Simon

Simon was layed to rest yesterday morning.

He had a good last few months and in the end we hope we made a good difference in his life, if only for the last part of it.

Simon is part of a sad story about a man growing old and sick.....and not having anywhere to turn with or for his beloved horses. Eventually the man died and even though family and friends promised to take care of his horses...they simply couldn't or wouldn't. A tragedy really. These horses suffered almost a whole year and if it weren't for kind and caring neighbors, they may have died.

It stops and makes me think about what would happen to my horses if I died or became very sick. I have often told my family to euthanize my horses if I died and I stick by that. It sounds anti rescue...almost anti horse, doesn't it? But the reality is that I have horses with issues...horses who may be dangerous in the wrong hands...horses with large vet bills, large appetites....and I never want to spend a waking moment wondering if they would ever get into the wrong hands or starved or slaughtered.

The story of the three Arabians made it hit home. That could have been me....it could have been you.

However you personally feel,...make plans, issue statements...let people know what you want...make arrangements. Be proactive.

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I have an evening ritual of feeding each horse a carrot before I leave the farm. It serves a good purpose...I have a good visual of each horse before I leave. Are they feeling okay? Did they eat the carrot with their usual gusto? Did they clean up their grain and are they working on their hay? Is the water tub full and clean?

It allows me to leave with a clear conscience.

We need to raise three hundred dollars for Hammy next doctor visit. We need to know if there is something we can do for his jaw and we need a specific x-ray. Please email me with ideas for fundraising...car wash? bake sale? stand outside Starbucks and beg? LOL...just kidding.

I got a lot done today. I finally after a year, got my office put together, desk, phone, computer...it looks nice. I had used the space for storage for the last year. It was fun going through boxes, old photos...I gave some stuff to The Goodwill and threw some stuff out.

We have a tractor coming this weekend to drill fence post holes...for free! Now we have to get posts and another gate. The place is coming along...I thank everyone for their help and efforts!

Saturday we have a new volunteer coming to help us. We look forward to meeting her. Her name is Maia. (my-ya)

Welcome Maia!

please, please help us get the forum going...we have lots of members but is everyone too shy to post? It should be a meeting place...news, questions, announcements...come on...step out of the shadows!

Life is short~love hard!

Friday ends a long week

Friday ends a long week of bad news.

Our dear old Simon, one of the three Arabians we helped to rescue a little while back......has been diagnosed with cancer. I think we told you that he had penis lacerations. The lacerations were not really lacerations, but rather ulcerations from squamous cell (cancer). This is a very aggressive cancer. Treatment options are to amputate his penis or to keep cutting away flesh and trying to medicate locally, but we don't consider those things to be viable options for this old man. Trying to medicate locally has been the course of the last month and a half....and he must be sedated to to do this........we simply cannot sedate the old guy every day and besides it has not worked well........he has more exposed and ulcerated flesh....very painful too......He has had a really good last couple of months.......has been doted on, loved, fed, bathed and got to hang out with other old man horses. We will give him a dignified ending in the next week or so.

I took Hammy into the vet today as well so that I could get an answer on his weight loss and loss of appetite. I expected bad teeth........but bad teeth are not the answer. It seems that Hammy probably sustained a broken jaw at one point prior to coming into Pony Up. His teeth do not line up (open your own mouth and purposefully move your jaw to the left or right as far as you can)....this is what Hammy's jaw is like. It makes it very difficult to chew, impossible to clip grass and has also given him a sort of TMJ scenario. Add chronic wind sucking to put pressure on his jaw........and you get a lot of pain. He now has a very swollen mandibular joint. He also has blood in his stool, indicating a distant bowel disturbance/bleeding. The doctor ran some blood work so that we may check blood chemistry, liver and kidney function. This will give us more answers. For right now we got some pain medication for him, to ease his jaw pain and perhaps allow him to eat more easily. I made him a dinner of soaked alfalfa pellets, senior grain, corn oil, wheat germ oil, Gleam and Gain, probiotic and some molasses. He was eating pretty good when I left the farm. There is really no cure for the jaw.........perhaps a joint injection, but his jaw will never line up properly. I shudder to think about people putting a bit in his mouth.......it must have been very, very painful. The joint injections are somewhat expensive but should probably give some relief with the pain.

