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!

My last baby!

Hi All-

Been busy to blog and then i forgot my password. Oh well. But obviously i did remember it. Thank goodness i use the same passwords on alot of things. Anyhow, wanted to share with you pictures of my last foal. Destinee, born April 22, 2008. She was adopted by Cate and Dave in Madison. Cate just sent them to me this morning. The lesson that had is with Jodi Pursley of Pursley's Stable in Cross Plains. Pretty soon Jodi will have nothing but my rescue horses boarded there. They are a great stable, close to Madison. Right now, lets see, Cheyenne, Lady, Angie, Destinee are there. Jed is also there and he was actually a surrendered horse but never entered into my program. Lily was also there for a few years too until she was adopted by Jean in Deforest.
Destinee- She is out of my best mare Missy. She was an oops baby. Her sire is Gabe a PMU foal that i got from a girl who purchased him at an auction. Gabe is up in Sparta with Denise and her family. Destinee looks alot like Gabe. Missy is a bay and Gabe is sorrel. Gabe is an appendix quarter and Missy is a QH. So Destinee is 1/4 TB and the rest is QH. She looks like she got the best out of both horses. She is taller like a TB and has the build of a QH! She is a very special girl to me. Ok, so all of my horses are special to me! But we all love the babies dont we?
Destinee is getting trained right now and had her first saddle on her. Next year she should be ready to have a rider on her! She is spoiled girl and both me and Cate are the ones who spoil her! Every time I get to Jodi's, i go to give Destinee her scratches and lovin. She absolutely loves that. She wants to be boss of her group and at one time was. That was until Rosie and Dream came back to Jodi's- (They were there when Destinee came and then went to another stable and now back at Jodi's again!). Destinee was way too young to be a boss mare and she enjoyed every minute of it. But she is back in her place which is where she should be! She is getting taller and taller every day. i am hoping she will get to be 15.2-15.3 hands! Missy is 15 hands and Gabe is 16 hands. So it may happen. I think Cate would like to jump and do some dressage with Destinee. Destinee jumped alot of stuff when she was with me as a baby. Made me nervous, but it didnt make Destinee nervous. She was also a bigger foal for Missy and was the typical 'over the knee's' when she was young. We had a vet over as well and he thought she had a problem with her hip, but she was so young, that it never developed. So be sure to be careful on what your vet says when they are so young. Things can develop, some things may not. She is a wonderful girl. I also have her 1/2 sister, Prize. Now Prize is more like her mom Missy then her dad. Her sire was 16 hands but i am unsure how his shape was. He was black (brown) and so is Prize. But both mares are very sweet, you can touch them anywhere and are very agreeable in their training. Very laid back. While i miss Destinee very much, she is in very great hands with Cate and Dave. And Jodi is taking very good care of her at her farm as well. So here are pictures of Destinee and Prize. I must say that Prize was very upset with her mom when Missy cut her off when she knew she was pregnant. Yes, Prize did nurse on Missy until she was 3 years old! Kind of cool to see that Missy knew she couldnt nurse Prize anymore when she knew she was pregnant. But now that Destinee is gone, Prize has weasled her way back into Missy's life. Not nursing, but they eat, groom and stand together alot again.

some photos

I thought i would give more photo's. so here they are-
1. Rocket, He was adopted by Cher, in Illinois along with Ms. Mattie (aka Misty)
2. Shayla was my first rescue horse. She was a 26 year old Belgian mare. I had her for 3 years.
3. Titan- I had him as a yearling. He is now owned by Lisa S. a girl friend of mine from HS.

Its Monday!

