Bear Valley Rescue: Updates


Updates on what's happening at the rescue:

Aug 13/10 - A great week for adoptions!  Thanks Susan and Paul at Timberline for adopting
Apache, Dalton and Bogey.  Thanks Tracy and Jonathan for adopting Misty and Winston and fostering 
Rebel and Satin2.  Thanks Sharon and Arnold for adopting Chet, Pup, and Kiki and fostering Millie.
And thanks Carol for showing the ones at your place so nicely!
We've got the dates for our fundraising casino in Red Deer - March 10 & 11, 2011.  We're looking
for volunteers to help at the casino.  I'll post info on the fundraising page as I find out stuff.
Janine will be our casino chairperson.

Aug 6/10 -  Lots of updates!
Russa came back from her foster home, she was losing weight and not doing well at all.
We still haven't been able to figure out what is wrong, though since we've eliminated just
about everything else, it looks like she might have cancer.  We had her teeth done (she
needed 3 pulled), blood work done, she was on mash and supplements, dewormed, antibiotics, 
now we're giving her newcell as well but we haven't seen any improvement in her condition. 
Her appetite is still good and she doesn't seem to be in pain so we'll just take it one day
at a time.
We've got lots of the horses out being worked with this summer and they're all getting
glowing report cards!  Rascal2 and Bogey are both being ridden and responding nicely for Paige 
and Vicki/Daniella respectively.
Carol Bates (sorry about the previous misspelling Carol!) is taking a few of the youngsters 
to do ground work on. Ellio and Prism were the first to go to her and have had their ground work 
done and are just being worked with a bit more.
They both did really well, Carol says Prism has a real 'want-to-please' attitude, and Ellio 
is a bit more of the 'aw-do-I-have-to' type. We're taking Kiki and Nelson to Carol this weekend 
as well.
Jon Cooper has taken on Hunny, Eclipse, Easy and Cass. Hunny has been a piece of cake for Jon, 
after 2 days she was already ready to be saddled.  Eclipse is progressing slowly, thank goodness
Jon is so patient as I knew Eclipse would need someone with a LOT of it. No updates yet on Easy
and Cass, they've only been there a few days.
Meeko and Rigby will be back in the next little while, thanks Reaghan for working with them.
They've both had a lot of ground work done, saddling and bridling included.
Stacey has done a lot with Raffy, he's even getting his feet trimmed regularly and she's also
taken Zahara to start for us as well.
Went out to check the small herd in the east pasture by the house one day and Millie shows up
with a 1" dia piece of wood sticking out of her chest!  She looked sore but wasn't bleeding
or frothing from anywhere so Mike pulled it out - it was in 3 inches!  Had our vet out right
away to flush it out and she's healed up nicely.  Pup has developed an abscess and was limping
quite badly but it seems to working its way out.  Cash2 has come back from his foster home, as
have Satin2 and Rebel.
All the ASPCA horses are doing well and filling out and settling in.  Kitch is all healed up 
and putting weight on. 
We moved a number of horses down to Westbrook as well at the beginning of July, thanks Tara!
Lego, Gabriel, Ebony and Smudge have gone to new homes.
We also had our first sheep shearing as we got in a sheep, Kiwi, who had never been sheared
and really, really needed it done.  Her tail was such a mess from the manure and urine that
collects there when they're not sheared.  Now that she's been done, her tail has healed up
completely.
Lastly, on a sad note, one of our friends and benefactors, Maurice Sirois, passed away suddenly 
on July 11, 2010. 

June 17/10 - Seems like we've spent DAYS in the truck.  The lease we were hoping to get didn't
work out, so we've been moving horses to other pastures in an effort to get everyone on grass.
A big thanks to Kendra for taking Busty, Shasta, Spirit1, Tina, Trey, Buddy, Kiwi, Gypsy1, Rain,
Min, Allie and Reba for the summer, and to Elaine for taking Eddie, Pharoah, Ptolemy, Bandit,
Raffles, Biscuit and Toby for the summer.  Also moved the cows and Lucy, Shadow1, and Fox to
the cattle lease. We delivered Spirit2 to his new home and Satin2 and Rebel to their foster
home.  Brandy, Sky, Hannah(JamJam), Juno, Kat, Navajo, Sasha and Poncho came back from Janine's 
for the summer.  We delivered Gypsy2 to her new home and brought Kitch back from the trainer.  
Unfortunately poor Kitch came down with something right when we took him down there so he was too 
sick to be worked with, and then he injured his neck when he stuck his head between a gate and 
fence.  He's over whatever he had but his neck is pretty bad.  Thanks Paige for fostering Rascal2
for the summer - Paige is going to put some time into him for us.  Thanks also to Sue and
Paul at Timberline for taking Apache, Dalton, Joker, Pepper and Dodge.  Sue'll work with
them and maybe even adopt a few!
Gord Searle was at the Rocky Mountain House rodeo last weekend and we took some of the horses
up there for him to demonstrate with.  Eddie, Smudge, Emily, Trey, Rain, Sonata and Rigby
gave Gord quite a variety to work with!  We're hoping to have Gord out this summer to do a
clinic or two for us here at the rescue.
Dru came up lame, not sure what she did but she's got a bit of swelling in her front leg.
She's on stall rest until it improves.  Prism is back down with the herd now.  We're hoping
to get Senator and Sonata delivered to their new home this weekend (more time in the truck!).
Thanks Patti and Steve for taking Gypsy3 and Sugar to foster along with Misty and her foal
Winston - the babies will have fun playing with each other!  Foxy will in the meantime be
coming back from foster.
Mike and I are signing up for an equine 'green certificate' through Olds college - will
find out more later this month when Henry from Olds College comes out.
Also we've signed up to take part in the ASPCA conference in Edmonton in October. It's
2 days long, I'm not sure how we're going to manage to be away for that long!  Good thing
we've got until October to figure it out.
Finally managed to trim Millie's feet a bit, she was pretty good and I applied some of
Gord's training techniques which really helped.  Storm is picking up weight nicely as well.
We got a dyna-split for Red and hope it helps his crooked leg, but unfortunately it's one
more thing that needs to be done every day, as he only wears it for 12 hours and it needs
to be adjusted during the day also.
Oh, we got in 2 more goats and a sheep.  The sheep will be sheared for the first time
next week - I hope she's well-behaved for it.

