Let me tell you about....

Hello Everyone!

I thought i would do a blog each day (ok so maybe once a week at least!) on the horses that i do have right now. Mine and the rescue horses. Well i count the rescue horses as mine until i find them the perfect home.

First and foremost!
Papa Jack! (aka Mr. Jackson Weaver)

Jack is a 15 year old Appendix/QH gelding. Big boy at 16 hh and probably weighs about 1250 pounds. He is the king of the herd. He is the one everyone of the horses love to eat with. He is a good boss to all of the horses. He loves the babies (Prize is his favorite), loves to play with Duke and Baby Breeze, loves the girls, loves all horses. He only enforces his king status at meal time. He is black in color. He is my first horse. I got him from a lady who was boarding at my friend Jodi's place. She just got him from an auction a few months before i bought him. She already had a smaller Arab gelding named Haji(?) and wanted a horse for her husband. Well she and her husband broke up and then she wanted to sell Jack. She told me that he was at this auction, was an Amish horse and knew how to drive and ride. Some people like the half drafts for driving. he has the height of a TB and the stockiness of a QH. She said that kids were all over him and he was such a good boy. He IS a good boy. But I got him at 9 years old. Now that i have been in the rescue business for awhile, i should have known there was something up with Jack. You dont get rid of a good driver/rider at 9 years old. Jack has some arthritis. He has his good days and his bad days. Some days he shuffles, some days he runs his butt off and bucks and has some fun. I just watch him to see if he is having a good day or bad day. I havent ridden him much in the last few years at all. But he loves me and his herd and takes very good care of them. He is my first horse and i will always cherish him! I hope he is with me for a very long time. I remember when he and Missy were the only ones I had. Missy was pregnant with Prize. I separated them when Missy was closer to her due date. She had Prize and there is Jack, just waiting patiently (ok so not so patiently!) to get at the baby! He adores the babies. Well, good thing that i did separate them, because Missy charged the fence where he was standing for a week solid! And he let her do that. He knew not to mess with her and her new baby! Well 2 weeks later, i let them both be together and he took care of Prize like she was his! For the longest time, Prize is the only one he would let even eat by him! He spoiled her so! She could get away with alot with him. Anyhow, Jack is my dear, dear boy and he is a beautiful boy that will be with me for the rest of our lives. Enjoy!
Next blog will be about Duke. My chaos boy, Duke! I will put them in order of hiarchy.

New year!

Hello Everyone-

2011 is here! Sorry, i havent blogged in a while. Life just gets away from me. sometimes it feels like I am just eating, sleeping, working and caring for the horses. But that is a good life. I have heard from a few people who have horses of mine. The horse i would like to feature today is Jewels and her mom, Sam. Sam has had Jewels for over 4 years old. She will be 6 this year. I had her as a yearling. She was a sassy girl. Not even close to the gorgeous mare she is today! Just love her. These photo's were taken in 2009 and 2010. As we say in the Quarter Horse world, Jewels has a great butt! Sam has done a wonderful job with her, dont you think?
Wow! What a looker she is. She has also received Grand Champion for halter at their fair in 2009. They sure look good together dont they? they have grown up together. I thank God for my adopters like Sam and her family. And I have wonderful other adopters as well. And i get to see quite a few of my horses and get updates often.

