Calming Rain

After three or four straight days of 90+ degree weather and 25+ mph wind, we finally have a break from the weather and are enjoying rain, cooler temps, and no wind. I know we had rain a few weeks back but with 90 degree weather, the grass was starting to burn and dry up. We had an extreme drought eight years ago and we barely survived. If we were to have a drought now, I'm not sure my sanity could handle it.


After everyone else went to bed last night, I finally got out to do chores in the dark. It was still windy but the temps were manageable. In fact, I pulled a chair out into the driveway and just sat looking at the stars for a bit after everything was done. Every once in a while I'd see a flash in the sky of lightening. After I went in for the night, I checked my phone to see how close the storm was. Oddly, it was miles and miles and miles away. It's amazing how far you can see some days/nights when looking up at the sky.


It's going to remain quiet for the remainder of the week. We are still coming to terms and preparing ourselves mentally to let Jessie go. I think my worrying for Diavlo's depression is overtaking my sorrow for losing Jessie. Hopefully Diavlo will bond with Mayhem. If not, I may shake it up a bit and put him in with the big herd. But if he bonds severely with Chaos, we'll have problems because Chaos is one that we take out of the herd and take to different places.


I do hope that the rain predicted for tomorrow holds off until after we lay Jessie to rest. The plan is to bury her next to Ransom and the others. It's hard enough juggling the vet's schedule and the excavator's schedule. Now we have to throw in the weather's decision to go from 90+ degrees and gusty to severe thunderstorms. I guess it is what it is and we'll take the weather as it comes.


It is refreshing though to finally have the windows open and listen to the rain. There's something about listening to rain that is calming, which is something I desperately need at the moment.

Dude

Last night as I was doing my rounds during chores, I took a few moments to stand and simply watch the horses. Everyone is wearing their gorgeous slick and glossy coats. I much prefer their shiny summer coats over their wooly winter coats. There's just something about a healthy shine to a horse that makes me happy.


As I was standing there looking at Chaos, Maverick, and Dude, I started to look hard at Dude. While the younger geldings are a bit on the plump side, I noticed Dude isn't carrying as much weight. My initial thought was "that's good cuz too much extra weight will bother his hips". But then I started to wonder. Normally he gets fat on grass but he doesn't seem to be getting as fat as he should. We stopped graining him (which is the norm for summer months) but we may need to return to graining him throughout the summer. Oh he's not bad by any means but I may very well need to put him on my watch list.


This winter I grained him every day to ensure he got his Buteless but he looked good during the summer. Maybe not plump but a good weight. This summer I figured he'd beef out like the other two geldings but he's not. It could be the light or it could be that he's going to be a bit more trim these days. I'll need to schedule an appointment to get his teeth floated to make sure that it's not his teeth that are causing him pain and not eating.


If it's not his teeth, we'll be starting him back on his daily soaked senior and see if that helps. He's not skinny by any means but I want to head any weight loss off as soon as possible if he's now turning into a hard keeper. Very rarely do the seniors leave this earth without turning into hard keepers at some point in their twilight years.


As I looked at Dude, I started to think of all the years we've been together. Dude has actually been with us since before the Sanctuary started and it was just a dream. He's been the horse that has been around the longest. Of course I can't remember dates but if I remember right (and my memory is starting to get a little shady), we bought him as a personal horse in January 2001. I thought he was a 6 year old when we got him but I swear his papers said he was a 1997 model. I think he's 23 (makign him a 1997 model for sure) but sadly starting to show his age.


I know Dude will enjoy his nightly grain and be standing at the door waiting to get in. He was like that all winter and I had to be very cautious about opening the door. He started getting into the bad habit of charging the door even if I was in the way.


We have a bit of a love/hate relationship and we both try to respect each other and not push each other's buttons but when he charges me to get into the barn, he's got another thing coming. We've gone round on many occasions and both have stories to share from those times.


But seeing him not fat but trim made me take a step back and realize that he too will not live forever. I'm struggling with knowing I'm losing Jessie and now I'm having to put Dude on the watch list, where Jim is already. I knew this day would come but had turned a blind eye to it. But that is the reality of life. I am happy that I can offer him a permanent home and know that he is safe and cared for even into his old age. That there is no threat he'll be shipped off to slaughter after he's bucked one too many people off (due to pain). But knowing that he's growing older is still a bit hard to take. I guess that's the reason why I should pamper him as much as possible. Every day is a gift and we should use that gift wisely.

Amazing Ladies and Vaccination Day

It always seems that when I start to panic, someone appears out of the blue to help. On Sunday we had two amazing young ladies volunteer at the Sanctuary. My original plan was to have them help vaccinate and deworm. What I had expected and what happened were exact opposite.


Those two amazing women stepped up and took over and I had the opportunity to step back and watch them in action.