Of the 27 ASPCA seizures that we've had for about 5 weeks, one was euthanized, 17 were returned 
to either the owner or previous owners, and the rest (9) will remain here, rather than having them
sent to auction.  One is a stallion that will have to be gelded.  I'll post these horses once 
everything is finalized with the ASPCA.  A really sad situation and I hope the ones that
went back will be properly looked after.  

May 28/10 - We did have Crackerjack euthanized, along with a skinny ASPCA seizure that came in
with a broken foot.  Definitely the worse part of rescuing.  
Prism, Red, and Amigo were gelded, and Amigo also had his hernia stitched up. Ebony, Apache,
Rascal2 and Dalton have come back for various reasons.  We have a large group of ASPCA seizures
here right now, so that we have over 100 horses which is really way too many!
Slinky already came back from the trainer's, she had no luck with her and gave up.
Thanks to Kelly, Vanessa, Angela, Janine and Meaghan for helping with the deworming last
weekend. We got everyone done and I have to brag that the herd was SO well-behaved.
Chase is going back to his adoptive home this weekend.  Still waiting for Spirit2, Senator,
Sonata, and Gypsy Too to go to their new homes.  Not sure what the delay is, everyone seems
to be taking their time!  Got some of the horses up at the house moved into the east pasture
so that's a little less work - seems like we're spending 8 hours a day just feeding.
A big thank you to Ashley and Dan for fostering Pet, Lucky, Sally, Hawk and the 2 minis!
Thanks Sherri for fostering Cash2.  Sherri is going to really work on trying to get his
hock injury to finally heal up.
Looking at purchasing a lease on a quarter-section about 10 minutes from us.  Not the best
grazing, lots of trees, but we are pretty desperate for pasture this year with so many horses 
in our care.

May 14/10 - It's been crazy busy.  Gypsy had her foal (Sugar, born May 1).  Misty also had her
foal at her foster home (Winston).  Both are healthy and doing well.
Thanks Stacey for taking Raffy to work with for us, he's doing really well!
Spencer was gelded today, Prism still hasn't dropped on both sides so he'll be going in for surgery in 
the next week or two.  Amigo turns out to NOT be gelded, so he's going to be done on Tuesday,
as well as have his hernia stitched up at the same time.  We got a halter on Aidyn (Aidyn
and Odin are 2 percheron 2 year olds that are here temporarily - Aidyn still needs to be
gelded but of course isn't even halterbroke yet).  Also got in an old emaciated gelding and 2
fat minis.  We've got Storm, the gelding, on mash, hopefully his weight will pick up and
there isn't something else going on there.  They'll be posted on the site in the next week, hopefully.
Zahara got a nasty puncture wound on the inside of her left thigh, but it's drained and is closing 
up nicely.  
Tomorrow Slinky and Kitch are going out for training - Slinky just so we can halter her and trim her 
feet, Kitch to be saddle-broke.  Also we have Ebony coming back, and also a 2 year old little gelding
with crooked front legs.
On a sad note, we will have to have Crackerjack put down.  Turns out he is either a bilateral 
cryptorchid or wasn't gelded properly, he's got enough testosterone for a full-blown stallion.  
Having him operated on is not an option unfortunately, with his bad foot being the way it is, 
and keeping him penned up (he's broken more fences than the drafts!) is not a life.  Though he 
is nice to handle, he's way too studly in his behaviour, can't have him anywhere near any mares.

Apr 24/10 - Good news and bad news.  Good news - Misty had her foal this morning (or last night), 
healthy and looking good, will get more info from Misty's foster home as soon as I can.  Bad news - 
We had Gypsy3's knee x-rayed, she has very bad arthitis.  We're doing what we can (Legend, Adequan,
and gluc. shots, and acupuncture) to make her as comfortable as possible.  We'll let her foal out
and once the foal is weaned we'll have to re-evaluate her care, will probably have to have her
put to sleep in the fall.  Sad.  
Cash and Cracker are doing great with their acupuncture treatments.  We have been
able to take them right off the bute.  We'll probably try acupunture on Buddy and Cosmo as well,
they both have lameness in one front foot.  We have 2 minis and one old horse coming in next week.
Hopefully we'll get a few of the ones that have been adopted out to their new homes now too.
Hope to get the last 3 colts gelded next week and start on the shots and deworming for all the
horses.  We're having a blood test done on Crackerjack to check his testosterone level. He's
been very 'studly' and we're not sure if it's just a behaviour problem or if he wasn't gelded
properly.

Apr 9/10 - All the horses are doing well.  Meeko and Bandit (one of my horses) both got small puncture
wounds but neither is serious.  Morley had an abscess above his knee but it drained and healed up in 
just a few days.  Gypsy 3 had an abscess which has now drained.  She was so sore, with a bad
knee on one leg and an abscess in the other.  Still haven't managed to set up a time with the vet
to come out and x-ray her.  Not keen on hauling her anywhere with that knee so we'd like to have him
come out and do it here.  She is at least starting to put on some weight.
We're pretty sure none of the mares we got from the paint breeder last year are bred.  Maybe they just 
told us they were pregnant, thinking we might not take them otherwise.  
Cash and Cracker have been getting acupuncture for their arthritis and it's been pretty amazing how
well they're responding.  Cash was bucking and wheeling around and kicking up her heels the other day.
Senator is still underweight so we're going to bring Kikki and Senator back up to the house for extra
groceries.  We'll also introduce Kikki and Millie, they're the same age and that way Kikki will have
a buddy when Senator leaves.