Other news! We have been accepted to the Midwest Horse Fair again this year! Very excited about that. We will probably be bringing Mya and Raven. Hope to find great homes for those two great girls as well. Rebecca has been working quite hard with Mya and Raven, well we need to do more with her. She is an assertive filly who will be 4 this year. She is a Missouri Fox Trotter. She has filled out alot since she has come to my home. She is also testing me alot. She has been getting out of the pasture area. She stays near the fence with the horses, but it still gets me nervous when she is out. She is also COVERED with burrs since getting out twice. I try to take the burrs out and she is uncooperative! I dont blame her since her coat is long and the burrs are just embedded in her coat! So i do a little at a time. I really need to take a picture of her now. More burrs then i have ever seen on one of my horses!! But she is safe now, i decided to put her in with Kobb and Max. Then of course Antar had a bit fit about it (Raven and Antar - buds forever) so i put him in with the boys too. I was worried because I wanted all 3 boys to be in that pen, but Max ran him around too much and then he was worried about not being with Raven. But it has turned out well. Raven and Antar hang together and then Kobb and Max. I have to watch her because she likes to bully horses out of their grain. And she also will tip over her pail with grain and then move on to the next pail and of course the older guys dont do that and they do not like to eat their grain from the ground! So now i have buckets tied to the panels. And then i found out that she will not cross Kobb! So Kobb and Max eat their grain together and then i put Antar kind of near Raven in the buckets. So far so good. But i really dont want them all to stay together all winter long. She will get the better of the old guys and they really need their grain and not Ms. Piggy beating them up to get extra grain! So this weekend we have hay to stack and also try to find out where she is getting out! I dont have the fence on, but maybe it had better go back on!
Anyhow, she is getting her way and her grain and she likes that just fine! HA! You go girl!

Grieving

Hello Everyone-

I want to do this blog for Jim and Cindy Bondowski from Footville, WI. They run and manage the HORSE rescue. About 3 weeks ago they suffered through a major barn fire and lost 24 of their precious horses. I can only imagine what they went through and what they are going through now. I have known Jim and Cindy for a few years now. Their daughter, Deanna adopted Baby Breeze from my rescue when he was only 12 days old. He stayed with Jim and Cindy for about 7 months. Unfortunately, due to Deanna's family issues, Breeze was returned back to me and my program in December 2009. Shawnee was his surrogate mom at Jim and Cindy's place. Taught him how to be a horse. Shawnee is one of the horses perished in the fire. I saw Shawnee only a few times. She is a beautiful girl/mare and raised a couple of orphaned foals. But I don't even know what to say to them. Words escape me even now. How can you console anyone with this kind of trauma? I cry every time I think of this and am crying now for them and their horses. This is a animal owners worst nightmare. There has been news coverage and they have been getting help from everywhere which is a wonderful thing for them. Their remaining horses are now with neighbors and friends since they have no shelter/barn. I am not sure what their future plans are at this time but they are looking to adopt out as many horses as they can. Please view their In Memorial page as well - http://horseincmemorial.blogspot.com/
All i can say is that I am thinking of you guys daily and hope you can pick up the pieces in memory of your babies. And for the ones who desperately need you now. They will help you through this along with your family and friends.
I love you guys.
Love
Jenny