Tomorrow we have riding to do and general cleaning (paddocks, water troughs, horse manicures, lawn mowing) I will try to get pictures of some of our antics.........like sweat soaked tee shirts, dirty faces and grubby hands. I have not posted pictures for a while. ..I always like to because it keeps us close to you.

Thanks to everyone who helps us out........we could not do it without you.

Sunday morning guest blog

I promised to make Briann famous and here is her own Sunday morning blog. I am getting ready to travel to get Sully and attend obedience.

Thanks Briann!

Here you go:

Horses, Rescue, and Volunteering

by Briann S.

Horses... I could go on and on about them but I promise to keep it to a limit.

Horses to me are very important, for both life skills and companionship. The horses in my life are like my best friends, they are always there when I need them and I can talk to them, as long as I continue to feed them they will continue to listen! I'm sure most of what I say goes in one ear and out the other but sometimes its nice just to talk, let it out,you know? when I first arrived at Pony Up, Rosemary showed me Rio, I almost IMMEDIATELY fell in love, and when I turned around I suddenly felt something heavy on my shoulder, what do ya know, it was Rio! He rested his head gently on my shoulder, since then we have been BEST FRIENDS!!!

Rescuing...well I don't have much to say on this topic. But I can say that since we got the Arabs my dad, Rosemary and Page have really opened my eyes and taught me about tough love. It's a big part of life, and nine months ago I did not understand how important that is in life. You have to be able to understand when you rescue a horse you have to know what ever decisions you make, whether it's giving a horse away or sending a horse to those green meadows of eternal life, that they will always remember you as their life saver and care giver! Rosemary and Page have taught me so much,they are my inspiration!

Volunteering... Hmm... Well, I think volunteering is something you should want to do not be forced into it or do it because you will benefit from it in some greedy way.I always feel really good when I volunteer to do something, whether it's something as small as helping some one across the road or as big as donating money to a good cause. I love helping at Pony Up, I love the people, the horses, and the environment around me! Volunteering is a wonderful feeling at least I think, and at the end of the day I love to sit back and think how I have helped some one or something that day.

How did Wednesday get here already? (Edited late pm)

I am only writing for a moment...I am LATE...I went to bed late, I got up LATE and I am just plain late. I got the dogs out for their run, coffee made and now I must jet around like a crazy woman...get to the barn, get to work on time and get some things done!

Contact vet about dental floats.
Call about oyster shell...wonderful draining material, cheaper than rock and FREEEEEEEEE!
Make sure we have a feeder for Thursday pm.
Buy feed today.
Send some thank you notes out.
Make plans for Saturday chores.
buy arena fence posts
call tractor man to come and auger holes for new fence.
paddocks must be picked/dragged
rocks picked from arena
hotwire put up for Beaver
buy another fence post hole digger....honestly, we got one from Lowes last week and what a hunk of junk......I had no idea that one post hole digger could be different from another but ..it picked up about a tablespoon of dirt at a time...no good! I think Page should have her own.

It never ends...constant chores...not complaining and glad to do it or have it done.

We have horses ready for adoption! Sully, Rio, Simon Beaver(?)...no, not Beaver...but really, if he escapes one more time...I might mull it over...all are ready for new parents who will love them, feed them and care for them! The healthy ones must go so that we can help others and we have folks knocking at our door each day, so we either need room, or a bigger farm or possibly to have our heads examined.

Again, we are thankful for our volunteers and the folks who support us in donations...we could not do it without them. Hug your volunteers today...they are special people with big hearts!