Mar 21/10 - Misty and Foxy have gone to their foster home where they will foal out - thanks Steve 
and Patti!  It's been a really nice mild March, which is good as the horses eat a lot less when
it's warm.  We're just about out of round bales so will have to start feeding daily with the
squares.  New additions Kiki and Senator (who is also now adopted) have gone down to the herd,
along with Kitch and the 3 Arab girls - Zahara, Saphira, and Sheba - and Gypsy2 and Eclipse.  Eddie 
is also down with the herd - boy, he looks even bigger down there when compared to the other horses.  
Kiwi the new blind filly was checked out by the vet on Thursday, she has a bit of infection in her eyes 
so she's on Excenel and BNP, which seems to have really helped.  Also Cracker and Cash1 had their first
accupuncture treatment on Thursday.  Hopefully we'll see some improvement in their mobility over
the next few weeks as the treatments continue.  We're also going to have Gypsy3's knee x-rayed to
see what's going on with that and if there's a course of treatment we can try.  She is putting on
weight at least.  We have another new filly, Millie, who is in with Gypsy3 and Kiwi right now.
Once Millie settles down a bit she'll go out with the herd.  Got 11 of the horses trimmed on
Thursday (it was a busy day!).  We're going to start a more aggressive treatment on Cash2's leg
and maybe see some more improvement in that.

Feb 5/10 - Q, Twilight, and Rascal are adopted and have gone to their new homes, thank you
to Zahara, Lynne, and Yvonne!  Spirit2 is adoption pending as well.  We have the 2 new ASPCA
horses and have 3 more horses coming this weekend.  Bennie is doing MUCH better.  We've
managed to get lots of horses trimmed over the last few weeks, almost caught up... in time
to start over again!  Meeko was trimmed for the first time and he was very good.  Got an update
on Zan, she's now broke to ride and doing wonderfully.  Raven, Renegade and Cirrus, who all went
to the same home as Zan, are halterbroke and also doing well.

Jan 16/10 - Rigby is now gelded!  Prism, however, it turns out has dropped on one side
only so we didn't get him done, though he did get his wolf teeth removed.  If he doesn't
drop in the next couple of months we'll take him in for surgery.  Q is adopted.  Twilight 
is 99% adopted, just waiting for the deposit on her to arrive.  Bennie is doing better.

Jan 4/10 - We hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  We had our share of excitement but 
generally it was nice and quiet.  I managed to get most of the rest of the horses de-
wormed, until I ran out of wormer.  Bennie took a turn for the worse, we believe he may
have suffered a series of strokes.  He was in the barn for a while on meds and is back out 
with his group again and seems to be better, but it was touch and go for a while as he was
quite disoriented and lost interest in his food (!).  We did get his teeth floated again
since the vet was out to check him anyways.  I got lots of nickers from him at feeding 
time yesterday though so that's a good sign.  Emily, Trey's foal from last year,
has been returned to the rescue.  She was born very crooked, but has straightened out 
nicely, though she does seem to exhibit a bit of weakness in one or both of her hind legs.
Most likely she just needs to grow some more.  She is very sweet and is halter broke
and loaded and trailered well. We've noticed Slinky has improved a lot over last year with 
the weakness in her back end.  We've started trimming Crackerjack's back foot in the hopes 
we can help him walk a bit better, he has a lot of trouble getting purchase with his bent 
foot on the snow and ice.  Sunshine has settled down a lot, she is really quite a nice horse,
hopefully come spring we'll be able to work with her a bit.  Gord Searle has 3 training
dvd's out that feature some of the rescues.  It was great to see him working with the 
horses.  Only mix-up is that Cash2 is refered to as a mare on the dvd that features him!
Mike got the auto.waterer installed for the herd, what a relief!  No more dragging the hose
out every day in the bitter cold.
Shasta is back down with the herd, plus we have 3 temporary horse boarders for the winter,
Martini (who comes back every winter for the season), and Skyler and Harley (water problems
at their home).  Skyler came from the same seller as Bogey at the auction, way back when.
Harley is from the same place Monkey, Dodge, Rascal2, and Raffy (and Lexus) came from.
We sent some hair samples to WHOAS, from Rigby and Nelson; they'll be sending them in for
dna testing.  Very interested to find out what comes back!
Note, annual general meeting is this coming Saturday, Jan 9, at 11 am.  Please let us know
if you are planning to attend.

Dec 14/09 - Still bitter cold, though it's supposed to warm up by the middle of the week.
Can't happen too soon, the old guys can't eat their mash fast enough, it freezes before  
they're done.  The horses are going through a lot more hay too due to the cold, hopefully 
we won't run out before spring!  Mike's working hard to try and get the new auto.waterer
installed for the herd, but again the weather is not helping.  We're going to be really
pressed for pasture this spring and summer, so if anyone can foster over the summer, let us
know.  We've also got the books for the year pretty well done, just have to do the
receipts for the auction donations and a few other things.  It sure helps that we've managed
to keep on top of the paperwork throughout the year, so there isn't as much to catch up on 
at year end!
Rascal and Foxy both got minor cuts, Foxy on her hind leg and Rascal on a front leg.  Other
than that they all seem pretty happy, don't seem to mind the cold as much as we do.  Bought
a giant blanket for Eddie, and he's already broken the top front buckle stretching it out of
shape.

