Thank you everyone so much for your generosity today! And a special thank you to Jennifer G for donating $1,000 for the rescue and care of auction horses this Sunday. We only have $675 left to raise, we are confident that it will happen thanks to you, our supporters! Jennifer is having a birthday tomorrow, how unselfish to be giving the gift of hope to horses for her birthday.
Jason spent the morning painting on the office. He finally got a color for the trim that Tawnee and the other staff/volunteers approve of. It just needs a few touch ups here and there and it will all be finished.
A previous adopter came out today, but it was not an equine adopter. They came out to see Freckles, they had previously placed a hold on her and were finally able to come out and meet her. They fell in love with her and are going to schedule a vet check to make sure that she is healthy before taking her home. Thank you so much for coming back to add even more members to your family. Any guesses on who that cute dog is?
Yup, that’s right, it’s Hugs. As you all know, she had 9 puppies shortly after they adopted her. They have a close circle of friends who gave great homes to all of the puppies. Ruby, the girl pictured below, did all the hard work of cleaning up after the puppies and helping her mom find them homes. They asked everyone who adopted one of the puppies to make a donation to Ruby to give to Norcal to help save horses. Ruby presented us with $165 dollars today for the auction fund. Thank you so much for being so generous.
Ron has been gone on a short job, but now he is back again evaluating horses while waiting for another job to appear. Thank you so much for coming out and spending your time with the horses, we really appreciate it!
We got some comments about the movie Blinders that we told you about yesterday from a coach owner/operator telling us that we needed to find out the truth about the carriage industry. So, being open minded, we checked out his Youtube video’s. But now we really have some concerns. Let us review his video’s.
Click here for the first video. At 6:55 he enters the stable that he is extremely proud of that the horses spend about 14 hours a day or more in. Apparently there is no decent lighting, in fact, it was too dark to see much of anything. We found it a little humorous in the video, when he is opening the door into the stall, right at 7:55 you will see a quick shot of the water bucket filled with hay, a bad video edit at 7:57 and suddenly it is all clean and full of nice water.
Click here for the second video. It is so wonderful that for 4 months out of the year (no tourists?) the horses are allowed to stand on dirt and soak up some sunshine and be able to actually roll. And we mean roll. The horses can’t roll enough it seems. But you have to understand they most likely have not rolled or stood on grass for 8 months. And most of the time they have spent their days in the dreary stalls seen below.
Click here for the third video. This is the carriage owner/operator verbally assaulting people video landmarks and horse drawn carriages in New York from a public sidewalk as if he has something to hide. He says they are stalking him, but it looks like he is stalking them.
And, lastly, Click here for the fourth video. Here he is harassing and screaming at some poor little guy trying to take pictures of the pretty horses. Really folks, if you have nothing to hide, let people film without making yourself look foolish.
So, our opinion? It would be great if horses did not have to spend 15+ hours a day in dark, damp conditions, and it would be great if they did not have to pound their joints out on pavement whenever they are working. From our research the average carriage horse only lasts about 4 years at the job. That is terrible. It would be great if the carriages could be stored in the city, and the horses could be trailered to and from the city every day so the horses can live in fresh air and have nice stalls and runs. Since a horse only sleeps about 3 hours out of 24, they must be mighty bored looking at the same dark stalls. Below is a screenshot of one of his stalls.
As said yesterday, horses + cars = extremely dangerous. If the horses only had to stay in the park it would be so much safer for all.
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