Vet Appointment

We had a vet appointment yesterday morning. Jim had been losing weight and I noticed he was dropping everything he was eating (grass wise). So we loaded him (along with Rain and Dude) to the vet yesterday morning. I'd wanted to take Zeke too but the trailer only had spots for three. In the past Rain had wavy teeth so I wanted to double check to make sure they weren't bad. Zeke is fat but it's been awhile since he's had his teeth floated. I'd love to take everyone in and do floats on everyone (or at least checks). But it's not in the cards. I also wanted to take Dude in to make sure his teeth weren't too sharp. Of course, Dude being Dude, he fought the vet because it wasn't his idea. After sedation the vet went ahead and floated him too as his bottom teeth were sharp. The vet took a long time working on Jim to make sure his sharp edges were smooth. He pulled a tooth as well so hopefully with all the dental work done, we can start packing the pounds onto him. I'm not ready to let him go. I haven't prepared myself. It's been almost 11 years with him. All of the horses at the Sanctuary (not including Diavlo) have now been with us for years. The ones that remain are the ones we'd said yes to before we'd focused on seniors (or had originally been personal horses where we'd bought them but realized that they had physical limitations but didn't want to send them down the road to have someone else deal with them). I'm hoping we can keep Jim going for a few more years. He's definitely been enjoying retirement. He's somewhere between 30-32 (I always go on the high side for age). I know we don't have too much more time with him but I'll do my best to keep him happy for as long as his quality of life is good.

Checking In

We'e been MIA from social media. August gets to be such a busy month that we've decided to hang up most social media and events in August. It's pretty much the only way to save my mind from total overload. We have two birthdays in August (and because they are my kids, they have high expectations for their birthday), an annual trip to the Black Hills (which I've been doing for 35+ years and I will NOT break that tradition until our kids have school activities that requires us to), camping (to celebrate a birthday which was supposed to be at the Prairie Village Threshing Jamboree that got cancelled this year but normally we are there), and prepparing for school (toss in trying to plan school in a pandemic) and now my mind is blown. There doesn't leave any room for anything extra even though I'd desperately love to get something going. I have so many ideas and yet there's limited time. The days are now getting shorter and I'm still so far behind. Now that my brain is half way in gear (rather than paused due to baby brain or sleep deprevation due to babies), I'm trying to tackle the bigger projects that have been on my list. Maybe I'm being overzealous in thinking we can get them all done before the first snow. I guess some of what needs to be done even after the ground freezes and there's snow on the ground (might make for softer landing when I fall off a roof). I expect we will be MIA for the rest of the month. There's too much that needs to get done. Hopefully when September rolls around, I can report on all the progress we've made. Hopefully I can post some pictures on FB.

Feeling Like Fall

The last couple of days it's felt like fall. The monarchs are gathering, the geese are flying, and there's a nip in the air. The weatherman is saying we'll go back to super hot weather in a day or two. In fact this weekend we are supposed to be in the 90s again. It's a hard shift to go from upper 80s to low 70s to 90s but that's South Dakota in the summer time.


The nip in the air though has me scurrying around like crazy trying to get things done. We never know what winter will bring us or when winter will arrive but this year has been so crazy that I need to be ready for anything.


I'm going to have to start pushing others to make phone calls and to get a few things done around here. I have a few projects I want done and I don't have the connections to get them lined up or done so that means pushing others. I'm not good at pushing others.


Right now, there's a lot of fixing and repairing things that have deteriorated over the past eight years. Everything sort of went on hold when we started having kids so now that we are done having kids and they are getting a little older (enough where I don't have to hang on to them at all hours of the day and night), I'm trying to get a few projects done that have needed to get done all along (but I didn't have the energy or money to do them. Well, I still don't have the money but that's a different story).


While it's not specifically Sanctuary related, I am painting our house. I would have much preferred hiring someone but that wasn't in the cards. I guess no one wants to paint an old farm house so it's up to me. Luckily we have a small house so hopefully I can do it. I started last fall and got one side done but now I'm left with getting the other sides done. As with the barn, I started on our house this year with the bottom because I KNEW I could get that part done while watching kids. The second story is a different beast. Weekends are meant to be with kids and doing adventures with them so juggling fun activities with getting stuff done is a bit tricky. I'm sure to be in a panic soon. At least this year I'm working from home so the tight grip on my chest with all the worry of getting everything done isn't there (yet).