Dec 7/09 - Got 2/3 of the horses dewormed but the weather's been nasty the last couple of 
weeks so we haven't been able to finish.  Blanketed all the old guys this weekend, it's 
supposed to be about -35 overnight.  Q cut his back leg but it doesn't look too bad.
Oliver has gone to his new home, we'll really miss him, he's such a sweetheart.  Got 2
mares in yesterday, Tina and Min.  We'll also be getting a couple of Arab yearling fillies
sometime in the next week or so.  Mostly spending a lot of time making sure all the animals
have enough to eat and are staying out of the worst of the wind.  I thought it was
supposed to be an el nino winter!

Nov 16/09 - Rigby had a halter on this weekend!  Thanks to everyone who's worked with him,
it's really paid off!  Easy, Ellio and chet were gelded on Friday.  Poor Chet had a few
bleeders so he had to be knocked out twice so Noeline could tie them off.  Mike was right 
in there helping but I looked the other way.  Gave him an extra shot of penicillin yesterday
and he's doing fine.  Q, Morley and Cecil are back down with the herd, and Shasta is up at 
the house so that Oliver is weaned before he leaves for his new home next weekend.  Thanks
Star, for adopting Oliver - Star is also the one who got the halter on Rigby on Friday.
(Thanks Carmen, Simone, Karen and Caroline for the help moving the horses around.)
Tiny (aka Juno) had most likely lost the sight in his injured eye, but it is healing nicely
and he's a very good patient.  Rascal has a puncture wound to his front leg but it's
draining okay and healing up.  Monkey, Cash and Joanie's wounds are all doing really well -
we're using honey as a dressing and it's just amazing! (thanks Kelly for that suggestion)
The wounds are clean, don't smell and look good.  Monkey's wound is just maybe the size of a 
loonie (or two) but compared to the 5 pounds of proud flesh he used to have there it's great.  
Unfortunately he does have the compensation injury to his other hind pastern that seems to cause 
him more grief than the injured leg.  Cash's hock is actually going down in size, so that's good.  
Joanie's leg is still quite badly damaged, but it is clean and closed over now, so given more 
time we're hoping she'll be fine.  She certainly doesn't favour it at all.
Was planning on starting on the deworming this past weekend but it didn't happen, so the
plan in to start this coming Friday and hopefully by the end of Sunday we'll have everyone
done.
We have committed (or should I say we should be committed?!) to taking in 2 older horses
and another filly with hind pastern issues.  

Nov 8/09 - Productive weekend - Thanks to Roy and Jean for adopting Zan, Renegade, Cirrus
and Raven.  Elaine also brought Fox back and picked up her adoptions, Barq and Jesse. 
Thank you to Dave and Pina for fostering Russa.  Morley, Q and Cecil will go back down with
the herd now that they're all doing better.  Eddie is putting on weight and his coat has
improved.  We had 6 geldings done on Friday, thanks Noeline and Brent - Q, Pup, Spirit,
Nelson (!), Lego, and Meeko were done.  We were going to do Cecil but he either hasn't 
dropped or has already been gelded.

Nov 3/09 - We had a lot of fun with Gord and Phyllis Searle last weekend, working with the
horses.  We took Zan, Allie#3, and Dodge the first day, and Eclipse, Spirit#1, Shay and 
Cash#2 the second day.  They were all really good, they gave Gord a nice cross-section of 
horses to work with with different issues.  I must say that the horses all impressed me with 
their willingness to load!  Eclipse was very good going in and out of the trailer, and they 
self-loaded themselves the second day to come home.  We'll post info on the training dvd's 
featuring our horses when they become available.  It was really interesting to see the 
horses that were waiting in the back area actually round-penning each other!  While Gord
was working with Dodge, Zan was pushing Allie around the area, and then when he was working
with Zan, Allie was moving Dodge around.
Cecil's eyes continue to improve and Sunshine's boo-boo is almost completely healed up.  
We brought Q up to the house, he was looking a little rough, he'll get some extra feed plus 
I dewormed him for tapeworm.  We've got yet another 2 additions - Toby, a sweet 7 yr old 
sway-backed paint gelding; and Tiny, a HUGE black percheron gelding with an injured eye.  
Noeline, our vet, was out this morning and stitched his eye shut to give it time to heal.  
It's not as bad as Claire's injury was, but we don't know yet if we'll be able to save the 
sight in his eye.
We're planning on gelding Cecil and Q this weekend, and also perhaps doing our fall deworming.

Oct 25/09 - Another busy week and weekend.  We picked up Mamma Russa, an older chestnut Arab 
mare, and also Bogey and Smudge were returned to the rescue due to finances.  I'll get the new 
horses posted this evening, hopefully.  Turns out Sunshine didn't have a kick, she had a 
laceration under her armpit (do horses have armpits?), quite severe, so we've brought her up 
to the house and washed it and medicated her.  She is actually halter broke and I can even
catch her sometimes.  She really hated having her wound cleaned though!  Cecil has moon-blindness,
an auto-immune thing that manifests itself in the eyes.  His eyes are clearing up, though he
is still on lots of meds.  Hopefully he won't have too much scarring so that he will still
be able to see fairly well.  Unfortunately it is a recurring disease, so he'll have to be
monitored continuously for signs of a new infection so that it can be caught and treated
right away.  Eddie, the big draft that was given to Mike (I put him on the foster page just
so people can see him, though he'll be a resident and not available for foster or adoption),
is very thin and seems to have stringhalt as well.  He is already putting on weight,
we've been giving him canola oil in his food.  He may have that thing that drafts are prone to,
where they can't process proteins from feed.  The oil takes care of that though (maybe because
it's already processed).  
And we have some exciting news, next weekend we'll be taking 7 or 8 of our horses to be worked 
with by Gord Searle.  He does natural horsemanship training and is creating a training dvd.  
We are thrilled that he'll be featuring some of our horses on the dvd - provided of course that he
is successful with them!  We'll see how he does with Eclipse, Zan, and a few of the shier
horses.  I'm not previously familiar with him but he does have a facebook page featuring his 
work and I've checked than out.

