Intersection

I am a little rattled. I think I have been since last night after getting home. Mike mentioned on the news that there was a terrible accident at a corner that I always have to stop on my way to and from work. I’ve always said it’s a bad intersection and one of these days I’m going to get hit. Last night, someone was hit and killed at that intersection. I was apprehensive about taking that route this morning, not wanting to cross where someone had been killed. It seemed almost sacrileges to me.  I know it sounds weird but that’s just my thinking. This morning as I pulled up to the stop sign, the only evidence was some broken glass. There was no other indication that there had been an accident and that someone had lost their life at that very spot. It makes me realize how precious life can be. One minute we are here, and the next gone.

Then I started thinking about the horses that are slaughtered. Who will remember them? Who will mourn for them? Who will keep their memories in their hearts? One minute they are on this earth and the next they are gone.

I know my logic isn’t here this morning. When certain things rattle me, my logic isn’t always explainable. All I know is that one of my biggest fears is to be forgotten. I know many years from now, I’ll be mentioned by my great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren in passing so I won’t be forgotten. But what of the horses? Who will remember them? It seems that the minute they are tossed into the auction circuit, they are forgotten as individuals.  I’ve seen a number of ads for people in search of their horses that they sold at auction. 

We each have our own path in life. People come and go, horses come and go. We each make our own decisions but not every horse is given an opportunity.  Maybe it’s the mom in me where I have to keep tabs on my son (and the horses). I want to know where they are at, at all times. Once they leave my possession (the horses not my son), I don’t know what will happen to them. Maybe it’s a control thing, or maybe it’s my Type A.

I don’t really know where I was going with this post, other than to let you know that I’m rattled. When we know a loss is coming, we can prepare. When a loss is sudden, it’s harder to handle. I guess with sanctuary life, I can prepare for loss. And those that we have lost will never be forgotten. The horses will be remembered by multiple people. I guess I’m just worried and sad for those horses that are not mourned over when they leave this earth.

I’m sorry. I know this post doesn’t make any sense. I can’t seem to pinpoint down the emotions in my head.

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.

A Little Bummed

I'm a little bummed. I should be estatic but instead I'm a little bummed. Neither Chaos or Maverick will be representing Borderlands in the drill team. I have a hunch that Maverick wouldn't work out. The way he was trained makes it hard to get him into anything but a walk in an arena. I think if there were cows in that arena he'd be a little different.

Chaos was just being lazy. I need to start working with him a lot more. Any time you push him into a lope, he decides that he doesn't want to go that fast and gives a little crow hop. Unacceptable! But he's so out of shape and so lazy that he doesn't pick up his feet. We'll be loping the pattern and Chaos isn't a good fit at this point in time.

I'll be pulling Rain out next to see if he can handle it. I was afraid that with the hot weather, he'd have another heat stroke or have heat exhuastion but maybe if we work him up to it he wont' be so bad. Usually the heat exhaustion kicks in after we've been trail riding for an hour or so. We'll only be in the arena for a short period of time so maybe he'll work out just fine. I know he has a bit higher step than Chaos. I swear all Chaos does is shuffle.

On the bright side is that they both were fairly decent for having been on paternity leave for the past year. Yup, we pulled Chaos and Maverick out of pasture, threw a saddle on them, lounged Maverick only because of my past experience with him not for any other reason, and then hopped on. We could have gone on a trail ride. They acted more like 20 year old quarter horses rather than the 7 year olds that they are. So there's hope that they will make superb trail horses but they'll never make a drill team horse. I guess each horse has their preference of jobs. I don't know that trail riding really fits Maverick's personality but for now, that'll be what it is until we can find a small herd of cattle to work (with guidance from an experienced person telling us what to do).

So we'll see if Rain is the next drill team horse on Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed that he's the one.

December Already?

How can it be December already? I see all kinds of Christmas lights up and I still have fall decorations!

Saturday morning we pushed round bales in to the big herd. They were more than willing to chow down on the bales once we let them go. I opened the barn door and let whoever came up to the barn in to stand instead of haltering and tying the others. Dude, King, Chaos, and Jim all went into the barn. When I let them out, they all went galloping around the pen.

It’s so much fun watching the herd run, buck, rear, and enjoy themselves. King is usually so poky slow but he was bucking and rearing straight up at one point. Guess he was feeling his oats. Maverick would grab a bite and then run around trying to stir up more commotion. I think he’s really bored.

But we’ll have the fix for that soon. I’m either using Chaos or Maverick for the second drill team I’m on. This way we will no doubt represent rescue horses. I’d rather take Chaos because he’s prettier (sorry Maverick). But Maverick really needs a job. Tonight I’m hauling both boys to an indoor arena and riding around to see who will be the best fit.  I have a sneaky suspicion of who it’ll be but I’ll wait and see if I’m right or not.

Babe is doing much better. She still has the infection but it’s slowly healing. She’s been such a trooper through the entire experience. I’m so glad my fears were false in thinking she was going to need her eye removed. I guess I’m always thinking the worst case scenario so that if it ever does happen, I’m not caught by surprise.

 I really think Bo is back to normal. Yesterday I loaded Zeke up for the Hartford Parade of Lights. Bo went ballistic. He trotted back and forth in his pen and he never took a wrong step; he never once indicated that his leg or shoulder or backend was weak. In fact, at one point, he let out a pretty fierce kick with both back legs. I don’t know that we’ll ever know for sure what was wrong with him. I still want to keep him in the hospital ward for now. I want to make sure that he won’t regress. If we give him another month of rest maybe then I will put him in with the big herd. I prefer that he have 24/7 access to hay, which he does and Babe much prefers his company as long as it’s on the other side of the pen. She knows that Bo is near but not with her. She put her nose through the top rung of the corral panel to try and coax Bo over.  They will eat nose to nose in the round bale. Babe still lets out a squeal every once in a while if Bo does something she doesn’t like. While we were loading Zeke, Bo kept running back and forth whinnying. That in turn would upset Babe and get her whinnying. It was almost a three ring circus by the time we left.

