Junior is Here!

Junior is here! He arrived safely this morning. He's such a love! Usually when a horse unloads from a trailer in an unusual place (and when its' windy and cold), they get a little upset. Not Junior. He stood patiently still, taking in all the sights. He's a very quiet boy.

I have him in a pen near the ponies right now to get used to seeing the other horses. I'm debating on putting him in with the mares for tonight so he can get away from the west wind. I wish it was the weekend so I could bond with him more. For now, I'm giving him some space to take in all the new sights and smells. I'm not one for pushing.

I have pictures but will go out later to get better pictures and will post pictures later today. We still need to raise funds for one more bale ($65) if anyone wants to donate. Even if you don't have $65, donating towards a bale would be very helpful. Every dollar counts! $1 or $65 doesn't matter. It's all very much appreciated.

And with this cold weather setting in so quickly, I would like to buy Junior a blanket. We have a few blankets but they are all spoken for, for the hard keepers. I'm afraid Junior might be a hard keeper and I would like to keep him warm this winter. If you have a blanket you would like to donate, we would greatly appreciate it. Or if you would like to buy Junior a blanket, I know Junior would love it! We have one or two blankets that might fit but they need some serious repair before I can use them and I'm not sure I'll have time to figure out how to fix them (they have serious tears). Blankets range in cost from $50 to $90 so if you dont have a blanket or dont want to go out and find one, you can always donate towards a blanket for Junior.

Horse of the Month - Bo

Bo has had an interesting life. I don't know the entire story but I can say that he is safe at the Sanctuary and will remain here and be watched like a hawk.  We rescued Bo from an auction in March 2011. He was nothing but skin and bones (see the fourth picture). He's a super hard keeper. I did meet one of his owners and was told that he had a high metabolism. 

I don't know the specifics; it's all heresay so instead, I'll focus on Bo's future. He's still a hard keeper as the first two pictures show. These were taken last year and he still looked tough. He had a few set backs while I was pregnant and lost a bit of weight. But I think I've figured out his grain ration but we'll see how it works with the upcoming winter months.

With what I was told about his past, I was shocked that Bo is still such a sweet and happy horse. He always greets me with a loud whinny and it warms my heart. Bo is fully broke to ride although I don't ride him that much. He gets very nervous and upset when I haul him anywhere, so I've left him to simply be a horse and will putter on him just around the Sanctuary.

I know people say that you only get one heart horse, but I've had a few. Bo is a heart horse. He tries so hard and wants to be near me. It warms my heart. He's also best friends with Zeke. They are pretty much inseparable when out in the pasture.

Bo is at the bottom of the pecking order. But I run him into the barn to get his daily grain ration. If I don't have his grain IMMEDIATELY, he lets me know that he's not happy about the delay. He's probably the loudest horse around when he whinnies for his grain!

The above picture was a week after we brought him home. When we first brought him home, you couldn't tell how bad he really was because his hair was fluffed up. I'd put a blanket on to ward against the chill and it became even more apparent that he was starving. At first, he was so lethargic that I left him stalled (for quarantine purposes) but I would hand walk him. We could only walk a few steps before he would become exhausted. But he's bounced back and although he'll never be fat, he'll always have food to devour.

The above picture is of Bo a month after bringing him home. It's amazing how long it takes to gain the weight back on (and how quickly it falls off him).

So you can see, after just a month of constant feeding and different graining rations, he's already gained weight.

Bo is a very special horse for me. I'm sure others would just see a gangly horse. He's a National Show Horse (which is part arabian and part saddlebred). He doens't look like a quarter horse and he's mostly legs and neck. But his personality is what I see. We are so blessed to have Bo in our lives.

Donations Coming In

Yesterday afternoon, what should I find in our mailbox, but a letter from a very good friend, Heather McLay. She and her family donated funds to purchase not one, but two round bales. So by Friday evening we had three bales covered!

Today, while hanging out with family, Barb Simon stopped over. She handed me a check for one bale!

We are now only one bale away ($65) from bringing Junior "home". I am getting more and more excited to tell Junior's current owners that he will have a permanent retirement at the Sanctuary. We still need to raise $65 but even $5 can go a long way in bringing Junior home!

From the bottom of my heart, Thank you!

Thankful Challenge

I had high hopes last night of getting a few things done for the Sanctuary, like the paypal account and getting pictures of items for sale (they would make GREAT Christmas presents!). It didn't happen.

I ran out of steam long before I should have. I'm reading/reviewing a book for the Senior Equine Care blog but I didn't get it wrapped up like I wanted to. Two pages in and I fell asleep. I'm hoping that I can get some motivation and get a few more things off my to do list. This daylight savings time and getting old are rough on a body.