Oct 18/09 - Yoikes what a week!  We picked up another mare on Wed, Sunshine.  She seems nice 
though they said she was crazy. We'll leave her out with the herd and eventually she'll settle down.
She did get a nasty kick from someone in the herd, and unfortunately I can't get close enough
to her to treat it.  It's not serious though and will heal up fine.
Got another horse today from the LIS, Crackerjack.  Now he's a little crazy, I think he was stir 
crazy as he ran around like a nut when I turned him out.  Josephine and Annie came back today as 
returns, along with another big draft that was given to Mike.  We're picking up an older Arab 
mare on Wed. next week, but at least I think we've already got a foster home for her.  
Cecil has some sort of weird problem.  Vet thinks he may have had some trauma to his head,
his eyes are cloudy-yellow and he can't see very well.  He's in the barn and hopefully he'll
recuperate and get his eyesight back!  We got Eclipse gelded, that was quite the event.  He's
still quite spooky but we're working on it.
Our sympathies to Janine, she had Samsom and Roz put to sleep on Monday.  Thanks Janine for
caring for them so well.  And Janine has jumped right back in with both feet, taking Brandy,
Navajo, and Kat on foster!
 

Oct 5/09 - Rebel and Morley are back at the rescue; Rebel will be on the foster page and Morley will
be up for adoption.  Rebel took some skin off one hind leg in a minor accident at his foster home.
It should heal up fairly quickly though.  Morley has really grown, he's going to be nice and tall
but he is a bit underweight.  Also Chase and Joker are down with the herd now as well.  Joker's leg 
is almost completely healed, hopefully he won't bang it up running around with the herd.  We've
started wrapping Cash#2's leg, in the hopes that it will help close up the old wound.  Joanie
knocked her injured leg when she jumped the fence yesterday (!), which is a disappointing set-
back as it reopened the injury.  Bennie is such a slow eater, we've decided to feed him separatedly
from the other horses in his paddock.  He gets twice the mash but eats twice as slow, so he
gets pushed away before he's done.  Fall deworming is coming up soon, probably last weekend in 
October.

Sept 30/09 - For the first time, we've got our hay home by the end of Sept.  Usually Mike's still 
hauling at the end of October in the snow!  Navajo, Cash #2 and Chase have come back, Chase is up
for re-adoption and Navajo and Cash are back on the foster page.  Also got in a new mare, Joanie,
and she's also on the foster page.  Allie#3's rain rot did clear up with the penicillin.  Zan got
another puncture wound in her front leg but it's drained and healing already.  We moved the youngsters
down to the south pasture along with the mares and foals.  Zephyr got gelded finally, it was a major
undertaking as he had one testicle that didn't drop but fortunately our vet knows another vet who
is an expert at those operations and he can do it without having to go through the abdomen, so a lot
safer and cheaper too.

Sept 13/09 - A really productive weekend.  We've got Rain and Cosmo on glucosamine shots now as well.
We gave Allie#3 a shot of penicillin as she's had some sort of rain scald for months, hopefully that 
will clear up now.  Annie went back to her rightful home, Sally#1 came back from foster, as did
Bennie.  We've also got permanent resident Hawk here now.  Zephyr is now up at the house, have to
try and get some meat on his bones!  I've decided to adopt him myself, he's been my baby for a while
now anyways.  Some thank-you's: 
Hazel, we can't thank you enough for all the donations, and thanks so much for looking after Bennie 
over the summer. Take a look at Bennie's current picture on the website, he's a gorgeous cherry bay!
Maria, an immense thanks for all the feed and stuff, the tackroom is so full of feed there's no room 
for the tack!    
Carmen (and Simone!) and Sherral, thanks for putting in a lot of weekends!
Janine, thanks for all the work on the fundraising - it's not over 'til it's over!

Sept 9/09 - No news is good news.  It's been pretty quiet, the horses are managing to stay out of trouble.
Hopefully I haven't jinxed anything by saying that!  The big herd's in the north pasture, thanks to
the Klis family for that.  The little guys are still across the road at the Elliot's.
Kat and Lucky are back from their summer foster, along with Cosmo.  Bennie and Hawk will be back this 
weekend, as will Sally#1.  Cracker got new shoes, 3 degree aluminum, she's also on isoxuprine and bute 
suspension and is doing 100% better.  Rain was evaluated by the vet today, she's got a lot of scar tissue 
in her shoulder so we'll be moving her to the foster page and she'll be looking for a foster home with 
someone who is willing to take her on as a project, doing deep tissue massage, stretching exercises, etc, 
to try and loosen her shoulder up.  Also will put her on gluc. shots, same as Cash and Brandy, and Cosmo.
Actually I just thought of some bad news.  Roz, who has been fostered by Janine for the last 3 years,
hasn't been doing well recently and upon examination by the vet it seems the cartiledge in her bad
knee is breaking down (she has a bent leg, looks like maybe it was broken at some point and didn't heal 
properly).  There is nothing that can be done for it other than to make her comfortable, so this will
be her last fall with Janine as she'll be put to sleep before winter.  Our thoughts are with you Janine,
especially given that Samson as well will be crossing the rainbow bridge with Roz this fall. 
Dalton went to his new home, thanks Yvonne!
Unusual turn of events regarding Dreamboat Annie.  Turns out she's kind of a 'stolen' horse.  The 
people that sold her to us hadn't paid for her!  So we'll be reuniting her with her previous rightful
owners.
Started bringing the hay home, that will keep Mike busy for a while!