I promised a Beaver story.

A year or so ago, I was at my other farm, had a horse with a temperature, so I called the vet on my cell phone. Then I put my cell phone up where I could easily hear it ring. I proceeded with chores...cleaning stalls, raking paddocks...some time passed and I wondered why the vet had not called back. Hmmm...maybe I didn't hear the phone? I should check the phone...now where did I put it? On the stall wall? No. On top of the food bin? No...where the heck is it? oh, I put it on the top of a wood fence post...but where? I can't find it. I am losing my mind.....I check the truck, I check my pockets...I look in the barn, on EVERY fence post. I must have dropped it? No...as I look up, I see that Beaver has it in his mouth...standing and facing me...chewing it. He is on full alert. I tell him to drop "that phone" and I lunge for him.......he, of course runs...he runs like the wind with my cell phone still in his mouth...I chase him out into the orchard and I get close enough to almost grab it...and he is off again, back to the paddock and loafing shed. I run back up the hill after him. He stops in his paddock, right in front of his stock tank and looks at me...I say "c'mere Beavey...come on, I have a treat...give me that phone! He puts his little pony ears up, gets a really cute look on his face and promptly drops my cell phone into the stock tank...then looks at me. I dive in after it...but of course it is too late. The Treo Palm phone is not waterproof...not pony proof...I shake the phone, I take the back off...but it is too late...a trip to the bottom of the tank is not good for an electronic device.

Beaver stands in one spot, very proud of his accomplishment. I tell him he is going to the fox farm...I tell him the phone is worth more than he is...I then run to the house to call the vet, in case he has called while the chase was on and now that he CANNOT call because my phone does NOT WORK!!!

That is the type of pony he is...I have a million more stories.

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Late Wednesday pm...Pony Up girls rock...Briann and Darlene came out and helped me feed...then we put the roof panels on the new loafing shed and braced the underlying supports. What a big help they were. Now we need to patch some nail holes, put some mats in the stall, attach a feeder...put some paddock fencing up and we are ready for Sully. Oh and we got another wall of plywood up (thanks Jan!) in Beaver's stall.

almost 9 pm and I have more stuff to do here at home.

Goodnight!

The un-stallion rides again (Sully)

The UN-stallion had another day of riding around the Jones Farm...look how GOOD he looks! He is definitely ready to have his own person...if you are interested in adopting him, please contact us. Adoption contract and fee will apply.

Rain,rain, go away...I hate to complain after all the nice weather we have had, but I really didn't need the rain today.

Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow and we can work most of the day on a new loafing shed for the UN-stallion. My brother in law is coming to help. Hey...he is a good worker and he does side jobs...he is a gas stove technician/heating/cooling guy. If you need some work done...email me? He also does door installation and some wood work.

I guess you are tired of him being called the un-stallion...me too...so he got a new name today. His name is Sully. YAY he has a name...!! How did I come up with that? well, let's see...he was so sullen for a few days...I actully called him so swollen and sullen...then sullen turns into Sully. yes...Sully. It is a good name for a nice little gelding.

Rio is going to work tomorrow...he will be tacked and lunged. We hope he will work like a soldier with a minimum of fuss. He certainly looks good and feels good. We will let you know tomorrow how it goes. Rio is ready for adoption as he does not need anymore rehab.

So now we have:
Rio
Hamilton
Simon
Gossip
Sully
Beaver
Yukon

Don't we come up with great names?

More tomorrow!

Down to a dull roar

Chelsea got the gelding home and cleaned up (bathed and trimmed).....he had a very bad odor which we originally thought was his skin infection......upon further inspection the poor old guy has a severe laceration on his penis. (ouch!) The old farm was strewn with metal objects, old wire, old fence posts......you name it. We think because he was so itchy he was rubbing his belly and came in contact with some barbed wire or a sharp metal object. The vet does not want to stitch it as sutures tend to irritate the sheath, so Chelsea has cleaned it really good and medicated him. Keep your fingers crossed that it heals.....he is a nice old gelding. Bless Chelsea for taking him in and making him comfortable.

