Throwback Thursday

Our Throwback Thursday is to this picture taken a long time ago (2011) but it's one I love and use often. I'm no photographer and I don't tweak any of the pictures that I take but some are just powerful all on their own.

Wishlist Wednesday

This Wishlist Wednesday, we wish for Water Heaters for 100 gallon tanks. Winter will be here before you know it and I have learned that the water heaters are only good for a year (possibly two). Then they start to short out and you don't know until it's been a day or two and the horses haven't touched the water.


We'll need a minimum of two water heaters and possibly three this winter. The big 100 gallon tank for the mares and Junior needs one, possibly two depending on the wattage. The ponies will need one unless I decide I'm ok with hauling water morning and night and jumping up and down on the frozen water buckets to free them up.


I'd like to be prepared when the cold season sets in so asking for water heaters now is a great start to being prepped and ready to go for winter.

Annual Playday and Obstacle Course Fundraiser

We're finally getting more organized for the upcoming playday and obstacle course! We're dividing the obstacle course into two classes to make it even more fun. One for riding and one for in-hand (for those with young horses or young riders who need a bit more help along the way). This is a great opportunity to desensitize your young ones in an enclosed and safe environment.


Check back on our Facebook page to see more details as we continue to add to the playday and obstacle course with  more good information and teases to get you there.


Spectators are greatly encouraged to attend!

Stressing It

We had another storm roll through last night. That's two nights in a row where we've gotten some serious rain. I'm thankful for the rain. Even if we didn't get enough during the summer and it caused some chaos with finding enough hay, I'm glad we're getting the rain now to restore some of the pastures and hay fields. I just hope next year will be an easier year for hay (and less expensive).


We'll have to look for additional hay resources next year as well. I'd like to have more than one resource in my back pocket. I'm a worrier and I keep looking for more hay but we need to get this hay paid for first before I can look for more. I just hope what we have is enough. We have to put in hay tonight, and now that we are feeding hay (and will be until May), I'm not sure we have enough. I'm a worrier by nature but this is legitimate worry.


I haven't bothered checking the hay barn to see how bad the leaks are. I'm simply ignoring the fact because we'll be getting it reroofed (fingers crossed). But I should probably have gotten up there and thrown a tarp down to try and save at least the loft from leaking down into the bottom floor.


We are planning on working on the barn tonight. I'm not sure what we'll get accomplished. We only have about two hours of daylight and it depends on how soon we both get home from the paying job to tackle anything. It usually takes a good half an hour of just finding everything we need to even start. It would be nice to see some progress. Now that it's October, I'm unsure that anything more will get done before the cold sets in.


I realized that every August I panic about winter. It's a ritual now. Or maybe it's a habit. Either way I've realized that I've spent the last two months playing and August is the final month of summer and I need to buckle down. Other times I've been playing so hard I'm burned out. And now with birthdays thrown in, I struggle to find time to get anything but the bare necessities done.


And then September rolls in and I REALLY go into a tailspin panic because nothing got done in August that I was freaked out about and now we are into school and fall and all that jazz. I need to get better organized so that next year when August and September rear their ugly heads, I wont' be caught by surprise. It's not like I don't know it's coming and that all this stuff needs to get done. I need a planner and an organizer. Any takers?


I'm hoping the weather holds so we can get a few things done tonight and then this weekend we'll have one day to get  more stuff done. I just hope we can really buckle down and get stuff done. It would be nice to see progress on the outbuildings. I'm starting to give up hope that I'll have time to finish painting the west side of the barn and I'll be left with the redneck view (bottom painted and top still needing to be scraped and painted).


Ah, this is the life of a Sanctuary momma with small kids working a full time paying job on the side.

Meet Chaos

Meet Chaos

Chaos has been with us from almost the beginning (ok, so he's actually the official beginning to the Sanctuary). We had moved into our acreage about six months earlier and had recently brought my horses home (they stayed in Madison for the winter so we could figure out what it was like to live on an acreage for the first time without having to worry about animals).

A coworker at the time was going to take a yearling stud he'd bred and raised to a local auction unless I wanted him. Free was knew to me so of course I said yes. I was in for a surprise when I discovered that this new yearling was not halter broke and had very minimal handling (if any). So we loaded him up and that was the end of it.

Luckily for me, even with Chaos being site unseen welcomed into the Sanctuary, he was a laid back horse that fit my personality. I had more time back then so I could mess around with him, handle him, and eventually put him in with the little herd of four we had at the time. I always said older horses do wonders for these younger horses and I think that was true of Chaos.

He's currently 12 years old and is a breeding stock paint. As always, there was a problem with his papers so he's unregisterable. But that doesn't matter to me. This guy has 9 lives. He's been through a few little mishaps and come out the wiser for them (or so I like to say, but I think I'm the wiser out of the incidents).


Chaos is a laidback horse who doesn't let much get to him. He is starting to get a stubborn streak lately. He' starting to not respect fences so we'll have to give him an education on what REAL electric is all about soon (most of our fences at the Sanctuary are "courtesy" fences anyway).

Chaos is second in command and is typically Dude's shadow but goes it alone when he thinks Dude is doing it wrong. Chaos is my go-to horse for putting new riders on (even though it should be Maverick). Everyone seems to fall in love with Chaos. It could be because he's a hunk (although these pictures don't do him justice).