Aug 28/09 - Moved the big herd to the south pasture where the old guys normally are so they can graze 
it down a bit (since the old guys barely put a dent in it) before we bring the hay home, since that's 
where we store it.  Then they'll get to move up to Klis' to the north for a few weeks.  Thanks Caro, 
the extra pasture really helps!  Dodge got a puncture wound on his butt but it's draining already and 
he's not limping so that's good. The little guys are doing well, Nelson's knee is healed up and Spencer's 
pastern is scabbed over. We'd like to leave Lilly's foot unbandaged now, but every time we try she starts 
to lick it and it bleeds like crazy.  Vet will be out next week to check Cracker, she's really favouring 
her right front. Got most of our hay ordered in, we'll be paying pretty well twice what we paid last year,
so the total damage will be about $26,000!  Yoiks!  Thank goodness for overdraft and line of credit!

Aug 24/09 - Lilly the cow loves her oats.  Good thing, as that's the only way she'll stand still to have
her foot done. It does look really nice now, healing up well.  She gets to spend her days outside now.
Homer the llama went to a new home where he'll get to watch over some sheep.  Solace and Serenity also
went to the same home.  Ronin went to his new home, he's going to be spoiled!  We got a new addition, an
old appy gelding, blind in both eyes.  He's a sweetie, but it'll take him a bit to get settled into his
new surroundings.  Hopefully we can find a friend for him that he can hook up with.  Nelson got a puncture
by his knee same as Meeko had.  It's draining and looks okay thank goodness.  Spencer got a minor scrape 
on one rear pastern, nothing serious, and Amigo gave us a scare when he started colicking but it was just gas.

Aug 12/09 - Sunday we got all the yearlings dewormed (for tapeworm as well this time) and they all got their 
boosters.  Thanks Janine, Elaine, Lizzie and Cynthia for the help, it went really well.  Also moved some of the 
horses around, the little guys are out on better pasture now as are the mares and foals.  Lilly the cow is getting
tired of having her foot cleaned and wrapped, she nailed me in the knee the other day and almost got Mike
yesterday.  Still, her foot seems to be doing well, swelling has gone down and it does look like it's 
healing already.  Homer the llama needs to be gelded and then he'll go to Janine's to keep her llama company.

Aug 8/09 - Thanks Meaghan for the help with the fencing and cleaning up of the trees in the paddock!  
Meeko got a puncture wound in his right knee, swelled up like a football but he was very good for the
vet to look at it, cleaned it up, got a shot of penicillin and it's draining nicely.  Solace got her
teeth floated, looks like she has an old injury inside her mouth at the back of her jaw which could account
for her being a 'bad keeper', not sure how her previous owners couldn't have noticed, it must have been
quite painful when it happened.  We'll keep an eye on her weight, see if she starts to pick up now.
Cracker has been quite sore lately so we're going to try bar shoes on her fronts, see if that helps.  
Joker had a bit of swelling in his back leg with the cut so he also is on penicillin and bute and it 
looks much better.  Also cold water hosing seems to really help.
The farrier was out a few days ago and lots of the yearlings got trimmed along with some of the special-
needs crowd.
Today we went out on a rescue to pick up a llama that was dumped out west of Cochrane last winter.  There
were 3 llamas originally but 2 of them died over the winter.  This llama was in with a large herd of cows 
that were very wild so it took a bit of running around to get it seperated and corraled and into the trailer.
While we were catching the llama we noticed a young cow in the herd that had put her front foot through a hubcap.
This must have happened quite a few days or weeks ago as her leg was swollen and her foot was badly
injured.  We were able to get permission to take the cow with us so we were able to corral her and load
her on the trailer as well.  Once we got home, we first quieted the llama and Mike was able to cut off
the barbed wire that he had tangled up in his coat and between his legs.  Then we got the cow into the
barn and put her into the stocks.  Mike had to figure out how to get the hubcap off her foot.  It 
was not easy!  Amazingly she just stood there with almost no fussing as Mike tried tin snips, wire cutters,
bolt cutters, even a metal-cutting jigsaw. We started to think we weren't going to be able to get it off 
but finally Mike got a cut started into it and once he got it started he was able to cut it quickly!
Then our great vet, Noeline, came out, along with her husband to lend a hand, and her leg was washed and 
the wound cleaned out.  It was cut down to the bone on the inside of her foot and was full of maggots.
Noeline couldn't believe that this poor cow was still able to bear weight on her injured foot.
The wound was packed with salve and wrapped and the cow in now resting comfortably in her stall in the barn.
We'll have to clean and rewrap her foot every day until it heals so hopefully she'll continue to be
such a good patient.  For a wild and unhandled young cow she was incredibly quiet!

Aug 4/09 - Bad storm on Sunday night, lightning like I've never seen before.  Lots of trees down and
fences damaged but fortunately all our animals made it through okay.  Very heartbreaking to hear that
Taryn lost Jasper due to injuries he received during the storm.  When something like that hits it's 
our worst fear.  I'm so sorry you lost him Taryn, you were a match made in heaven.

July 31/09 - Mike's been putting a poultice on Easy's foot all week and it's now almost back to normal.
We'll turn Easy and Claire back out with the little guys this weekend.  Hopefully we can move some of 
the new mares and colts down to the herd as well.  Joker has been good for working on his leg as well.