The stallion has settled in and quit stalking my geldings, although he still calls to them every once in a while. He ate all his hay and grain......no tummy upset from his de-worming and he was quite polite this morning.

We have found a experienced vet who will geld him for 372.50 dollars and we are happy with the price. We have approx 150 dollars towards his gelding procedure and hope to raise the rest this week, so we can go forward with our plan for him.

Beaver was locked in all night and as of this time, he has not escaped again, but there is no telling what a hungry tummy might bring. He gets only timothy hay and when he sees grain being distributed.......well, his evil twin takes over.

Hamilton had to move down a paddock and he was no drama queen, he settled in nicely and did not make a fuss. He is just happy to eat.

Drea Bowen has volunteered her services to us and will come this weekend to work on Hamilton and Rio. Thank you Drea!

We also have Krista Davis who has offered us 5 portrait sittings to raffle off, in order to raise funds for the stallion's gelding procedure. She is a fine photographer and this is a great opportunity to us! Thank you Krista. Please let us know if you are interested?

Sunday

Updated photos of Reba in her new home with her new boy.....she looks very happy and so does he!

a.m....I am leaving to load the little Arab mare so she can go to her home today. The kind neighbor man will use my trailer and transport her up to Camano Island to Helen, her adoptive owner as of today. Happy ending. Page is going to help out. Again, I must thank Page for all of her help.....she has been a Godsend to me, especially this week. Always willing and ready to give something a try... and she learns fast...she doesn't hold the hammer like a girl anymore!

Hamilton is feeling much better. Still thin but more active and now protective of his food (hard to blame him but we do expect manners) He laid his ears back at Page yesterday and gave her a glare when she got near his hay. He is much more active and also walking better. He has my mother convinced that she needs to give him something every time he calls to her. My mom has been enjoying the good weather by gardening and Hamilton knows right where she is at mostly every moment. She gives him lunch and she says if she is not right on time....he throws a small fit. hmmmm.

more updates later. off to feed and load..

The mare was a little super star.......she is brave and willing. She got right in and ate some hay, looked around, then came out for a minute, then got right back in, we shut the door and Jason hit the road with her. I left the divider open and tied back so that she could have a box stall and not feel so confined. We wish her and her new owner the best of luck. We got very good references on this home and I hear it is a place we would all like to live at. She is a nice little mare. She has never been off the farm before and I know she was scared. But honestly, I wish my own horses loaded as well as she did. Most of the time I would pay someone to load that big Holsteiner of mine.......and pay someone well. Anyway, when they are scared you wish you could explain to them and tell them why ultimately the change will be good. I gave her a last pat on the neck and sent them on their way.

We medicated the gelding again, his skin looks much better today. He saw me coming and made for the back forty....he did not like the SMZ's and so afterwards we gave him plenty of treats. Tomorrow he will leave for Chelsea's. He is a nice boy.....great disposition and also willing to do what you ask if you have patience.

We visited the stallion for a few minutes......he was very upset to see his mother leave, ran the fence. We really need to get something together for him by tomorrow. Once the gelding leaves, the fence is not going to hold the stallion. We think we can work on a smaller paddock at this old place......it has railroad ties and the fence is higher. We will bring a charger and put a couple of strands of hot wire for extra measure. This will allow us some time to work on a better situation for him. No one wants to euthanize him....except the distant neighbor with the shooting fantasy. Weird......just so weird to me.

I will go later today and fly spray both of those boys.

I got one wall of the pony shelter up at the north farm and I have to work on the roof again.....it looks slightly haywire. Hey, I never said I was a roofer...did I? I keep telling Page we are not looking for beauty....only function and I will say that the roof does not leak. I had a contractor at the farm yesterday and he looked at the pony shelter and said "nice"...........hmm...then I told him that I was going to say he built it.....he immediately said he would help us get it straightened up.......LOL! He is going to help us extend the roof on the upper loafing shed too.

