Wishlist Wednesday

Our Wishlist Wednesday (on a Thursday because I ran out of time) is for a hose reel (or whatever they are called). With over 300 feet of hose needed to fill the far tanks, it would be nice to have the hoses all tucked up and tidy instead of constantly lying about. I'm usually pretty careful about at least putting the connectors up where we can see them but on occasion they do get driven over. With hoses being in short supply at the Sanctuary, I'd like to keep them a bit more protected. And it would make the place look nicer. We might be hicks but we aren't slobs. :-)

Happy Birthday Jett!

Time really flies!!

Happy Birthday Jett!! I can't believe it's been five years already. You've grown to be a very stunning gelding and have come a long way. That education is thanks to your adopter who's put a lot of time and training into you.

Hard to believe you were such a peanut that I could pick up.

Don't work your momma over too much Jett! She deserves a huge bouquet of flowers for all your orneriness.

Happy Fifth Birthday Jett

That'll Teach Me

Ever since we started using round bales, I've been using hay nets. I've learned that even with a hay net, you  need to use a hay ring. We'd purchased an old hay ring that was a bit dilapidated (ok, a lot). But for $25, you're not going to say no. Well, there's a learning curve to putting bales in a round bale feeder and one that isn't all that strong can't take too many hits or bales dropping on them before they are more of a suggestion rather than the real deal.  So least to say the hay ring for the  mares and Junior is more of a suggestion rather than the real deal.


I am still learning the art of putting hay  nets on and keeping them secured. The mares have the ability to pop the darn hay nets off. Usually it's not a big deal and I can either get them back on or let them go because it's not that big of a deal.


We had rain all of last week. And lots of it. It was almost knee deep around the hay ring. In that time, they also decided to take the hay net off. I hadn't been able to find it for two or three days. But we needed to put hay in last night after getting our hopefully last load of hay. So I knew I had to look for it.


I found it. Buried. Luckily it wasn't buried too deep but it was buried with some of the hay still in it, in more than ankle deep mud. The other portion of it was still in the hay ring but Mayhem had taken to standing in the hay ring to get out of the  mud so she'd compacted everything down even farther.


It took a bit to get the net out of the mud. Least to say, that'll be the last time that I let a hay net get buried in the mud. Or what we'll call mud. It's a good thing I hadn't eaten before going out. I gagged a few times. I had no idea that the mud was that bad. I dont' really like using hay rings because they stand around it all the time and churn up the earth around it, and when it rains, it gets deep. It's one disadvantage to a round bale and with the amount of rain we got, that didnt' help either.


So after dragging the hay net to dry ground, I had to get the hose out and hose down the mud and muck. Because there's no way they would eat the new bale without having a clean hay net on it. Let me just say, a dry hay net is heavy. A water logged hay net is almost impossible to throw on a bale.


But that'll teach me not to go out right away and either re-securing the hay  net or simply pull it off the next time a horse pulls the net off a hay bale and starts standing on it.

Junior

Rabbit and Mayhem

I know the pics are from this January, but wanted to post pictures of the culprits for my hay net incident.

Throwback Thursday

this week's Throwback Thursday is to our first load of round bales. We just received our last load of round bales last night. We had ordered by the ton so the last load of hay was unplanned but very much needed to get us through until we can get horses out on pasture (and to keep some on drylot....ie ponies).

With the extra load, we need help covering the cost of hay. Anyone want to help? Even $5 helps in putting a dent into the hay bill.

Evacuation Plan

I was just reading about the wildfire that overtook Fort McMurray in Canada. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this devastation. I cannot, and hope to never, fathom such an ordeal.


But it makes me think. If we were to evacuate, how could we? I've been tossing around the idea of selling the 6-horse trailer and use something a little bit more practical. There's only me and I'm usually only hauling one or two horses so there's no need for a 6-horse. But then I think about an evacuation. The 6-horse would move a lot of the Sanctuary pretty quick. It may hold 6 but I can always toss the ponies in somewhere so it would turn into 8 and then we have our trusty stock trailer that holds 4. If you count the ponies, that leaves only 4 left behind. We have another stock trailer so that would alleviate that issue (if we were to keep that trailer and that's not the plan). But I've been trying to figure out an emergency plan if we were to need one. There's phone numbers and people to call in an emergency but we like to be self sufficient (and I know we can't if we want to continue to grow).


So, do you have an emergency evacuation plan?

Wishlist Wednesday

Our Wishlist Wednesday wish is for brushes, any kind, any size, any shape, any color. But brushes are desperately needed.


Do you know how hard it is to get a white horse clean? One word...impossible.


At one point, I had bought a bunch of brushes when Rain had sarcoids and I thought it was spreading. I'd wanted to make sure that everyone had their own brush so that no one spread anything. Well, in the chaos that is life at the Sanctuary, those brushes all disappeared and we are left with one or two and some days I can't even find those.


So, we are looking for body brushes/dandy brushes, face brushes, curry combs, hoof picks, rubber scrubber thingies, shedding blades, etc. You name it, we need it.

10 Years and Exciting News

May marks 10 years of doing rescue/sanctuary work. I knew for years that I wanted to do rescue work and finally in May 2006 we took in our first rescue. He was an unhandled (he was friendly and had been touched but wasn't halter broke) yearling stud out of registered stock but couldn't be registered (isn't that the story on so many?).  He came to us free. And we took him sight unseen not knowing anything. That was Memorial Weekend, 2006.


Fast forward 10 years and numerous horses, and here we are today, May 2016. The icing on the cake....we are OFFICIALLY 501(c)3 non-profit as of April 2016 (and we still have the horse that started it all).

The horse who started it all....Chaos (pic from a few years ago)

We've changed our focus and direction in those 10 years to focus on the senior horses instead of any horse in need. We want to be the small niche for these senior horses because we see value in the wisdom that they bring. We understand and appreciate their crankiness and temperamental nature. We do still have a few "young 'uns" but we made promise and will allow them to grow old at the Sanctuary.


I would like to celebrate our 10 years and our 501(c)3 status. I haven't come up with any final plans and am looking for some suggestions (and volunteers).


So, who's with me in celebrating with us?