July 26/09 - Easy's whole lower leg and foot is swollen, I've been soaking it (he's so good!) and this 
morning he had pus oozing out around the cornary band and his heel.  Poor guy.  Hopefully now that it's 
draining he'll start to feel better.  Have him and Claire (for company) in a small paddock so he's not walking 
too much, though they're not happy when the other little guys leave.  Put a poltice on it this morning so 
hopefully that will help as well.  Busy weekend, brought in 6 more horses, but this is absolutely positively 
it (except for the aspca mare)!  Boy we got some nice ones in, some BIG ones.  But now we already know we'll 
have 6 expecting foals next spring, which is really stressful for Mike, he's so vigilant and concerned that 
something might go wrong.  Annie the spotted draft is huge and she's only 2.  Ronin is such a sweetheart but 
he was a bit overwhelmed when we turned him out with the herd, not that they paid that much attention to him.  
Pepper seemed to like him and Zen is in love with him already.  Thanks to the voluteers that were out this 
weekend.  Between hauling and fencing and feeding and doctoring I didn't even get out to see the herd this 
weekend until today, so it was a relief knowing someone was checking on everyone yesterday.

July 23/09 - One of those days!  Mike called me at work this morning because he counted one horse short in the herd.
He went back down again and Rascal comes sauntering out of the woods by himself, not a care in the world.  What a relief
though!  Then I got home from work and Prism is lying down and acting colicky and depressed.  Gave him some 
banamine and got a couple of runny poops out of him and he seemed to feel much better, thank goodness.  He
was very good for leading too, so that was one good thing about it.  Also Easy is limping, a sore back foot.
Can't see any injury, hopefully it's not a abscess and he'll be feeling better in the morning.

July 21/09 - Just remembered that we still have to give all the yearlings their boosters.  Will
plan on doing it when I next have a week off work.  Joker was returned to the rescue after being adopted out
for a year.  He has a nasty cut on his hind leg but he was VERY good for wrapping it.  Looks like we'll be
getting in another 3 mares and 2 yearlings as well.  Promised one other person we'd take in their horse, but
that has to absolutely be IT! - except for possibly the mare and foal that were seized by the ASPCA... Hauled
home another 300 small square bales of hay last weekend.  For some reason the second 300 didn't seem as much
work as the first 300 (though Mike might not agree).  Maybe I'm getting back into shape.

July 13/09 - Busy weekend - took Bennie (and Hawk) to Hazel's for the summer, thanks Hazel!  It was nice to visit 
with you as well, and you have our sincerest gratitude for the donation of the tractor, it will really be a big 
help around the farm.  We're going to call it 'John's Tractor'.
Thanks Kay Lee for adopting Cheyenne.  And thank you to everyone who was out volunteering this weekend.  Also noticed 
Donner is really settled down now, loves being petted.  Turned the horses out on the north pasture, thanks again
to the Klis' for letting us do that!

July 7/09 - Didn't get the new updated pics downloaded on Sunday, internet quit on me, so I'll try tonight.  
Laramie went to his new home today, good luck Nicky and Bryan, I think it's a good match!

July 5/09 - Breakthrough with Nelson!  He let me scratch his bum AND pull out most of his mats!  Picked up the 
3 mares and their foals on Friday evening, made for a long day.  They are very nice, bred back unfortunately
so we probably won't be listing the mares for adoption until next year.  Also we're hoping on the off chance
that the previous owners will be able to take them back before then if their situation improves.  
The foals are so sweet, 2 palomino paint colts and 1 palomino filly.

July 3/09 - Home for holidays for one week so got some things done - built a new paddock, and cemented in the 
pigs' waterer so they can't tip it over!  Thank you to Chinook Riders youth drill team for the donation!
Have 3 mares with foals coming this weekend, registered paints, helping out a breeder with a personal emergency
situation. Haven't seen them yet but I bet they're beautiful.

Jun 27/09 - Thank you to the employees of the Royal Bank branch in Olds, for choosing us as a 'local hero' during 
the RBC 2009 Community Celebration Week!  We were very surprised but are very grateful for the recognition and
donation. Also thank you to Christine of 'The Horse Store' in Calgary, for the donation of wormer!  It was very 
nice to meet you all today. Brought home 314 square bales today - that's a lot of work, first loading it on the 
trailer, and then having to off-load it into the hay shed!  Only 286 more to go....

Jun 26/09 - Busy day yesterday, had the day off work so our vet was out and floated Hawk's, Bennie's, and Reba's teeth.
Bennie only has 4 of his 12 bottom teeth left, so no wonder he was so skinny!  Though that doesn't excuse his
owners from not feeding him properly and letting him literally starve to death almost.  Reba had a badly rotted 
tooth that needed to be pulled, so she should be feeling and eating better now.  Also the farrier was out and did
13 horses - Laramie's first time (just did his fronts), and Twilight was really good too.

Jun 19/09 - Laramaie is adopted again already, thanks Nicky!  We're going to wait for his hock to heal up a 
bit more before he goes to his new home.  Donner got a small cut on his back leg yesterday but it's already
closed up.  I walked up to Reba and put a halter on her!  Okay, so I had a pocket full of treats, but still...
I think she needs her teeth done, as do Hawk and Bennie, so time to arrange another visit from the vet. 
Pharoah's scratches are clearing up nicely, so we'll probably shave his legs every spring.  Kelly has some
really nice horses listed on the 'for sale' page, I really like Munch!