We don't have any more cleanup days scheduled and actually August is off limits for doing pretty much anything other than kids stuff what with birthdays and school starting (it's even worse in a pandemic). But I'm going to keep plugging along. This past weekend I added a temporary ally way to the bottom pasture and opened the bottom up for the horses to graze as the other parts of the pasture were done. It's a new method and the horses haven't quite figured it out (or don't like it). Hopefully the bottom pasture will hold for another month and then in September, I can open the entire pasture up and they can graze what's left over. I'd hoped to implement what I'd learned during my pasture management class but could only do a little and even then I STILL did a few things wrong. Time and energy are my worst enemy at this point (well, and lack of funds but that's a given). I need and want to go out with a clippers and cut down the thistles that I didn't get a chance to spray, along with the burdock in the other pasture so that I have a fighting chance of not dealing with cockleburs this fall. We'll see if I get a chance to get any of that done.


I also had helpers last week when it was hot to wash a few blankets. Of course the novelty wore off quickly (more so because I had an almost 5 and almost 2 year old helping me and they have no staying power). But I at least got three blankets done and two waterproofed. But I still have more to go. The weatherman is talking hot temps again so I'll be dragging out more blankets to get them washed and waterproofed. I still need to get them repaired but I can do that at night too (if I still have any energy.) I can't remember how hard the horses were on the blankets. Sadly, the blankets sort of ended up wherever they were taken off (inside buildings) so I never really remembered what kind of condition they were in. It's not the method I like or want to use with the blankets but its' the reality I live in right now.


We are going to take a pause in posting much on social media (more so than lately). So if you happen to not see us, it's that we are super busy doing kids stuff, prepping for school, and getting stuff done around the place and by the time I can sit down, I'm too exhausted to post pictures or to even think.


Fingers crossed that this cold snap is a friendly reminder but that winter holds off and gives me a couple of months to get things done before the first snow flakes start flying.

Tears

I was doing some cleaning today. The house like everything else is a disaster. It's odd how when I clean I can find stuff from years ago that we no longer need. As Mike said, it's easy to tell when major events happened because we'll have weird stuff from that time of year because we just couldn't handle dealing with it at the time.


I'd stopped developing pictures years ago and have them all saved in random places. But the final few rolls of film (pre digital camera), I came across today. It was random from a few different trips and they made me both happy and sad looking through them.


Then I saw it. A picture I don't even remember taking but I will hold it near and dear to my heart. The minute I saw that picture I burst into tears. Even thinking about that picture make me cry. It must be the stress to be so overly sensitive. It was a picture of the four original horses we had when I was a teenager. More specifically it was a picture of my first two beloved horses. My dream horse and my riding horse, both hold a special place in my heart but oddly it was my riding horse that caused me to cry.


Oh how I miss him. It's been more than ten years and yet seeing his picture brought back all the fun memories of him. I don't have many pictures of him because he was here pre digital so for some reason I don't have many. It breaks my heart to know I don't have as many as some of the others. I didn't remember his expression to be so quirky but I miss it. Maybe because I saw him for his personality and not for just his looks. A little red Arabian gelding with an unknown history. Any time I rode him, it was like we were riding as fast as we could away from the gates of hell with fire licking at his heels. That boy could fly. I miss him and I miss my confidence in riding and the exuberance of being young (and not worrying about falling off and getting hurt). Gone are those days (along with the slim figure) but I remember riding him like it was yesterday.


Riding Zeke was like riding Ace. Now that Zeke is retired I miss riding and the challenges of riding an arabian. Lightening is ok but doesn't have that same zest (or worldly experience).


In my cleaning, I've also discovered bags of hair from horses that have since left us. I never take a large chunk, just enough as a keepsake. I should take more so I can send them in to make keepsakes for each one. It's hard to say goodbye but coming across these little bits of past horses sometimes is tougher than I thought. I know what we do is good for the horse and their overall health and safety but sometimes its' just plain hard to let go.


I may frame that picture. It's one of the last ones that I know I have developed. Maybe I'll pause in cleaning and take a break from finding these little bits of history of the Sanctuary. I'm no sure my heart can take much more. Unexpected sad tears are a bit hard to take some days.

Prepping

We had sweltering heat over the weekend. I'm sure some are used to the higher temperatures but I and the horses are not! 88 degrees with a heat index of 100 degrees is a bit much for anyone. The big herd hung out in the run in shed off the barn for the entire time it was scorching hot. Luckily the heat broke Sunday and we had cooler temperatures. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the cooler weather. Well, cooler as in less humidity.


