Tuesday

Back to rain again......and I am cold today.....wore a sweatshirt all day...so much for June.

Grace continues to do well, eating all her food and wanting more. Her coat is all shed out and she is slick and shiny. Such a pleasure to look at her coming back to health. She talks now too, whinnying loudly when you enter the barn.....insistent on getting some scratches and treats.

Silk feels better today......not quite so depressed and eating a little better too.....such a big change for him. He misses his people and his old girlfriend.....I wish we could have brought her here with him, but there is just no room. She went back to her owner's breeding farm (not to be bred...)

I came home this evening and found our rooster drowned in the pond........very sad about this. Buckley was a fine rooster, always gentle and so good to his hens. They will be lost without him. We will get them a new rooster because I think a barnyard needs a rooster to watch things. RIP Buckley....we will miss you.

It is brilliantly green here.....like I imagine the Amazon to be or as I said before..it is like our own rain forest. My plants are thriving. All the same, I hope the sun will come out again soon. My truck needs washing, Grace needs a bath....we want to grade the arena.......lots of outdoor chores.

More phone calls about unwanted horses......horses who need help.......horses who cannot be kept for financial reasons.....the list goes on and on. It is overwhelming. My best advice is MAKE A PLAN.......DO NOT BREED without a PLAN......foals are cute.....but a long term project that can drain your pocketbook......training, vet care, time.......do you have it? any doubt? DON'T DO IT. Old horse? There are very few homes for old horses....not saying it is impossible......but it is almost impossible.......consider a gentle euthanasia for your old friend instead of giving him away to a "good" home...or find a horse retirement center and belly up to the responsibility.....your horse deserves it......lame horse? No one wants your lame horse either......or someone will take it and then ride it into the ground or not feed it, not respect his or her limitations......or.......worse. I don't want to go into worse.....but it is out there. Get your horse trained......everyone is looking for a well trained rideable horse......it makes him or her so much more valuable and saleable....geld your stud colt...unless you HAVE A PLAN for him and he is TRAINED and he is WELL BRED and he has good CONFORMATION and he has a GREAT TEMPERMENT.

I don't feel bad about euthanasia for an old horse, a sick horse, a lame horse.......yes, it is emotional.....but it can be the kindest and safest option for your old or lame horse. I have seen some real trainwrecks occur with "free to good home"........
Please do a site check........please check references..........please deliver your horse to his/her new home...please offer to help rehome the horse if "something" happens.

I have seen:

a horse who was locked in a chicken coop.....in the dark.
a horse tied to a cement culvert in a back yard......with only lawn grass to eat.
a horse living in a pig pen with pigs, fed pig food, in deep mud
a horse living in a 40 x 40 fenced area, knee deep in mud with five other horses, grain thrown in the mud, hay on top of that.
a horse kept in a horse trailer..every day, starved and water deprived
a horse in a back yard in the city limits, a lawn grass diet
a horse tied by the leg to the power grid line stanchions on a back road
a horse who was about 14H, 600 lbs (weak and underfed) being ridden by a 350lb person
a horse locked in a residential garage with a trampoline
horses being fed day old bread and rotten vegetables.......no hay.
A pony mare left in a makeshift pen after the new owners moved...for four weeks.

The free to good home horse is at risk if you do not do your homework. Please do it for the horses sake.

Off my soap box for the evening.

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow:

Your heart knows where to go.