June 15/09 - Wonderful weather this weekend, and some rain too, which we really need.  Mike's horse Shiloh is 
finally starting to recover from his abscess but his other horse Pharoah the draft has scratches so we had to
shave his legs.  He looks a little strange now!  Laramie cut his hock, not too serious but it's pretty swollen.
Pet's in love with Pepper and unfortunately since they're on opposite sides of the fence, the fence is taking
the brunt of the love affair.  Thanks Meaghan, Lindsay and JoAnn for coming out on the weekend and playing with
the horses.

Jun 11/09 - Hawk's not limping anymore but we've decided to bring him up to the house and put him back on mash.  
Pepper was gelded and is healed up nicely already.  Laramie came back, he's relisted.  They got as far as 
saddling him but that's it.  He sure grew and filled out over 6 months.  Slinky is really settling down.  
Looks like pasture is going to be hard to come by this summer, the grass is really slow.  We're already a little 
worried about what the hay prices and availability are going to be come fall.  We're looking at doing another 
silent auction this summer, keep an eye on the website for more info.

Jun 7/09 - Sad news, we lost Payton on Thurs.  She colicked and we had to make the decision to have her put down.
We sure do miss her.  Sally went to her new foster home this morning, thanks Kate.  Mike's horse Shiloh abscessed
again so he's up at the house.  Hawk's limping and his weight is down so he's going to go out with the old guys.

Jun 2/09 - Breakthrough!  I can pet Slinky's face and neck now!  Got 2 new mares in, very nice girls, will have them
on the website soon.  Also got in an ASPCA seizure yesterday, young palomino stallion, he's getting gelded this morning.
Kodiak and Jules went to their new home on Saturday, thanks Dan and Vicki.
Calliope and China were adopted this evening.  Thanks Dale, Bruce and Lindsay!  Calli walked onto the trailer
like a real pro!

May 24/09 - Yahoo!  Got shots and deworming done on all the horses!  (Except Rigby - he hasn't got his shots yet.)
Thanks to everyone that helped - Vicki, Dan, Ashley, Selena, Elaine and Cynthia and Nikki.  Boy it's nice to have
that done.  Also took Spirit (#1), Biscuit, Badger and Trey to Elaine's for the summer, thanks Elaine!  Got the horses
that spent the winter at the house sorted - Payton, Pet, Kat, Lucky and Brandy were moved down to summer pasture, and
Satin #2 and Sally #1 and Hawk went out with the herd.  Only the babies, Slinky, Cracker and Cash are still at the house.
We've sadly made the decision to have Mike's mom's horse Archie put to sleep this week, his arthitis is bad and he
may be abscessing in his other foot as well.  It never gets any easier... 

May 18/09 - Got the shots and deworming done on the little ones and old ones at the house, so half way there.
Nelson, Rigby and Cass didn't get their shots yet, but they at least got dewormed (fed it to them in oats).
Thanks Elaine and family for the help!
Took Shadow, Silk and Shamrock to their foster home for the summer - thanks Mark and Wendy (and Vicki!).
Can belive it's snowing today after plus 20 yesterday.  Poor animals outside must be miserable in this wet.

May 12/09 - Still putting off the shots and deworming, but for sure we have to do the old guys and babies
next weekend.  Farrier was out on Monday, got most of the old guys done plus a few others.  I think it is
very important to keep the old ones trimmed up, they have enough joint and health issues without having to
deal with bad alignment due to not getting trimmed!  Looks like Bennie is putting on weight, though he's
losing all his hair.  Blondie and Apache are adopted, Apache already having gone to his new home.  He was
SO good to sort and load!  Nevada, Baxter and Liberty also went to their new home, all to the same place which
was nice.

May 6/09 - Nelson is feeling better and is back out with the other babies.  Okay, they're almost a year old, 
but they're still babies!  We got in our shots and wormer (100 doses!) so have that to look forward to over the
next couple of weeks - I'm trying not to have a panic attack about it.  We'll be fostering out a bunch of the
horses over the next couple of weeks to near-by pastures for the summer, thanks Wendy and Mark, and Elaine and Tom, 
and everyone else that has offered pasture for the summer.  Unfortunately we're limited on which horses we can
send out as we would like to keep those that may be adopted close by for viewing. 

May 3/09 - Callie got a puncture wound to her chest but fortunately it's not too deep.  Skip was gelded 
and has gone to his new home. Dalton was also gelded, was such a good boy for his first leading lessons.  
Zephyr still hasn't dropped one of his 'boys' so wasn't gelded this time around, again.  Bennie is 
infested with lice!  No wonder he looks so awful.  Liberty, Nevada and Baxter have been adopted! 
Nelson isn't doing as well as we'd like so we've separated him from the other babies for extra rations,
got some penicillin and wormer into him as well. 
Thanks Jenn for fostering Sally#2, along with Sue.  Thanks to everyone who visited this weekend.  

Apr 26/09 - Dodge sliced open his shoulder, a nasty wound but it's clean and should heal up okay.  Pal is already 
fostered - thanks Bonnie and Patrick.  Bennie, one of the worst cases of poor condition we've ever seen, 
is doing better, hopefully he'll pull through.

Apr 23/09 - All the babies are going through quite a growth spurt!  Rigby approaches now and has taken a treat from me.
Reba also for the first time took a treat from my hand.  Kodiak, Prism and Kass got some cuts running through a new 
fence; thank goodness we use barbless wire or it could have been a lot worse.  Apache we can now pet on his neck, though
he definitely has that look on his face, like he's not really sure if it's a good thing or not.  Zan has turned into 
a pocket pet, though I'm still pretty wary of her because she's a big horse and runs after me everywhere!  Gypsy and 
Donner are down with the herd now.  All the horses seem to be quite protective of Donner and willing to put up with his 
antics. Next week, barring another snow storm, we're planning on gelding Zephyr (maybe), Donner, and Skip.