Happy Halloween

Hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween.

Escape Artists

Those geldings know how to get on my nerves. Every time I have to run into town in the early evening, those geldings figure out how take down a fence or hurt themselves. In this case, two escaped and one got hurt.

I knew it was going to happen but was hoping that they would behave themselves. I guess I should have known better. They behaved while I was in the Emergency Room on Saturday. Chaos and Dude managed to escape from the drylot and harass Mayhem and Rabbit in their pasture. I'm afraid Zeke tried to go with but managed to hurt himself instead in the process. Go figure. We are starting to gear up for drill team practice and Zeke comes up lame.

Actually it seems that every fall we have additional vet bills. And right now everyone seems to be coming up lame. Rain is a little off but I think with a good trim he'll be back to normal. Zeke is now cut up and we'll have to start doing cold hosing and creams to get him back into shape. Brego came up lame just the other day too. I'm afraid that whatever is wrong with Brego is a lasting problem, not some fleeting injury that will be repairable. Whatever was wrong and flared up during training is now starting to show permanently. I have a feeling that its' the same thing Dude has (Hunter's Bump, where the tail is broken way inside and is putting pressure on the pelvis). But it's only a theory at this point. Unfortunately, if it is Hunter's Bump, there is absolutely nothing we can do to fix it.

I was hoping to do some fencing last Saturday but instead I spent the day in the ER. No worries, I'm fine now. Still don't know what was wrong. I guess my body had an opposition to working on fencing. But I had such high hopes of getting everyone moved over and put up fence in the drylot. I guess until the fence in the drylot is up, I wont' be able to move everyone to their winter pens.

I'm not looking forward to daylight savings time either. The only upside is that the first Monday after daylight savings time I have to go back to work and I'll be getting up the same time I normally do instead of getting up at 5am. That's about the only upside I can come up with. It'll be dark at night when I do chores and it'll still be dark in the  morning when I do chores. I'll only get to see the horses in the daylight on the weekends. Oh how I hate winter.

No Sun

This no sun for umpteen days along with snow and cold has put me into a fowl mood. We had about an inche of snow the other night. I ended up putting blankets on Babe and Bo and put Jim, Zeke, and Rain in the barn. I need to rearrange pens so that I can make sure Bo and Babe are out of all wind for this winter.

Still no word back yet from the vet on what the next steps are for Bo.

Instead of crabbing about everything, I'll just leave you with a few pics from this spring.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Well, we have good news and bad news about Bo. The bloodwork finally came back. He does NOT have West Nile. So no EPM and no West Nile. That's the good news. The bad news, we still don't have a clue what's wrong with him.

The next step is to start doing x-rays. The vet suggested that we start with the neck. The really ugly, the vet bill that we are going to incur to try and figure out what's wrong with Bo. He's been through so much but we need to figure out what's wrong ASAP. I'm waiting on a call back from the vet to see if we are x-raying his neck or some other part of his body. I don't think I can haul him but I'm not sure the vet is set up to do x-rays on a neck while out in the field.

I wish I could pinpoint exactly when he came up lame. If I knew, I could come up with why or how this happened. But having been in the hospital for a full week and then too sick to go out for the following month, I have no clue.

Poor Bo really has been shafted in life. And yet, he is the happiest horse I have ever met. Never have I met a horse that has been starved and now lame but still happy to see me and give me a whinny every time he sees me. (Of course he thinks he's getting food but I'll take whatever whinny I can get.)

I need to get him moved before winter sets in. It's going to be a long haul and I want to make it as easy as I can for him. So no tromping through drifts of snow, which means he needs to go into the pony pen, which has better shelter than where he's at now.

I was planning on pushing in a few bales to the different pens but I'm hoping this weekend to move everyone to their permanent winter pens.  He'll still be hanging out with Babe, much to Babe's dismay. I hate to move Babe, but I don't want her to be alone and I don't want her to contend with the ponies or Rabbit.

The weatherman said we are to get rain and then it's switching to snow sometime in the early morning tomorrow. I went ahead and threw a blanket on Babe and Bo to be on the safe side. I suppose we won't get any rain until this evening but the last time I waited to throw a blanket on those two, it rained. I dont want to take any chances of compromising their systems. So blankets are going on early. I can't believe we are going to get snow already, but I think we are at least one month ahead of schedule for weather. Sure hope it's an open winter, but with lots of rain now or in the spring. We need lots of precipe to bring back our pastures but I really dont' want to deal with cold temps and snow.

I'll be spending all day Saturday rearranging pens and getting everything set up for winter. Who knows when we'll start getting serious snow but I want to be ready no matter what. Oh how I dread winter.

Question

I have a question for everyone. For those that are local to the sanctuary, would you be interested in participating in a horseback scavenger hunt with all proceeds going to the sanctuary? Would you prefer we try to squeeze the scavenger hunt in now before the weather gets bad or hold out until next spring/summer when the weather is less unpredictable?

Please let me know. Leave a comment here if you are a follower, email me at borderlandshorsesanctuary@yahoo.com, or leave a comment on our Facebook page!