The only horse to push him around is Rain. Dude does his thing and Chaos has learned to stay out of his way. But Rain can pin his ears and Chaos will move. No one else has that authority. And yet, Rain can't and wont' be heard boss when Dude is gone. It's odd. Chaos has always looked to see who's in charge or who's number one in his books and goes after them to either test their authority or to become their side kick. He's learned how to position himself within the herd well.


Chaos is a terrible drill team horse but a wonderful trail riding horse. He'd rather mosey along on a trail than run hell bent in an arena. His preferred speed is a walk if he MUST do anything. He is the absolute perfect horse for trail riding and I'd rank him up there with the type of trail riding horse that people are looking for. I'm pretty blessed to have him as a good trail riding horse (after having so many that didn't really work as trail riding horses).

People have asked if we have any that would work in their programs, and Chaos would be one of them, but we gave our promise and our word that he would be with us forever. Thankfully he's a easy going guy so it's pretty easy to keep that promise. And now with my family deciding they want to get into horses, Chaos is the go-to horse. It seems all of my family has taken claim to Chaos as their own. First it was Dad who stole him from me as a riding horse, then it was my nephew, and now it's my daughter.

Chaos is definitely one of those "one in a million" types of horses. I'm glad I took the chance and brought him home. At the time, we didn't have criteria and weren't focused on old horses but he's still here to stay and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

Hunk-A-Mini Love

My daughter wanted to ride so I pulled Skippy out. Of course I should know better than to leave Penny out. Penny spooked Skippy and that was the end of riding time. Momma fail.

But while I had Skippy out, I decided that I would give him a photo shoot. It's a bit tricky to get a good photo of a mini without help. All he wanted to do was eat the grass and I wanted pictures of him with his head up. Neither of us liked the other's idea. Typical mini-fashion to disagree with me.

I had to roach his mane. There were too many cockleburs. And for those that think I'm mean, trust me. It WILL come back. And you are more than welcome to come and pull cockleburs out of others or cut down the plants so there's no more cockleburs on the place.

Skippy still has a skin issue going on but it's getting better. Now that the summer heat is gone, most of the summer itch is gone as well. It is a constant battle to maintain his skin issues. Luckily he's fairly decent to treat. Of course, I think he knows I can outmuscle him.

Here's a few pictures from our photo shoot.

Fencing Dispair

I went out to do chores Friday night and had to go in search of Bo. It's a good thing I did. Apparently I jinxed myself last Thursday when I talked about fencing and how good fences make for good neighbors. Well, I'm not a good neighbor. Chaos and Rain were out.

All of the fencing (and buildings) were put in around the 1940s (or so I'm guessing). So now, how many years later, all of the buildings and fences are starting to rot away. And that's what happened with the fence posts in the pasture. One of the panels (because there's many panels for our pasture because it's not a perfect square), simply rotted off and took the fence down with it. Luckily it didn't take the entire fence line, just the fence up to the metal posts on either side.

But an opening in a fence is Chaos's invitation to leave. He jumped the fence while we were on vacation and I still dont' know where.

So much to my surprise when I look out and notice that the horses don't seem to be in the right spot. That's because the fence panel broke clean off and I had to rush around and figure out how to get the horses back in and contained for the night. Luckily it was only Chaos and Rain and not the entire herd. And luckily we are surrounded by beans rather than corn this year. If it were corn, we would have been in serious trouble.

Chaos brought Rain back into the pasture and I herded them all back into the drylot for the night. I checked the electric fence so I could plug it in and remind Chaos to NOT jump fences while we wait until morning to put the panel back up. But when I went to plug in the electric fence, it didn't work right. Normally there's supposed to be the reassuring thunk of the electric pumping through the wire. I didn't hear that. I heard a click...click, click, click....click.......click...click, click, click. Umm, that's not right. And it wasn't like it was grounded out somewhere because I had JUST walked the fence.

So now we are without an electric fencer. We had a cheap portable one that died. Our super nice solar fencer died last year and now the plug in electric fencer died. I can't afford another $300 fencer so I'm not sure what to do.

And when I walked out to the pasture after getting the panel fixed the next day, I noticed a dead tree had fallen on the fenceline in the mares' pen. Wouldn't you know it. So lots of fencing going on. Unfortunately, there's another dead tree right next to the one that fell that needs to come down. And you betcha, it'll fall on the tree. But the blade on the chainsaw is bad so we have to get another blade or chains or something before we can do any more tree cutting.

It seems that if it's not one thing, it's something else. And I've been so wrapped up with the paying job and all kinds of other stuff that I havent' had any time to plan for the upcoming fundraiser. I definitely need help with the playday/obstacle course. I think I'm in over my head this time around....sigh.

But instead of complaining, I'll leave you with pictures from the other night (AFTER the fence was repaired and the herd could go back out).

We'll be putting in hay starting this week. The pastures are pretty well done and the horses are telling me they want hay.

Chaos (he's hiding his cocklebur unicorn) with King and Dude in the background

Some of the herd (Brego and Zeke in the front)

Jim was following me when I went to check on the repaired fence panel. I think he wants his grain.

Dude (with either Brego or Bo in the background)

Blurry pick of King

Zeke (looking fat in his retirement)

Brego's legs, Chaos, Jim, King, and Dude

Rain...I think he was watching Lightening come down the hill (and yes, I have a Rain and a Lightening)