skippy? - Day One

In preparation for our upcoming fundraiser at the Hartford Farmers Market this Sunday, September 14th, we are holding a drawing for a free horsehair keychain ring from our very own Sanctuary miniature horse, Skippy!

Each day this week, we will post a picture of Skippy somewhere on Earth and we'll ask YOU, Where's Skippy? When you respond (you don't even have to be correct in your answer), your name will go into a drawing for a FREE horsehair keychain ring from Skippy! To respond, leave a comment on this blog post or leave a comment on our Facebook page.

We will hold the drawing on Sunday at the Hartford Farmers Market at 1PM. You do NOT have to be present to win.

Day One - Where's Skippy?

Labor Day Activity

The last few days have been plain crazy. We had a very productive long holiday weekend. I wish that I could have gotten more done but I guess I'll be happy with what we did get done.

On Friday, I spent the morning washing blankets. At first I thought the weather was going to ruin the opportunity. It was misting and dreary out. But then I realized I was going to get soaked washing horse blankets anyway so why would it matter if it was wet out. So I spent all morning scrubbing horse blankets. I was able to get eight done by noon. Then I had to hook up the trailer and load Dude, Ivan, and Brego. Of course I loaded them in the wrong order and had a wreck. Poor Brego always seems to get the brunt of other horse's stupidity. Ivan got stupid and I had to make a quick unloading experience for all of them. I should have went with the six horse trailer instead of the stock trailer. From now on, if I haul more than two horses at a time, I'm taking the bigger trailer. But I was finally able to get the horses loaded, and Farley in the truck and on to Madison. I wanted to take a couple of horses to Madison so they could enjoy the "Resort" for a month or so. Mom and Dad's pasture was more than ready for horses and I'd been trying all summer to get up there. But with the road construction, hauling horses isn't as quick as it used to be. I ran Farley into the vet to find out that his ear problem is non-repairable, unless we wanted to put him into surgery and I'm not keen on having an 11 year old dog go through surgery. So we are trying a different method of treatment and we'll see how that goes.

On Saturday, we ran errands so nothing productive done. On Sunday, I was able to get four more blankets washed and out to try while Mike worked on the house (which is in desperate repair).  I was also able to get six and a half blankets water proofed. I ran out of waterproofing but picked more up so I can no go back to getting the rest of them finished.

On Monday, Mom and Dad came down so I could work on projects. Some of the blankets hadn't dried so I had to work on getting them dried out quickly. I'd put all the blankets in the garage because it started raining Sunday late evening. The entire garage was covered in multi colored blankets.  I was able to convince Mom to start sewing up blankets. I think she has all but the toughest and most difficult blankets repaired. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had more but the ones she was working on were the ones we use all the time and were ready for use (washed, waterproofed, and now repaired). There's probably another dozen or so that still need to be waterproofed and repaired.

Also on Monday my hayguy came to deliver hay. It's a great feeling to have the winter supply of hay. It's not a great feeling to know that we don't have the cost covered yet. I have last year's hay covered (but still need to pay) but no where near ready to write the check to cover this year's hay. We got the same amount of hay so I'm hoping we can get a few donated bales of hay to  make it go farther. We had a few bales donated last year so we had some left over. If we have, and know that we'll have, left overs I'll be inclined to bring another old horse home.

Now is the season that people are getting rid of there horses. And now is the time that I'd like to bring one in.

After getting the hay put away, tarpped, blankets tucked away for final preparation, and a little bit of scraping on the garage, I was done for the weekend. I am working on scraping the garage and the hay barn in hopes of getting time to paint before I can't. With a new coat of paint, I hope the place will look a little less dumpy. If anyone wants to help, I'm all for it.

I also ended up getting everyone dewormed on Tuesday night. While I was at it, I roached Rabbit, Mayhem, Tommy, and Skippy. They had been playing unicorn and I couldn't stand the amount of cockleburs in their hair. There really was no way to get all of the cockleburs out without spending HOURS on each horse. The easiest fix was to roach. So they'll look a little silly but oh well.

If you want to see Skippy's new do, stop on our. Or better yet, come on out next Sunday, September 14th from 11-2 to the Hartford Farmers Market. We'll be there!!!!

Save the Date - September 14

Save the Date - September 14th
The Sanctuary will be attending the Hartford Farmers Market from 11am to 2pm. This event isn't going to be just the Farmers Market. It's also going to be a fundraiser for the owner of the Hartford Building Center.

We will have Skippy (and Tommy because where one goes, the other has to follow) and possibly Chaos. So you can come and meet some of the Sanctuary horses. We'll also have a few items for sale and information about the Sanctuary.

Come on out for a good cause both for the owner of the Hartford Building Center and for the Sanctuary.

I'll post more information when I know more...but mark your calendars for September 14th from 11-2 to come to Hartford!

September Already?

How can it be September already? First of the month also means it's time to pick out a Horse of the Month. We still have a few horses to feature (Rabbit, Mayhem, and Bo). Who do you want to see this month?

Will post more in a little bit. I'm trying to recover from a long weekend of working at the Sanctuary!