Same old, same old

Hello Everyone-
Just busy with 2 jobs, the horses, and boy do i hate the sun going down so soon in the afternoon?? yes, I do! Can see a dang thing! I am in the process of trying to get a few spot lights that are either solar or battery powered. But I have to wait until Thursday to get them. I looked on the Home depot site and was asked if I needed someone from Home Depot to chat with me on-line. hmmmm? Ok, so i give it a try. Well, I am not entirely sure that it was actually a real person! I ask for the spot light and of course either solar or battery powered and enough light to light up a good sized part of my pasture. She (Michelle) gave me a few options and of course they are lights that are powered by electric power, so i ask her again. She then writes ' i have not heard from you in a while, do you still want to use chat?' She also goes on to tell me the link to order this light on line. I figured, nope, dont want to chat anymore. Better just go to the store and get one from there. I will also be getting a canvas type of shelter for my 2 old guys, Max (24) and Kobb (33). I want them to stay in the exercise pen so that they can always get their grain twice a day. Although I am re-thinking this since Max is now just a big fat tick! He is such a hoot though. When he sees me, its like, hurry Mom! I am starving!! With the cold, rainy weather, I have been giving all of the horses more to eat. I am a firm believer in NOT blanketing my horses just yet. they really need to get their coat all grown in before we put on a blanket. If you put one on too soon, their coats may not develop and then you have to leave the blanket on at all times. I dont have multiple blankets to do that for all of the horses! But I really only have probably 4 horses that will get blanketed this year. Anyhow, the 10 horses that are together are getting 3 bales of hay, twice a day. The last few nights when it was cold and rainy, i give them either 1-2 bales of this marsh grass hay that i have. My horses are very spoiled and they love the hay that i give them. some all alfalfa and some is a mix. Nice hay. the marsh grass hay isnt bad, but its not the other stuff. So I set that out around the perimeter for them to eat. They do eat it, but only when there is none of the 'good stuff' left! I also fed them earlier last night (Sun), so I put out 2 of the marsh grass hay bales. Boy, 5 bales of hay for 10 horses! Yes, they do like to eat! most of that all gone in the morning! HA! I call them pigs, not horses! But I dont even think pigs eat that much! anyhow, we will doing hay again on Sunday, December 5 at noon. Will be getting another 300 or so bales and that should last until February! then get enough to last until next years crop!
I should hear by the middle of December if I get accepted to come to Midwest Horse Fair this year. We plan on taking Mya and Raven next year if accepted. Raven will be good to load, and Mya, well, she isnt that good. Trailering, i hate it!
Antar is doing well with his eye surgery. His depth perception isnt as good at night or twilight, but he will get used to it. He is doing better already. His eye is sinking into his head, but if you look at him at a certain angle, he looks like he has an eye there. I am sure he has no pain anymore. He is dealing with it and that is all we can ask for. he is such a good boy. I love that boy alot. And he is trusting me again too since there are no more meds to give out. And he is gaining a bit more weight -which i like for the winter.
other than that, everything is going pretty well! Will get more pics on here too!
First picture is of Angie and Karlijn. (Surrender horse)
White paint is Cheyenne- Cheyenne' mom is my great friend Michele. (auction horse)
Both horses are from my rescue!

Lovin this weather!

It is November and still we have mostly 50 degree weather. Yippee! I love this weather, the horses love this weather! Sure beats 20's and tons of snow? Why am I in Wisconsin? Oh yeah, job and family. Keep reminding myself. I do love Wisconsin, just dont like the cold. The real cold. And now that i have moved, i dont know what to expect here. i am at the top of a hill, where the winds are trecherous. But my horses for the most part of pretty hardy. Horses have been outside for hundreds of years and do well as long as they have fresh water and good hay. And they do, always.
Antar has had a few hard days with his eye. Brooke came over to take the gauze out, ok, did she tell me that it was going to be 6 ft long? My gosh. i would freak out too with someone taking out a piece of gauze that would never end! he bonked me pretty good in the head and it still is sensitive. Good thing, i dont have alot of brain cells left! Antar did well when he came home from his surgery last week. On Sunday night (why is always on a Sunday night?) he was shaking his head, and laying down when i got out. Now, he hasnt really wanted me to touch his face much but when he let me touch his head i knew something was wrong. He didnt want his grain, ok, go back, he didnt want to come out for his grain. i finally figured out that it was the bending over to eat grain or hay that was bothering him. Well i called the on-call vet and she was very informative (including saying, we were brave to take that gauze out ourselves!! ok! he was in pain and in distress. Gave him some banamine and watched him. In an hour he was back up and eating his hay. Next night, Monday night, he came out to get his grain, but laid down immediately. I put his pail of grain next to him and he began eating right away- That is how i realized that he was hungry and wanted to eat, but the pain was there in his eye and head when he bent over. Gave him his banamine- i gave it to Antar orally and he is a good boy with all meds. giving 9 cc's IM is sometimes a challenge. But Antar? Not, him, he is a good boy all around. The mornings, you cant ever tell he is having a problem. Last night, he came out ate his grain standing up and then went back in. I did give him some banamine again, but at a lower dose. I am hoping now this is the downhill part of his illness and that i can breath a bit easier.
Hey! Can you guys guess what? I get to go out tonight! My neighbor, Jerry came over to ask me if I would like to play euchre with him tonight and next Wednesday! Oh yeah, baby! Getting out and playing one of my favorite games? you know what is a bit funny/odd? In my young- to mid 20's i was on a euchre league. We paid 5 bucks to play (on Wednesday nights). Well tonight is Wednesday and its still 5 bucks! HA! Ok, so i tend to play a bit on the gutsy side, thanks to my Aunt Patty. She is a tiger playing cards. An itty bitty little thing she is, but she is dang tough! All of the sisters are! Mary, Patty and my mom Katy. tough girls, indeed. Love them all. Anyhow, hope your week is going well. I was out sick for alot of last week and am now just finally feeling better. Hope to write some more later this week, but you know, my life is quite boring at times and nothing good to report. But maybe some rich, good looking, sweet AND single man will be there and sweep me off of my feet! yep, that is what i am going for! HA! Ok, so i am a dreamer.