Luckily I was able to do most of my chores before the sun set last night (thanks to my son's help). Even at two he's willing to help push the hay wagon and wheel barrow fully loaded with hay! What a trooper. It also helped this morning to have a full moon to work by. I'm using up the hay from last year before I start in on this year's hay. We had left over hay thanks to people donating their hay! That means I have to throw hay over the gate and then spread it around instead of pulling my hay wagon in to the drylot. That method will last until the first accumulating snow, which sounds like it could be Monday.

I'm going to be scrambling Sunday to get things buttoned up before the snow flies. I'm afraid we won't get the roof back on the run-in shed at the bottom of the drylot in just one day but I'm going to tackle it if anyone wants to help. We still have alfalfa to stack and put away and fencing to do. We need the alfalfa stacked and covered so that we can use the trailer to pick up fencing materials. The flatbed trailer is always a catch 22. We leave anything on it (for one reason or another) and then we need it. Never knew we would use that trailer as much as we do!

I'm not sure if I'll have time to post anything over the weekend but if you have free time on Sunday, stop on out. We'll be busy working on any number of projects. We can always use the help.

We are also still fundraising to bring in the older horse who deserves a retirement home. We have one bale paid for so we are down to FOUR bales left to fundraise for. Even $5 will go far in raising funds for "Junior". November is the month of being thankful. I'd like to say in the middle of the month that I 'm thankful we were able to raise the funds so we could bring Junior "home". Can you help?

Don't forget to check us out on Facebook. We are doing the November "Thankful" challenge. It's pretty easy thanks to all of our wonderful supporters!

Fencing

I just saw the following in my inbox. I thought it rather fitting because we are in the midst of fencing. I thought I would pass it along in case anyone else is in the same boat as us for fencing.

http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/article/fresh-fencing-25754?utm_source=PracticalHorsemanNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter

Continual Fencing

Mike played hookie from his paying job to get a few things done around the place before winter sets in. Luckily, he and Dad were able to get the gapping hole fixed in the house. Once that was done, he and Dad spent the afternoon digging holes and putting in wood fence posts. The big drylot (where the geldings stay all winter) now have all new fence posts.

There's still plenty of work to do. The posts are in but nothing else. This Sunday we'll be putting in the new fence (although we still have to figure out exactly what type of fencing we are going to do). I had hoped we could reuse some of the old fence but Dude successfully bent over half of the cattle panels when he stood on them to reach the grass this past spring.

I've come up with a better fencing method to keep those darn horses OFF the fence (which includes electric!) We still have more fence posts to put in but that'll mean we have to buy more posts. We have used up all the wooden posts we bought from the state when they were redoing the fenceline along the interstate. I think we have super tall fence posts still for the big drylot. Our drylot is goofy because on the west side, there's a two foot drop off from the concrete to the actual drylot. So now we have to find fence posts that are tall enough to go 4 feet into the ground, be tall enough to span the two foot drop off and still be tall enough to deter the horses from jumping (although we don't have any jumpers because they are all too lazy).

The small pen still needs a new fence line (it's on the west side as well). If we don't buy new posts or have time to put holes in, I'll have to go with Plan B, which is use corral panels and wire them up to t-posts. It'll be temporary but it'll at least hold until next year. I'm planning on only having the mares in the smaller pen for the winter. I'm also considering keeping the ponies in a separate pen so that the mares have more time to eat. Those ponies know how to snarf down the hay before Mayhem and Rabbit can get a mouthful!

I'm excited for the weekend so that we can see more results. The fencing is a bit irritating because we put in a new fenceline two years ago. I couldn't do anything because I was still recovering from complications from having our son. But now, having to redo everyone's hard work is a bit bittersweet. It was a hard lesson to learn but now I know what works and what doesn't work in that drylot.

And it's a good thing that we are getting these projects done. The forecast is calling for rain/snow Sunday night into Monday. I am NOT ready for winter, especially when it's only the first of November. I'm afraid it's going to be a very LONG winter and very tough.

So I guess while everyone else works on the fence,  I'll be working on tearing apart the roof of the run-in shed we built a couple years ago. I think when we are in town buying supplies for fencing, that we'll buy some hurricane straps for the roof! Lesson learned! We don't have hurricanes but we DO have tornados!!! I doubt we'll get the roof on the run-in shed but at least we'll be making progress. There's too many horses and not enough shelters if we don't have that one in use.

So for anyone that might be in the area and bored, come on out Sunday. We'll put you to work. Even if you don't want to do fencing or "roof" work, there's always grooming or other activities with the horses that needs to be done.

Update on Funding for Senior Horse In Need

You guys are awesome! I have the first donation in hand already! Thank you to Keith Letson for purchasing Junior's first bale of hay! Four more bales to go! Keep up the great work!!

 

 

"Junior" - Looking to retire at the Sanctuary

For those interested in donating to Junior's cause, we are accepting cash and check. Right now you have to mail it because I haven't figured out paypal (26160 457th Humboldt, SD 57035). Setting up paypal is my goal for this week so keep checking back to see how much we raise for "Junior".

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!