It is such a beautiful day and I have so many things to do.....I better get going.

enjoy this gorgeous day and "jingle" for the stallion.......and us.

Saturday ...

You know what I love about Page? She is always willing to help me whenever I ask.....she does sometimes give me "that look" like "how do you think we are going to do that ?"

So this morning as she feeding, I say "we are going to go and bathe the old Arab gelding, medicate his wounds, look the mare over, groom her........oh and then we are going to halter the stallion to see what he knows."

"WE are?" she says.

"Yes, WE are," I say.

Okay.

So in about an hour we jumped in the truck and left to go see the Arabians.

The gelding has a bacterial skin infection and so a bath was in order, however he wanted no part of the hose or cold water or us after he understood the plan. He danced around a little, screamed a little so I put a stud chain on him (I know, he hardly seems a candidate for a stud chain)......we didn't use the chain as he understood the message.....he stood like a good boy and we got scabs off and a good lather of antibacterial cleanser on him, then rinsed him, sprayed him with some anti-itch spray and he was good to go.

The mare was in good shape skin wise, she got some grain treats and some hand grazing.

Then I went to get the stallion. He did not want to be caught, although he did get close, then he would lay his ears back and snake his head at me.......so I sent him off and out of my claimed area. He finally came to me and waited, then allowed me to halter him. I told him that I might be his only chance out of here...I expected the worst. I am not a stallion handler , at least not a stallion who has had very little training and absolutely no discipline, but I had to try in order to see what we were dealing with and so I could tell folks first hand about his behavior..... I asked him to back up and he willingly did, he turned and came forward when asked, he lead next to me and he stopped and came forward again when I asked. I patted him and told him he was a good boy. Then I asked for his left front....he offered to bite me and he got a reprimand. I asked again and he offered to bite again......he got a sharper reprimand followed by some line work......I asked again and he was polite, lifted and held his foot.......no mouth, no ears back. He got a good pat on the neck and withers, then I asked again.......he lifted his foot and held it up.

Aw.. he is a smart one. I moved to his other side and asked for the right........he lifted it right up for me, no ears, no mouth. Good boy pat, withers scratch..... lesson over. Enough for today.

This horse needs gelded asap. We cannot place him without him being gelded or without a gelding contractin place. We cannot place him with an inexperienced handler. I don't want anyone hurt and I don't want him to end up on the slaughter bus due to him being too much to handle. He will need an adequate stallion pen/turn out with hot wire as he knows that his current fencing is not a challenge if he wants out.

He is smart, he has had work done with him that he remembers......he just has not had anyone to train him or teach him manners. He has had years of surviving on his own with his own rules. He wants to be friendly.......he does not come after you, he comes to you with interest but needs to learn his place and a job.

We would love to have an experienced trainer volunteer to work with this boy for 30 - 60 days in order to give him a fair chance at being placed. He will be gelded first in order to "get his mind right."

We hope to generate enough funds to geld him in the next week.

We hope to hear from folks who may have ideas, suggestions.......we welcome them. Time is running out for this guy.

The Stallion remains

We have a place for the old Arabian gelding and as of tonight, a place for the mare to go. We still need a place for the stallion. Ideally we would like for him to be gelded prior to placement. I visited the horses tonight and the stallion whinnied a big hello and came right up to see me. He is studly and he needs some manners.......but he is handsome and has his own charm about him.

We have had a few offers....but he cannot/will not stay in hot tape fencing, he cannot stay with mares and he cannot have an inexperienced handler. We hardly think this means he should be handed a death sentence. There must be someone out there for him.

If we were to adopt one of our own out, we could accomodate the stallion.......but we cannot take on more than we can handle financially or physically. We have two really nice horses ready for new homes.......take a look at our adoptables? Maybe you will fall in love?