Yes, we are here!

Wow, been over a month since i blogged? yikers! Oh well, no worries, I am here and still have my babies. Been busy working and taking care of the mob. But lately, just to tell you of a few different things happening. Yesterday, for a start, I had to finally get some decent amount of hay. I had been getting hay from a neighbor and either doing 7-8 bales in the Jeep (2 loads) every few days or he would come up with about 30 bales in his truck. Well, getting totally sick of doing that! But had to wait for enough money saved up to get some big amounts. Especially to last through the winter. I had volunteers come, (Michele, Rebecca, Ross, Corrine, Gordy and Shelli) come out and along with myself and Bob- the hay guy, we pulled together 317 from Bob and 100 from Vern. Vern is a guy who lives in Black Earth and dabbles in cutting hay from time to time. He had 100 bales sitting in his wagon in his shop for a month now. He called and gave me a great price on it and then brought up the hay wagon. We unloaded it to the corn silo. Still can get way more bales in there for sure! Then went to Bob's and he used his big trailer. We ended up on our biggest load getting 109 bales on it. Did 3 loads! We were all pretty tired of that. So we will finish in a few weeks and get more. i cannot believe what my barn looks like! Can i even fit another 300 bales in there? Do i want to get hay in the dead of winter? I will probably go through about 180 bales every month. Maybe so. I just hope i will still have help in the winter, but i think they will come to my rescue! We had a good time even with the bad backs, (Shelli has allergies and was her first time in volunteering!) sore hands and legs, we made it through. Great work everyone!! Was a nice day as well. Anyhow, the floor to the barn held up- at least for now! Will get pics soon. Another thing that happened today was Antar going in for surgery. His eye from uveitis has gotten so bad. He hurts, his eye weeped very bad. he didnt want to get on the trailer either today. He likes his herd and the last time he left, he went to a place, while nice, has just too many horses. He is more of a one on one kind of guy. At my place, he is sassy and wonderful especially at feed time. He along with Max and Kobb get senior food along with grain. Antar comes out every morning and every night for his senior. If other horses are in front of the gate preventing him to go out, he has a hissy fit, runs around the shelter and back kicks at the higher above horses! I have to start feeding the hay and then the other horses move away from the gate and then Antar is up at the gate looking at me, to hurry up and let him out! Anyhow, Brooke told me he did well with his surgery, which makes us both feel better. I know he had to have the surgery done. Brooke is a great mom. She loves him like crazy. Good thing she is also a vet student! So also they will work him up for his bowed tendon (that may be what he has), do his teeth, and his sheath. Take advantage of the doped up stage. Sorry for the sideways pic, i havent figured out how to rotate the dang picture! He should probably be staying for a few days. We are supposed to get a big storm and high winds. Probably not good for him to be out in the open! anyhow, thank god that antar is ok. He is such a good boy!