Well its Monday and its now August. Still pretty hot out too. I hate to use my air conditioning so much. But with no breeze and super humid, what can a girl do??!! I sweat enough outside with the horses. Boy, those horses..... I put on their fly masks, they take off their fly masks etc.... I have had people come over and they see the fly masks in a box outside of the pen. They say, hey, why dont you put these on? I say, cuz in 20 minutes they will have them off! So the old girl that i am, really gets tired of putting them on and then finding them all over the pasture to pick them up! After about 4-5 times, i say, ok, so have flies on you! Little poopers! So hopefully not too much longer for the hot/humid weather, but i heard its going to be like this for awhile. Farmers almanac said the summer was supposed to be cooler, but I think they surely got that wrong! At least the horses have some BIG trees to be under. They like that! I have heard from both Daevin's and Antar new mom's that they are doing well and they love them to bits. Boy, does that make me feel good! I am very happy about that. Also is nice that they are close! Will be going to see both in the next couple of week.
Oh yes- Hay! Even with pasture, the pigs (oops sorry, horses) have eaten their pasture down. Now there is just the nibble stuff. So i have been feeding them hay. I thought i was smart and got some small squares and then got some big ones from my usual hay guy. Well remember last week or so when we got dumped with 7 inches of rain? Well, Miss Jenny didnt put enough weight on the tarps to make sure rain didnt get on the hay. I come out and the tarps are all flapping OFF of the hay and my poor (expensive) hay is getting drenched. And then the hot weather. Well i have probably lost about $250.00 worth of hay. Bummer.. But i sure learned - ok the hard way, but i learned! Will be building a lean-to later in the year to store in the winter, but will be more careful about the tarps in the summer! So have to get more hay. I have a couple of days left. Am seeing a family just down the road from me and i usually will get a few bales of hay first to see if its good. I hate to get a ton of hay and then find out its got weeds in it or thistles or just icky brown. My horses just look at me and say (as if to say!) What the heck mom?? We have to eat this?? But going back to the PIG reference, they do eat just about anything put in front of them. Also- my bad hay? Will have to find somewhere to put that, cuz it now looks like a sty with the crappy hay piled up. Oh well. Expensive little lesson. With my old place, i never had to worry about hay. I had a barn with no leaks! Could shut the doors to make sure the wind didnt blow it away! Oh well. So more to do this year, but its ok, i can deal with it. I really actually like my new place. There are a few things that I need to get my landlord to fix, but all in all? I like it! Remember me talking about the highway? Well my dogs havent (knock on wood- yes, superstitious)gone to the road and Zeus will stick by me and Hunter is on the prowl to get a pidgeon and he will at some point. He is relentless! He always gets his man! (or should i say, either the male or female bird) he is like the energizer bunny. Zeus is now 9 and is slowing down. But he still loves to go out with mom! Anyhow, so the update is about hay and here is hoping that I will find a few different folks with decent hay! I hope your week goes well!

Another week

Hello Everyone!

I know I am bad about posting. For some reason, I am just really busy at work and at home to post. It goes in spurts being super busy to not so much. My brother Rich and I are slowly moving in and also getting ready for a garage sale. Hopefully before it snows out! One thing that I have to figure out is shelter for my hay. I have plastic and tarps but it blew off of both stacks of hay last week with our huge storm. And of course if it were just a regular rain, it wouldnt have mattered. But I lost alot of hay. Well for one thing, I have to put more weight on top of the plastic and tarps. So live and learn I guess. I will building a lean-to or at least have some sort of canopy over the hay. Expensive lesson to learn. I even got some small squares of hay to suppliment. The pigs--sorry horses have eaten down most of the pasture and i am now feeding them hay again. Happens, but i was hoping not so soon. Boy they love to eat! I am now down to 11 horses. I am hoping to adopt out at least 2 more horses by the winter. I just want to make sure i can afford the horses i have before adding on more horses. If I cant add more, i hope to still help out folks with finding homes for the horses they cant keep. I can offer advertising through Petfinder.com and that is one of the BEST advertising sites ever. I get probably 90% of my adopters through that site. They see a particular horse on Petfinder and then find their way to my website or just contact me through Petfinder.com The site is great, easy to add/remove horses and their contacts and help is awesome. I really have had NO problems with them. they are quick to answer any and all questions. So please be assured that even though I am not taking in horses right now, it doesnt mean i cant help with rehoming. I also have a list of folks looking for particular kind of horses and can email them with horses that need homes. I hope to continue this rescue but may not in the capacity i have been at before. But my doors will not be shut. I also will always have room for any of my horses that have been adopted to come back. I stay in contact with most of them. Some of them more often than not. But they all know where I am. And i have faith that they are all safe and loved. the most awesome people do find the rescues and are very committed to their animals. That is what helps me do what i do!

Our new home!