We are focusing on some home improvements for now so the horses are enjoying their time without me pestering them. I walked out to the pasture to find fly masks and do a check on everyone least night. I need to put up a bit more temporary fencing so that they can enjoy the grass at the bottom of the pasture. I need to get that done this week so I can let them out next week. I want to try a different set up than in the past to see if it helps ease the stress on the other two portions of the pasture. Last year it worked out ok that we did some flipping around of pastures but this year is different but still not ideal for the horses to get down to the bottom part of the pasture. The horses love that pasture the most. I think they enjoy wading through the water even if it is standing water from the slew backing up into our pasture.


Jim is enjoying his nightly grain. We paused his grain in hopes that the summer pasture would help him gain weight. Sadly it didn't so we are back to graining him and he'll have to have more added to his diet to keep him at the right weight. He lost weight so we'll be doing our best to try and pack on some pounds before the first snow flies. It hurts my feelings to even talk about snow in the middle of summer but its' a reality.


I spend 6 months dealing with snow and winter, all of spring dealing with the after effects of whatever type of winter we had, have one month of summer where it's too darn hot to do much but make sure everyone has water and pasture, then it's back to prepping for the first snow fall and back into winter. It's a vicious cycle.


I had thought our hay was baled and getting moved off the pasture but apparently that hay is more cow quality rather than horse quality. I'm very picky about our hay and have dairy quality hay. That means it's soft and easy for the horses to eat instead of more brittle and course. The softer the hay, the better so those that have a hard time chewing won't have as difficult time. I'm hoping that our hay will be baled soon. Then it can sit in the field for a week or two before we haul it home. I used to be paniced about not having it home until our hay guy said it's better to not have your hay all in one spot because it can start a fire. I had never thought of that so now I'm ok with leaving the hay sit out for a week or two before bringing it home. We don't have any place to spread it out so once it's home, they are close to one another and if a fire broke out, we'd lose our entire supply of hay. It pays to have a farmer as a your hay guy.


But I'm hoping the hay will get baled soon and I need to make arrangements to see if we can pick up some small squares. There's lots to do but we are heading into August, which is our crazy time of the year. We have two birthdays in August (and another in September) so planning for childrens' birthdays is always crazy. Throw in COVID and trying to figure out birthday presents and such when not going into the store, I'm a bit of a nut case. So you may or may not see much of me in August as I frantically prep for birthdays and school starting. The stress level has risen a lot in the last week and then prepping for winter stuff (to take advantage of the heat) also has me bustling as best I can.


But if you happen to notice a considerable lack of posts, it's not that we aren't around, it's that I'm trying to get everything done and some things have to give, which includes social media. But if you have any questions, drop me a line and I'll get back to you!

Days Getting Shorter

I always love the buildup to the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. But after that, we start to lose daylight and that too sends me into a panic. It's not like I don't know it's coming and it's not like it doesn't happen every year, but with such limited time to get everything done, it sends me into a tail spin.


With my current working predicament, I am home so I can go from working at the paying job straight to working on stuff at home (although more than half the time it's not sanctuary related). I love mornings in June when I can go out to the horses and already have the sun up and shining. Now the sun comes up after I'm already at work so I miss out on watching the sun rise over the hoses.


We did get one project done at home. It's not sanctuary related but it will make the place look better and make life easier if/when we do tours at the place. We poured a large concrete patio in the front of the house. It'll be nice to have some place to stand in the spring that's not mud. Or when I need to grab something from the house and have a horse in hand, I can have them on concrete and not tear up the yard. Of course there's all the cleanup that still needs to be done and that'll take a bit of my time to get wrapped up but I'm already moving on to scraping and painting the house. I'd started that project before we started the patio project so the house is looking exceptionally dumpy at the moment but hopefully we can get it looking sharp soon. I've already said I'm only painting this house once. After that, we'll be putting on different siding. The siding is too old to take on paint these days.


We don't know how old the place is, or the outbuildings, or even the fencing. We have to guess and my guess is about 80 years old. When we pulled out the concrete footings for a fence that went around the yard, there was a note saying it was from 1950. We've seen notes when remodeling the house that things were done in the 1940s. So I'm guessing the outbuildings and fencing are all 70 to 80 years old.


Sadly, after that many years of hard use, they don't work nearly as well. We need to contact the fence guy from last fall to see where we are on the schedule and get some fencing done. I walked the mare pasture the other day and noticed how bad the fence line really is. I don't think some of our fencing can handle another South Dakota winter.