Until then, we are looking for options for the stallion. We are open to ideas and suggestions.

Thanks for all of the nice notes today......it was nice to see the horse community working together. The mare has a great home lined up and the old gelding could not be luckier......he gets a chance to feel better and get healthier.

A special thanks to the neighbor who has helped these horses for the past several months...he is a hero.

Three Arabians in need of immediate help

We have been asked to help with three Arabians who have no where to go. The elderly lady that owns them cannot afford their care and has no funds to euthanize them either (which is her final resort) Neighbors have been feeding them on and off, but the stallion escapes and is in danger of road traffic. He needs a secure facility/fenced area. There is an elderly and ill gelding, a mare and a stallion. Attempts to place them so far have not been successful. We believe it to be in the best interest of the gelding to be kindly and gently euthanized. We would like to help the mare and the stallion. If there is anyone who has the room in their hearts and their barns......please contact us immediately. There is not much time....a distant neighbor has offered to "shoot" them for only 350 dollars each.......I will not comment except to say that no one wants them shot. The horses need to be placed responsibly and so we will ask for references and a site visit. The mare is easy to handle, the stallion will require an experienced handler.....he is not unkind......just has not been worked with. Unfortunately our own rescue slots are all full and we cannot afford to take on another horse or horses at this time unless we find a sponsor for them or raise enough funds to feed and house them until such a time as we can place them into an adoptive home. If you want to commit to a sponsorship for one or the other, please contact us. If you would like to contribute to the euthanasia fund for the gelding, please email us. All funds donated to our rescue are tax deductable. We appreciate any and all ideas to get these horses to safety.

Here comes the sun!

What a glorious weekend......and I am probably over glorifying the weather we had....but hey, it was so much better than the weather we have had? Right? A few more days of rain and I was thinking of moving to Arizona.

I showed up at the farm early afternoon Saturday to find all of the boys laying on their sides, flat out, naked in the sun and they did not stir as I drove up. I should have got a picture.,,every horse flat out and snoring.

The barn cat got scared of something on Saturday and she was at least 50 feet up in a cedar tree.....howling and crying while a crow taunted her. I figure that cats can get down from where they climb up......so I called her and while she cried a lot more, she would not venture down...not an inch. I left her overnight figuring she would get down....and then this morning we I saw she was still way UP THERE>>>>we called a nice man that we know to came out and he climbed the tree in his climbing gear and got her down for us. She was very hungry and thirsty. She went right into my mom's house and made herself comfortable...and I am sure my mom will let her sleep in there tonight.

I went out to see three horses that need homes today.......all Arabians. A mare, a stallion and a gelding. Living on property where no one lives any longer and being fed only grain once a day. The kind neighbors are caring for them now but the horses really need to get into homes. The stallion needs to be gelded as he has an "occupied" mind, the mare is the stallion's mother and then the gelding is really old. Anyone? I have sent resources to secure a low cost/no cost gelding to the neighbor who is caring for them. Donations of hay would be of great benefit. This neighbor is a saint.......he bought hay out of his own pocket and has repaired fences to keep the stallion in, as the stallion escapes frequently. The stallion is a little guy, not bad looking, gray and as I said.......very preoccupied with the ladies. The mare is rideable in her teens and the gelding is just plain old, needs a retirement home.I would appreciate any offers of help. Just email me.

I also visited two mares further down the road who need an upgrade. Both are rail thin and have rain rot. Teenage mares who deserve better. I can sleep knowing that they have water tubs in their pasture tonight and several flakes of grass hay in front of them. If you are looking for a mare with a good disposition....contact me.

Back to my regular job tomorrow and before that my morning will mean cleaning stalls and feeding the farm horses, making more beet pulp, taking blankets off, feeding chickens and cats.......then off to work an hour away.

Enjoy your week.......practice a random act of kindness and keep quiet about it. It will come back to you I swear!