Soliel Saturday

Thank you for all the kind regards for Tarbaby. It was a hard day yesterday for all of us who loved him. He had quite a reputation in the community and was a well known horse. His past was not that great....but he had a lot of love and good care with us during his stay at Pony Up. Valerie.....you let him down without so much as a backwards glance....I want everyone to know your name as the person who abandoned him and never looked back. Don't ever let there be a next time.

Grace is still very upset and calls out. Yesterday, we let her stay with the body, sniff him all over and when she seemed upset, we let her come back to the barn. Today she has latched onto Louie and is very fretful to the point of exhaustion if he gets out of her sight. We moved horses around until I was practically crazy today...and finally, Grace is in the middle paddock, surrounded by handsome men....but she still does not want to eat. Her legs are shaky from pacing....and so I worry about her. We soaked her abcessed foot today and she was very good for us, let me clean and squeeze and rinse......no worries...she stood still as a rock.

It was a beautiful morning. I got to the barn first and opened up doors.....let chickens out, let barn cat out, doled out the chicken food, cat food and then played with the squirrels for a while....they are not afraid of me anymore...and I can practically touch them....they are so cute with tufted red ears and their shrill little voices. The jays are busy at my mom's feeder stealing peanuts and a couple of gray squirrels fight over corn cob treats......a peaceful morning and I feel like maybe spring will happen after all. I notice that some of my plants are just busting the surface of the dirt....and some buds on the current bush.....I trim some of the old plants back......clean some pots out.....I am getting spring fever already.

We had a full compliment of volunteers this morning....Mary, Susy, Sarah, Aspen, Rebecca and Ryan......we got a lot done....scrubbed some walls, cleaned paddocks, cleaned stalls, scrubbed water tubs, fixed a gate, moved stall mats back into place, put a new receptacle in, fixed a leak in the roof and fixed some leaky gutters. We have a mountain of manure to move......fill dirt to get, sand to get, some fence posts to be put in (fencing chores never stop).....some fences to tighten up, some paddocks to scrape, horses to groom, and next week.......all horses get a deworming. Already that time again.

I took Ryan and Susy to lunch to celebrate Tarbaby's life and we talk about future plans, what we need, what will help us and how we will achieve the things we want and need. Dream big......keep your eye on the distance...I have a good group of folks...Pony Up is a good group of folks.

Thank you to Cenex and Nutrena for the donation of grain today! What a great surprise.. I went to buy a new pitchfork, Show Sheen, beetpulp, dog food and wow...also got ten bags of grain! Grace eats a lot of grain...and beet pulp.....since she cannot eat hay...so again, thank you for your generosity.


Tomorrow some more fencing work....Beaver has an escape route all planned but we caught him and will put an end to it. The weather is supposed to be nice again and I will take blankets off for the early afternoon....so the convicts can get some sun on their backs and dirt in their souls.

It was interesting to note that when I took blankets off today, the blankets looked like they had shrunk.....only they hadn't.....it was expanding bellies and butts...the Pony Up horses are ......umm.....well......FAT. All of them. I smile when I type it...FAT...okay, not like foundering, blubbering fat......but FAT. I bought some diet grain for a couple of them. I laughed when I saw "diet, low calorie grain"......HA...ummmm , why don't we , they or whomever just reduce the amount of grain, quit giving grain or ? DIET GRAIN???
Okay, I bought it. They love grain.... Beaver and Louie never get grain because they are Macy's Parade balloons.....Grace needs full calorie grain.....but Church, Ollie, Winston, Max, Blue....all fatso's...so they get the diet variety.....we will see how it goes.

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow:

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."