Sunday.............sun.....oh boy

Up early to check on Max.......I am happy to report he is feeling better and perky....he ate his breakfast and had several piles of poop in his paddock.
Kim came and we turned Max out with Ollie......oh boy! Talk about some action...neither one of them looked to have any arthritis or joint issues....running, leaping, jumping.....they had some fun! They eventually settled down and nuzzled ..then groomed each other.

Kim and I blocked off the sink hole in the arena so that it is safe for turnout. We will turn the filly out for the later half of the day. It is dry and safe for turnout.

Umm....the peacock is still here.......he spends a lot of his time on the roof. Go figure?

The horse market continues to be frightful. .....already starving horses....phone calls.....heart break.

more later.......I have chores calling my name.

Here is the "more later" report.

I was called away to transport two horses. Two starving, pathetic wrecks......owned by ignorant folks who put them on pasture and expected it to sustain them in November. When asked what they were feeding.....they replied "timothy because they don't like alfalfa"........funny, because there was not a shred of hay on the ground or in feeders.......NADA....nothing. You know as well as I do that when you feed hay, you leave evidence...a trail..it does not disappear into thin air.
They were both skin and bones, with the mare having a hugely swollen leg, both having horrible feet.......these are "warmblood" horses with good breeding. The mare was given to the people by an owner who surely thought the mare was getting a retirement home with okay folks.....the colt ........well, he will come through this....but he is very thin and had a halter on which grew into his face until his flesh is exposed . Like,does this happen overnight? Do you not look at your horse every day while you are feeding it all that timothy you talked about???? Does a halter just grow into the nose and oh well, he will get over it? Does running pus from a wound seem benign? Does your horse get dreadlocks from caked mud and you think it is normal? The colt's tail has NEVER been combed. I guarantee it. The mare's skin on her legs is wickedly pink around her pasterns....and the skin is so swollen it looks as if it will split. I will never understand until the day I die.......why folks do this......why they think their horses look normal.......why they don't see the ribs, the rainrot, the bad feet, the swollen skin......the goopy eyes....WHY????? Would you notice if it was your child? Your mother? The mare is old and used to be a 4th level dressage horse......how far she has traveled to such less than stellar surroundings. If you could have seen her eye today when I haltered her and started leading her up the hill........at first she was resigned, expecting perhaps the worst....got to the trailer and looked at me like......"get me out of here".........Embarrassing and shameful that a horse who has worked hard and mastered such a skill should end up here......like a piece of trash.....shame on whomever did not do a site check. These horses did not have any shelter. When you get into bed at night, your warm and safe bed.......do you not think of the animals you have and how comfortable they are? Would you sleep knowing that an animal you are caring for is wet, cold and hurting? When you hear driving rain, do you not rush to make sure your four footed creatures have cover? When you feel the bite of bitter cold on your skin, do you not worry about your animals well being? Do you not make sure that your animals have good food and a dry shelter from the elements?...or do you think that because they are an animal they do not have hunger, that perhaps somehow their skin does not feel the cold? That their hunger can wait for days on end? or that they do not have thirst......that they don't feel pain from swelling or oozing sores? Prick your own skin and know that is what the horse feels....a living and feeling being, not a stuffed animal.
I know that we are supposed to "turn the other cheek"......but it just isn't in me....people need to suffer in the same way they have made others suffer. Just my opinion.....I am sure you have your own.
The mare now belongs to Pony Up. We will do what we can for her, if that means that we can only give her a few weeks of comfort.....the infection in her leg may be more than she can handle...she is resting comfortably tonight, with lots of hay, some medicine and her friend, the young little gelding.
They both loaded right up into the trailer.....no worries, no hesitation......they knew something better was coming their way.

Pony Up Fortune for Monday:

When you think you can go no further and carry nothing else....you can, go a little further and carry a little more.

by the way.........the Pony Up horse pictures were taken by Kim.....aren't they great?