So, as you all know, I have moved. 7 miles away. Now I am in Barneveld. My sister took some nice photo's of the place. I have to say that the horses and I are very happy to be here. I had looked at a few places to rent and NONE of them were as nice as this place. AND i only moved 7 miles. Could have been worse. Now we are dealing with our utilities- such as our phone! I am trying Magic Jack. Its a phone service through our computer/internet. $19.95 a year and that is unlimited calling in the US. Boy, my phone bills before were about $80.00-120.00 a month. And that was land line and also internet. Being out in the country you don't normally have a choice on telephone. And I don't have a cell phone and refuse to get one! Too expensive! So the Magic Jack has been working and not working. MJ received good reviews, but we haven't quite figured it out yet! Not having a phone for almost 3 weeks has been a bit of pain, but ok so far. No emergencies.
So here is a look at the new house. The barn is NOT being used as you can see. I have some of my tack in areas where it doesn't rain into. Too bad the owner didn't keep up the barn. It is a great barn! You can see some of the horses in the pasture. It has wonderful, BIG, mature trees for shade! Yesterday was in the car dealership getting my car fixed. Something always seems to come up for sure! But dealing with it, because there is no choice!

My sweet Harley

Well, I have to tell you all about Harley. He was a 20 year old TB gelding (past racer) who was surrendered to me by a woman who couldnt afford him. Actually the story is that she had him about 10 years ago and then let him go to a family with an autistic boy who rode him. They had him for years. Then the husband died and the wife didnt know how to care for Harley and his companion. He ended up getting pretty skinny. The woman who had him before got wind about Harley and took him back and actually got some good weight on him even though he needed more. He had a back leg injury which took some care from her and our vet (we both have the same vet). She then lost her job and then contacted me to see if I could take him. Funny thing is- I was pretty full up but this woman and I both do rescue work and she needed to find him a home. 1 month later, I got Baby Breeze back from his owners and I might have said no to Harley if I knew I was getting Breeze back. Sometimes I do believe in fate. So in the winter of 2008 I got Harley. He had a wonderful calm about him. He was also very tall. 16.2 hands. He was a bay and just wanted to do his own thing. He wasnt all that close to the horses but he liked to be around them. The next year after the winter, Harley got to have the lawn to himself to eat at his leisure. But the boy just couldnt get over 1075 pounds. He really needed at least another 100 pounds if not 150 pounds put on! But i just couldnt get it on him. He ate, he ate like a pig! But anything like weight builders and other stuff - he wouldnt eat it. He just liked his sweet feed and senior feed along with grass and hay. I spent hundreds of dollars and had people donate tons of stuff to try to add or just feed separately to him. He never ate it. I guess I could have just left it there for when he got really hungry to eat it, but I couldnt do that to him. He couldnt go without even one feeding in my book! And he was happy, not in pain although he had some pretty mild to advanced arthritis in his back hips. But he loved his life i think! Jean, my vet came out and did blood work on him, all normal. Fecal was done, teeth good, all normal. He loved carrots, didnt like apples much. But i just couldnt get him over that 1075 mark! I got called in to the Iowa County Humane officer about him this year. She came out and i explained about him, she called my vet and she knew everything that could be done with Harley was being done. First time anyone has ever called me in. Any time someone comes over, I make sure to explain about Harley so they know that he isnt being neglected. But someone called me in. I guess I shouldnt have been so upset, but i was. But i guess i would rather people call in about horses that they are worried about than not. I have called authorities myself. But only after I have spoken to the owners. Most times its just a matter of education, sometimes not. Anyways, that part was taken care of.
Since i had to move, i was worried about my Harley. He was just too unstable to take a trip, even 7 miles up the road! I also knew that Harley wasnt going to be able to take another winter so I wanted him to have a great summer doing what he wanted. He was so spoiled, he would knock into people to make them pet him! He would go wherever, whenever he wanted. I feel bad that I couldnt take him, but he also wouldnt have been able to get his normal feeding in with the other horses. I couldnt chance him to get knocked over by running horses. So I made the decision to put him down the week after the other horses left. He was with me at my old house for a week by himself. I was also worried that he would have a big fit that he didnt have the other horses, but he went on like normal. We had a great week together, he got probably way more grain, way more carrots than any horse should. And still he had not gained any more weight. But he loved the time we had together. Jean came out to help me with Harley on June 23, 2010. I had the tough time, Harley did not. It was very peaceful. Jean even commented on how it went. I dont want to say it went smooth or well, because those arent the right terms or words. I think Harley was ready. I wasnt ready, but I am never ready to put a horse down. Harley just knew. And he was a great boy. Totally different than any horse i have had. He was a beautiful boy. I loved him so.