A couple of updates

Hello Everyone!
Yes, i know, total slacker in blogging. Always too busy. But today, making that effort. In the last few weeks- Have a new part time job at Kwik Trip. Will work Fri/Sat 3rd shift. 10 minutes from my house, and get paid more! That way i can have both days (at least some of the day) to do work around the farm. Not too bad. I go home to sleep right away and then i have some hours before going back in or at least on Sundays sleep a few hours and then have most of the day. Well i trying to plan that anyhow. Was working at Walmart, Kwik Trip and for the UW but that lasted only a week, thank goodness. Worked over 70 hours that week! So now am just at the 2 jobs.
I am also working with Cate (Almost a lawyer!), Ashleigh (Almost a Vet!) and others. We are working on getting a program together that will help families with their horses. We want to start up a free/low cost gelding program, a free/low cost euthanasia program and hopefully a hay program for families/people who need some help in these areas. We will start localized and then venture out to all of Wisconsin depending on well we do at fund raising. But i am very excited about this project. I will give more details about this later.
Also- Antar came back home! His new mom, Brooke had him out at a stable that wasnt all that for Antar. Antar likes the smaller setting and this other place is very big and has tons of horses there. He lost a bit of weight (nothing too terrible). Brooke was also going out to feed him grain/senior. You have to be careful housing your horse at a bigger stable. Sometimes they dont get one on one care from the stable. And this one does not do that. Brooke is a student who also is doing some internships and she asked if Antar can come back home to live with me so that I can get him back up to his weight (well now, his winter weight), make sure he gets his senior and meds each day. Absolutely! I love Antar. He is such a great boy. I missed him alot. Now I am sure Brooke misses him also. We chat via email while she is out of town and she gets to hear how he is doing. One thing i really wanted to happen with Antar when he came back was for him to remember his bond with his girl Raven. They were very close before he left. After Antar left, Raven took awhile to get back into a bond with another horse in my herd. She actually ate with a few of the other horses. Duke, Breeze and Honey. But she loved to eat with Duke. She loves the 'older' guys! So when Antar came back, i wondered if they remember. Some horses do and some do not. When Antar knew he was back, he knew Raven right away. Raven I am not sure remember Antar. But then after a few days, something clicked with her. Antar actually was in a separate pen while he was getting used to the routine again and before putting him back in with the mob. I would put a pile of hay on the other side of the fence where Antar would eat and Raven ate on the other side watching Antar. The first time in putting him in with the mob, he saw Raven and softly nickered at her. It was a beautiful sight. Antar is super intelligent. I really think he remembered her very well. Not sure all horses do and horse people all have their different opinions on it. I also have a re-occurring dream that involves me bringing Missy over to where Destinee is. (Missy is Destinee's mom). I put them in together and its an Oprah moment! But they have been split long enough now, that probably wouldnt happen. But i like the dream anyhow! But back to Antar- He is now used to the mob and them used to him (after a few scrapes with the big fat girl Mya). He comes out for his grain every morning and every evening and then goes back in. the other horses dont like that since they dont get grain until the winter. They are all easy keepers and dont need grain all year round like my old guys.
Lets see- Getting hay from different folks in the area. Either have gotten super good hay or not. the horses definitely let me know what is crap in their minds. right now, I have good stuff. they dont follow me and the wheel barrow around if its good. I am also (for 5 weeks) feeding them 2 large round bales until i can clear out the barn and move small bales in there. First time for round bales. The real reason that most of us dont like them is that you really have to have a feeder for those. they waste alot of hay, by walking and going to the bathroom on it. The neighbor Jerry, let me use his old round bale feeder, but its in too bad of condition and the horses will get cut on it. Also, my horses dont all eat together. Usually i put out more piles of hay then horse. But i will feed other hay along with the round bales and that will keep them busy. Also not liking that they can eat 24/7, but its coming up to the winter and if they gain a bit more weight i am cool with that.
Yesterday, I had 7 little girls come and visit me and the horses. I have been emailing Maya a few times and they wanted to come out to see me and the horses! they brought with them donations as well! thank you very much! The one they really got to love on was Duke! he can be such a pooper with me and adults and he is just so gentle with the kids! They even also got a small back massage from Prize. They loved that. So i hope they had a great time as I sure did! our young kids/people are our future to make sure we take care of our animals and have compassion. I think all of these girls do. I love it when kids come. their faces are so wonderful to look at when they get close to animals. And they are honest and listen to what we have to say to them. Hopefully they take that into their adult hood.
Anyhow, that is it for the last few weeks. I hope you all are doing well!