Winter Weather Almost Here

I HAVE to start paying attention to the weather.I knew the weatherman said rain and breezy but I wasn't expecting that kind of weather. I lost track of when it started raining. I think we are on day three of clouds. I was able to get Bo and Babe blanketed two nights ago and boy am I glad I did.

All day I watched as the rain kept falling and the wind kept blowing. I felt bad for everyone but couldn't do anything until Mike got home. When I did, it was a hussle to get everything done before the dark set in.

We had terrible winds and horizontal wind. I was worried about Rain all day so I figured I'd bring him home. Mike suggested we bring everyone at the neighbor's home until this weekend. I guess that pasture didn't last two weeks like I had hoped. So now we are throwing hay. I was worried that Rain was chilled and I wanted to get him in and dry him out over night. So I hopped in the truck and brought everyone home since there was no food and they all looked miserable.

I left Rain in the barn overnight to dry off and warm up and I also put Jim and Zeke in the barn. I am going to have to pay more attention to see who needs to go in the barn. I had contemplated putting Bo in the barn but that's a long walk for a horse that can only walk on three legs. He already had his blanket on and I didn't really want ot leave Babe alone. So I tossed them some extra alfalfa and they settled in for the night. Bo was toasty warm in his blanket.

I think this weekend I'll start rearranging pens. There's still a ton of fencing we need to take care of but I want to make chores easier for this winter. I've heard that we'll have the same winter as last year, warmer than normal, and colder than normal. So who knows. But no matter what, I'm going to need to bea ble to consolidate my chores so that I can do them as quickly as possible.

My thought is to move Babe and Bo to the pony pen and extend the pen out with corral panels. That way they are protected from wind in all directions except east and then we'll just have to pull a protective wall. Otherwise I'll take them into the barn where it's a little bit warmer. But if they were out of the elements more and didn't have to content with very much snow, I think they would both do better all winter.

Then I'll put the ponies in the blind pen and put Rabbit and Mayhem with the ponies. I don't really want Mayhem with Rabbit because of Rabbit's bad attitude but it'll just have to wait until next year. Maye the ponies will be a good influence on Mayhem. I suppose once Mayhem goes to training, she'll be better. I just don't want her to pick up any bad habits from Rabbit.

And then there will be the big herd and everyone will have a stall or lento to get out of the wind. I am trying to figure out who goes into what stall in the barn. I have to repair a stall door in the hay shed and put up a couple of panels and then Mayhem, Rabbit, and the ponies will have a pen to stay out of the bad and cold weather. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll just get snow and not a lot of cold weather.

There's a horse sale tomorrow but I don't think I'l go. I can't bring anyone home and I've had to turn away horses. It breaks my heart to go but it also breaks my heart to not go. Who will remember those that go through. Someone has to care for them even if they can't do anything. But I guess I'll have to skip this one. Maybe I'll try to go to the Nov 3rd auction instead but we'll see. I'm not sure my spirits can take too much devistation these days.

I'm hoping the weather turns better for awhile. The weatherman said we'll be in the 60s for the next week or so. Hopefully we can get a few things done with the horses. I'm just not ready for winter yet. I lost all of the summer due to the heat, pregnancy, and some complications after Garrett's birth. I always joked that I was about two months behind but now I'm so far behind, I think I might be a full year behind now!

Please pray for the loose horses that run through tomorrow's sale. Pray that a private buyer takes them home. I'll be thinking of them all day.

Farwell

Today we went to Nikki Zebell's benefit fundraiser. Originally she was to attend and see all the wonderful people who came to support her. Unfortunately, she passed away a week earlier to bone cancer. I had the pleasure of meeting her last year when she baled me out at the Sioux Falls Regional Livestock Horse Sale. She had attended and took in a no value donkey and a no value yearling. She helped me get Savanna and Sahara home. Bless her heart for helping me out. We'd only met one other time.

She was an advocate for the no value horses. She would attend auctions and bring home the no value horses, feed them, educate them, and then find them good homes. For the past year I havent' been able to attend any auctions but I knew that Nikki was out there attending auctions and picking up the no value horses when she could.

I did feel guilty about not attending an auctions because I knew she was out there working her magic. She wouldn't ask for help, she wouldn't ask for money, she wouldn't ask for recognition. She simply did what was right and helped those that couldn't help themselves.

Although she may have lost her battle to bone cancer, she made a huge impact during the short time she was on this earth. Many of the community turned out to support her family. I can only imagine the medical bills that piled up. By the crowd at the Parker Community Center, Nikki touched many people's lives. I can honestly say I was honored in meeting her.  The beneift seemed like a success but I expect that the bills are still piling up. If you can help out, I am positive that the family would be relieved of the burden of dealing with the final costs. If you are interested in donating, please let me know and I'll post the details.

It is a sad day to know that Nikki is no longer on this earth and that there is one less advocate for the horses. But after seeing the number of people attending the benefit, there is hope that her cause will never be forgotten.