I hate giving shots. I would rather get shots than give shots. I'm always afraid I'm doing it wrong and I know I'm causing them a bit of pain. Although the flies this year are causing them just as much if not more pain so I'm not sure why I was worried. But I think the horses can sense my hesitation while standing there with a needle in my hand (or a dewormer). Those two ladies made fast work (and the horses weren't expecting shots or deworming). I think the horses were expecting grooming and treats. Don't get me wrong, they got treats and grooming but the important job was taken care of.


As the one said, they have no expectations on any horse whereas I know them and their personalities and what they will do. Brego is usually a hard horse to deworm. One head raise and they had the entire dewormer in him just like that. No preconceived ideas, it was just done.


It was a fabulous day and knowing that all of the horses are vaccinated for another year is a huge stress relief. I'm sure we should have done it sooner but time seems to play havoc on life these days.


The second best part about Sunday is that almost all of the shots were free thanks to Merek generously donating these shots to us (and to other rescues throughout the US). This time around, they also threw in a few doses of rabies, which helped cut down the price as well.


I will admit that I am worried about funding this year. We normally don't do too much fundraising this time of year anyway but had hoped to do something this summer that would be a new annual fundraiser. We've put that on hold in hopes next year will be a much less stressful year due to the coronavirus. I don't feel comfortable asking people for donations when so many are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Sure I'm asking for donations to put food in the manager and to keep a roof over the horses but it's different somehow. Last year we didnt' have our annual playday and depending on how things go, we may or may not have one this fall. If we do, we will have to rearrange and have it outdoors. I do not want to have any event we host turn into a hotspot and cause more harm to people. But that's all for another post I'm sure I'll comment on later.


But for now, I'm going to breath a sigh of relief knowing that everyone is vaccinated and we will tackle deworming again in a couple of months. And a huge shoutout of thanks to the two amazing ladies who were willing to step up and not just help but to take over so all I had to do was catch horses (and I'm sure they would have done that too had I let them). I told them they had to return next year but they just laughed at me.

The Last Call

We made the excruciating decision last week that should have been made a month ago to let Jessie go. I see her now and realize she told me a month ago she was ready and I ignored her. Now we are dealing with extreme heat (we don’t normally get 90s this time of year) and the flies are vicious. The blood sucking flies don’t normally come out until August and they are already out. So now I feel even worse that she’s had to endure weight loss, heat, and now flies. But I wasn’t ready to let her go and I wasn’t ready yet to deal with Diavlo’s impending depression.

His depression is going to be sever and long lasting. He’s in a herd with Mayhem so he’s not alone. I could put him in with the big herd and see if anyone takes an interest in him. But that leaves Mayhem alone and he knows her and there’s some comfort in knowing one another. Although Diavlo did seem to like Chaos (another big black horse probably reminded him of Pepper), I don’t know that Chaos has the compassion needed to comfort another horse that is grieving.

To say I am worried is an understatement. The day itself is going to be hard enough and Jessie isn’t exactly happy about being loaded into a trailer. When we hauled her to the vet last fall to get her teeth floated, she pawed the entire way there and the entire time we were checking out Ransom. We are also supposed to have a chance for rain on Friday (typical for that weekend since I’m normally in Estelline to perform with Dakota Thunder Mounted Drill Team at the Estelline Rodeo, which was cancelled due to COVID-19). But I suspect it will rain so we’ll have to deal with that added stress as well.

But I looked at her yesterday and I could tell in her eyes that she was tired. Whether it was from the heat, the flies, the weight loss, or just being tired, she’s ready to go. I look at her now and see how drastically she dropped weight and wished I’d made the decision sooner. We always keep them a tad too long instead of help them cross over sooner. I know I’ve done it time and again where I’ve waited longer than I should have. Sadly, when they give me the sign, I need to act fairly quickly. It shows their quality of life is not what it used to be and since I am their care taker, I need to do what’s best for them. Making that decision and not ignoring their request is tough to do but needs to be done. I have no idea why I turned a blind eye to Jessie’s request a month ago. Maybe I was wishing and hoping for the best. Maybe I didn’t want to face the inevitable. I don’t know. But I know I did her wrong in waiting as long as I did.

I’m sure that I will be posting more this week, but we will be saying goodbye to Jessie on Friday late morning. I’m not sure if we’ll beat the heat and the storms but it’s scheduled and everything is lined up. In years past, we’d simply make the phone call to the vet. Now it’s a phone call to the vet and a phone call to my uncle to get the excavator lined up. With rendering no longer an option, we now have to weight quality of life a bit sooner and make sure that we aren’t interfering with not just the weather, but farming schedules. We are blessed with having family who’s willing and has the machinery to help with the final part of sanctuary life. Before when it was the vet taking care of it, the decision was hard enough but now without rendering, I have to ask for favors. We could have the vet hire someone to take them away but it would be to the landfill and although it would solve the problem, it doesn’t seem as dignified and it more than doubles the cost. At some point, we may be forced to go that route but for now, we will stick with begging to bury them on family land.