 This morning when I walked out to do chores, the weather was actually warm. It felt like a storm was coming but I know better. There’s not even any talk of a storm until possibly the end of the week. Just the other day we had that same feeling where I would have sworn a storm was coming but instead it was a cloudy day and nothing more.  Usually we put up a snow fence to block the snow from coming up the driveway. We haven’t put it up yet and I’m beginning to wonder if we should even bother with it. I’m not complaining about not having snow but we are in desperate need of some moisture. I prefer to not drive on snow and ice but if we could get some warm rain that would be wonderful.

I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll do this week. We are busy with drill team practices and that’s about it. Nothing too exciting (knock on wood). If you happen to have any yearling or pony halters, Gentle Spirits Horse Rescue and Sanctuary is collecting. They will be shipping off a box of halters to help in the rescue efforts that are currently underway in southern Minnesota. I don’t have all the details in front of me but it’s a large undertaking by one rescue with many emaciated horses. If I remember right, there were a total of 58 animals removed from the property. But I don’t have all the facts. If you want me to post more, just let me know and I’ll find out all the information and post.

Don't Forget!

Don't forget, this weekend is the Colton Festival of Trees. Borderlands is donating a tree. So if you'd like to see our creativeness, go check it out. The festivties are free and all the proceeds go to a good cause.

Also, if you have time and want to get into the Christmas spirit a little bit more, we will be at the Hartford Parade of Lights. I'll be riding Zeke (although he's not a rescue he can still represent Borderlands). We'll be riding for the Cowboy Way Riding Angels Drill Team.

We are also having our brainstorming meeting Saturday evening at 5:30pm.  If you can make it, let me know so I know how many pizzas to order. If you can't make it but have ideas, email us at borderlandshorsesanctuary@yahoo.com. I am looking forward to hearing everyone's fantastic fundraising ideas.

Drought

I'm starting to worry. Ok, worry more than normal. I know that worrying doesn't do any good but I'll still do it. I can't remember the last time we had any rain (or snow) that soaked the ground. I don't know what's going to happen if we don't get some moisture into the ground.

If we don't get some decent moisture, we are going to continue this drought. Our pastures won't hold out at this rate. Awhile back we got a little bit of rain and the pasture started to perk up. If the pasture doesn't come back, we will be feeding hay. I'd rather not feed hay year round to the herd. As it stands, I still haven't paid for all of this year's hay. We are still saving up to cover the cost .

If the drought continues, I forsee an increase of horses headed to auction. That thought really bothers me. There are too many really good horses headed to slaughter.

So if anyone knows a rain dance, want to show me how it's done? I normally follow the old wives tale of 90 days after fog is precip. Well, so far that isn't holding true. Of course it depends on if it's an El Nino year or a La Nina year. La Nina doesn't work. Do not sure what this year is supposed to be. From my records, we were supposed to get a fairly decent amount of precip over Thanksgiving because we had fog that last weekend in August. But no dice. Still no precipe to account for anything.

On a happier note, Bo is really starting to come back both in reduced lameness and increased weight. While I was hopsitalized and unable to care for him afterwards, Bo dropped a bit of weight. But  now that he's on a round bale 24/7 along with a grain mixture, he's starting to look good again. He's also acting like there's no lameness. I am sure I'm being over cautious by pulling him from the big herd but I feel better knowing he's on soft ground and won't get pushed around.

I have spooked him twice now. I was busy doing my chores while Bo had his head buried in the hay (he and Babe are separated by a corral panel but I swear they eat with their noses touching). So when Bo finally heard me messing with his water, he spooked. I figured his spook would cause some damage to his leg but it didn't.

Last night after I got back from drill team practice (I'll talk more about that in a later post), Bo was going crazy! He was loping back and forth in his smallish pen. I sat and watching him looking for any sign of lameness but didn't see anything. So I don't know what's going on. I'm keeping a close eye on him but it's impossible to keep him quiet in that small pen. So we are still doing the "wait and see" method. But I'm about half tempted to throw a saddle on him and putter around the yard to see how he does. I am afraid my weight will be too much for him just yet and I want him to pack on a few more pounds before I do any riding of any sort with him. But if he appears to be sound with no issues, I may start working him a little to build back the muscle that he lost.  But I'm not going to push it and I won't be disappointed if he turns into a pasture pet. But it would be really  nice to ride him so that he can represent Borderlands AND that a super thin horse isn't always an old horse AND that it's possible to bring back a horse from the brink.

If Bo does stay sound and keeps the weight on, I may start using him for drill team.  But for now, either Maverick or Chaos will represent Borderlands on the drill team. It's nice to show off horses that would have potentially been lost to the auction circuit.

This weekend is supposed to be goregous so hopefully I can sneak a short ride in.

Missing You

I thought the blog was looking a little bare so I thought I'd go into the archives and look to see where we were at a year ago this time and so forth.  I came across pictures of Bob and I started to cry. I miss that loveable guy so much! These pictures were taken the day before we had to put him down. He was our first draft horse and boy was that an experience. He taught me so much, as each horse at Borderlands has. 

The more I look at these pictures, the more I miss him. I wish everyone would be given a chance to retire. Bob lucked out that we were able to give him a few years of leisure before we had to say goodbye. This is exactly why I want to fundraise and be able to provide deserving horses a place to retire. They work hard all their lives and now need to be pampered and know that their final days will be filled with food, friendship, and love.

I miss you my sweet Bob. The place has never been the same. I need to go now before I can't stop crying.