There's just so many projects I want to get done and I don't think they will get done before the first snow. I realize it's only July 22nd but at the rate projects are getting done and with the number of projects we still have on the To Do list, I'm just not sure how they will get done. The pandemic and additional health problems have slowed our progress down to a crawl. And then comes August where sanctuary life is put on hold so that we can enjoy our children's birthdays and prepare for school. It's going to be a stressful but interesting August and I want to take advantage of the fun times while the kids are still excited for birthdays. I'm juggling three birthdays, school, and return to daycare all in two months on top of preparing for winter.


So if you don't hear from us when August rolls around, it's not that we aren't here. It's that the horses and sanctuary are pretty much on what I call auto pilot, where they enjoy their grazing time and nice weather and don't have me pestering them except to check to make sure everyone is doing ok. There's not much to report when they are on auto pilot and I'm not sure you want to hear me lament about not getting anything done because we are doing family stuff.


I do have a bunch of stuff that needs to get done for the sanctuary and it's all behind a computer. So if you want to help but don't know how, let me know and I'll set you up with a few different projects to choose from. Even with my brain struggling to muddle through a day during the pandemic, I have a ton of old ideas from when I could brainstorm clearly. And if you'd rather swing a hammer and get some physical activity, I have projects that need attention too and I'd LOVE to get them done before the first snow.


Here's to making the most of the remainder of summer and enjoying the sunlight and sunshine from sunup to sundown.

Slaughter Auctions

South Dakota Horse Sales in Corsica used to have monthly horse sales. As times change, so do their auctions and with COVID, they like everyone else had to make changes. I have only been to their auction once or twice and always come away feeling sick.


For a very short time, there were more local horse auctions that I would insist on attending and again would return home feeling sick. Those auctions have disappeared and now as far as I know, there's only the one (although there is a local auction at a smaller scale which may sell one or two horses). My stomach did a flip when I read the notes from the last sale held in early June. I know that it's a reality but it's still hard to read when it is in plan writing.




LOOSE HORSE SALE: Buyers are short on saddle horses and Sellers are short on time and choose to sell the drop off and go Loose Horse Sale way to market their horses. This resulted in many high dollar horses selling in the Loose sale and going back out to the country including to Buyers from out of State, and that requires a health and coggins test. The top Loose horses sold for $4,000 - $3900 - $3400. & $2850 - $2800-$2800-$2800, or top 10 avg. $2.870.00


NEW RULE: The Loose horse sale was meant for horses going to weigh up market (slaughter). From now on, if you want your Loose horse marketed as a saddle horse or bred mare with footnotes and a pedigree, you must submit a Neg. Coggins test upon delivery or it will be Green Tagged in as a Market/weigh up sale horse only.


While I'm glad they are trying to get the saddle horses and broodmares more notice for those owners who provide notes on their horse, it still angers me that the owners don't try and do more with their horse to find them a home. Even at auction, why not put the horse in the catalog sale or at the end where they are consigned but not listed (sorry, I lost the technical name for that one). I've had friends dump their horses off at loose and "hope they got a good home" at this sale. I was flabbergasted when I heard that because I would have taken them and figured out a way to afford them. Any horse going to this auction loose has an extremely high rate of going to slaughter, with the exception of a few high dollar loose horses.


I so wish that we could do more for these horses. But we have to turn away horses where owners are doing right by their horses and reaching out to find a home. This year funding is going to be very tough to come by and I'm struggling. We won't close the sanctuary down completely but we will have to shutter our doors to any incoming horses if we don't find the funds. That's where I need help in finding someone to help me look for grants. They are going to be few and far between and I don't seem to be looking in any of the right places. And fundraising is pretty much out until I figure out how to make our name a little bigger so people know us. Current friends and family are pretty well tapped out and in my personal life, we are pretty well tapped out of funds for anything but necessities so heading to an auction to rescue a horse from the loose sale is out.


I wish I could do more to help save lives. It doesn't feel like I'm doing enough. As our horses grow older and we lose them, our numbers decline and with funds low, we can't open our doors to any more. I always worry for those horses where we have to say no. Did the owner find someone willing to take in that horse? Did that horse get a permanent home with someone to love and cherish them? I guess because we are a sanctuary, I need to remember that heading to auction to help save a horse and get them out of the slaughter pipeline isnt' feasible. It just seems unfair to the horse to work all your life and then find yourself at in auction and overlooked because you're unadoptable due to age and health conditions.


But for now, all I can do is look at the report and wish that we could head to the sale and pick up at least one horse to bring home. But to do that, we'd need funds and would first go to our waiting list to accept those horses. Always a catch 22. But the reports are a reality and I need to figure out a way to do more with less.