For now, we are going to spend our days pampering Jessie and doing our best to make her feel comfortable in her final week on this earth.

Quiet Day

It's was a fairly quiet day yesterday. I should have taken advantage of the cooler weather to get stuff done but life got in the way. It was still fairly muddy after the rains the previous day/night so I used that as an excuse to not be productive. I also figured this blog was a bit word heavy and light on pictures so I'll leave with just a few pics from the other day.

Brego and Zeke

Diavlo and Chaos

Diavlo, Mayhem, and Jessie

Discover Hartford Business Trail Walk

We are a part of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce. Last year we took Chaos around town (ok just in the Sunshine parking lot) for #DiscoverHartford. With Covid-19, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce decided to try something different to promote Hartford.

This year's Discover Hartford will be a fun way for families to get out on the walking/bike path and take pictures with all the businesses/nonprofits that are a part of the Chamber of Commerce. Because there are so many, they have to split it between two weeks. We are in the first week so will have to go for a walk and see where Borderlands  Horse Sanctuary's sign is located.

You even get to win prizes! Take a picture in front of the signs and then tag #DiscoverHartford for a chance to be entered to win Hartford Bucks. It's free money that can be spent throughout Hartford. The only thing we have to offer if you in the Hartford Bucks are tshirts and horse shoe art but if you win, I'd be happy to pull out all the horseshoe art Mike has made over the years and let you choose. There are some that are gorgeous.

We are the June 12-18 week and strongly encourage anyone local to go check it out. There's more information on our Facebook page about what all you need to do (take a picture, post it publicly, and tag #DiscoverHartford is the gist of it).

Hope you can get out to Hartford and check it out!

Weather

The weatherman had been talking about storms and rain for a week now but it took until last night to get any bit of rain. I was actually starting to worry. I can't remember the last time we had any rain.  I should have paid more attention to Mayhem. When there's drastic weather changes, she doesn't feel good and she didnt' feel good the night before last. Some days I'm on auto pilot that I don't always pay attention like I should.


We've had 90+ degree weather and lots of wind Sunday and Monday. I'd keep watching the sky waiting for the storms and nothing. I hate storms so I'm always a bit antsy. We were supposed to have storms the week before and with the hot weather I was sure we were going to get a nasty storm. I always get spooked with storms. Guess it comes with age. So Sunday and Monday we'd been dealing with extreme heat. It's not 90 in June usually! Monday night there was a line of thunderstorms that I thought were moving in. I sat out and watched them but we didnt' get anything. When I woke in the morning, they were still where they had been the night before. Odd that it would stall out like that.


On Tuesday the temps fluxuated so drastically it was hard to keep up. It was actually decent out in the morning in the mid 70s and no one was sweltering like before. Mid morning the temps dropped and that should have been an indication that the storms were finally moving but again I was on auto pilot. I left our place in the afternoon and it was mid 70s, I saw 80 just north of the Sanctuary and by the time I reached Madison 30 minutes (30 miles) later, it was 67 and it never got any warmer.


Then the storms rolled in early evening and we got our much needed rain. Of course I didn't get out of Madison in time and had to drive in the rain. I must have missed the majority of the downpour because I saw standing water in fields as we drove home. There wasn't standing water when we drove by in the afternoon. I havent' looked at the numbers yet. With all the tiling going on, I expect our pasture to be flooded again. I'm so mad about that but that's for another post. I have my idea on how to fix at least one of the issues.


The rest of the week isn't supposed to be too hot. It's actually a little chilly at this moment but I'll take it after 90s. I'm too fat for it to be this hot. And it's so hard to keep the horses comfortable when it's 90. We also have August flies rather than June flies. I call them August flies because they are mean and bite and they know the end is near. This time they are here early. They aren't the face flies that swarm the horses's head but they are the ones that go after the legs and bite hard. I dug around and found my shoo fly boots but I don't have enough to go all the way around. I wish I could buy a pair for each horse but at $45 for a set of four, it's not possible when you have 14 horses. I try to buy one or two pairs a year and then at least get the leggings on the fronts so there's a little less stomping going on. Sadly, they wear out faster than I can afford to replace them AND buy enough to get everyone covered. And we didn't have the horse expo this spring so no chance of buying them already. If I remember right our local Fleet Farm might have them but I haven't been in a store since mid March. Mike goes in and does all our shopping while I stay home and watch the kids. It's a struggle since I'm the one who keeps track of what all we need. But a trip in to Fleet Farm might be in order to buy fly leggings for the horses. It would be relief for a few more horses and I could rest a little easier.


We have a working/cleanup day this Sunday and already have a few volunteers willing to come out. We are going to do some vaccinations and deworming and then I'll let them get the grooming brushes out and take care of all the witches knots that seem to be taking hold of the horses' manes lately. I'm sure the horses will love all the attention. Lets hope it's not 90 degrees on Sunday so we can get a few things done.