There was a very sad turn of events for one of our trainers in the Extreme Rescue Makeover contest. One of the groups who supplied horses for the event made a verbal contract with one of the trainers, and they felt the trainer was pushing the horse too hard because the horse was sweaty after a training session. Without our knowledge or permission, they took the horse from the trainer. Our protocols where not followed nor were we consulted about the situation at all. It was one of the trainers in Nevada, and we are extremely upset by this turn of events. The group (Let Em Run Foundation) who removed the horse admit she is a fine trainer and did not abuse the horse in any way, it comes down to their personal preference for training methods for wild horses. We offered the trainer another horse, but as you can imagine, she declined this late in the contest. In the future we will not be allowing other groups to supply horses for our events as we will not allow this to happen again.
Wednesday Dottie was feeling quite frisky and strutting around. She is so funny with her little dwarfed legs. If she had longer legs she would look more normal.
We had a box arrive for Angel, the blind baby. We would like to thank the person for sending them to her.
Patrick, who was doing community service, finished up his last few hours. He has done a lot of painting, and other things, at the shelter and we appreciate all the hard work he has done.
Thursday Jason and Steve headed out to pick up 4 horses that were being surrendered.
There was still water on the road after all the rain. It’s good to see that winter has finally given us a little water!
Harley is an 18 year old Quarterhorse who came to us on Wednesday. She has done a lot of gymkhana’s, play days, etc. She was in a home that wasn’t the best match for her, the home we picked her up from said she might have some possible lameness. We will have it checked out by our vet.
Kirsty and Tawnee decided to move the goat and sheep shelter to a concrete slab in hopes of keeping everything drier.
By this time Jason and Steve were back with the 4 horses that were surrendered.
This is Storm, a 4 year old halter trained mare.
This is Wind Song, a 7 year old halter trained mare.
This is an elderly gelding, we are very concerned about his quality of life.
The 4th horse is an older stallion who was used for breeding. He is missing an eye and also has some quality of life issues.
Friday at the shelter was simply a beautiful day. With all the rain the ponds are full and the grass is green. The ponds are such a beautiful habitat for wildlife and fish.
We got a call from a lady who had seen a horse, Tink, on our website and thought for sure she recognized her. She believed it was her horse from 7 years ago that she was forced to get rid of due to personal circumstances. She really loved Tink, and had raised her from a baby. She left a message on our phone, and we called her back and told her that even though we were closed, we wanted her to come out and see if it was her beloved horse. She arrived a few hours later. Tink has always been pushy and headstrong with us, it was so amazing to see her soften and peace come over her at the presence of her old owner. It was very clear to see they had a strong bond.
Sunday Zeus and Atlas were adopted and taken to their new home. We are so happy for them! They were quite impressed by the view they were going to have for their drive to their new home.
Tink’s mom came back to adopt her and take her home. We are so happy when we are able reunite animals with their loving owners. It is so special!
We had a sad part of the day when a lady brought this horse for the Last Act of Kindness program. She has had this horse since she was a baby, after she rescued her from a slaughterhouse with a broken shoulder.
For 16 years she has loved and cared for this horse, but now due to the old broken shoulder, which put a lot of stress on her knee, it was time to say “Goodbye.” Her arthritis is starting to cause her continuous pain and suffering. She has had a wonderful life and we are thankful that her mom saved her from the horrors of the slaughterhouse so many years ago.
On Monday our rescuer Shari was at an auction rescuing baby goats, and also saving them directly from the dairy. One of the little babies from the auction was half dead when it went through the auction. She held it in her lap and cuddled it all the way to the shelter, where it passed away. At least the little guy knew a little bit of love and compassion in his short life.
The rest of the baby goats settled into the nursery.
Some of the babies were not doing very well at all, and this little guy was put in quarantine. We tried to save each and every one, but sadly some of them are just to sick and weak to make it. Often they are dumped at auctions without ever having had a meal, some are still wet from just being born with their umbilical cords not even dry. There must be a law passed that will protect these little babies that are a by-product of the dairy industry.
Steve and another Community Service worker, Mike, checked each one of the baby goats to make sure they were doing fine, and they banded each one.
They are so cute! Tawnee got on the phone with the waiting list and soon all the babies were spoken for, and two were adopted that day.
We had a horrific lightning storm that blew out the transformer for the well. Thankfully we have a 4,000 gallon holding tank. PG&E showed up after dark to get the transformer replaced.
They worked very hard and finally after 10:00 pm the electricity was on again to the well and the holding tank was filling up.
Tuesday, Little Dee decided his head was too heavy to hold up any more. The panel was the perfect height for a head rest.
Sluye was getting a nice grooming by Kirsty. He is such a beautiful horse!
His hooves are in extremely bad shape.
The outer wall of his hooves are literally peeling off his hooves. We will have our resident farrier fix him up in no time.
One of the adopters came out to adopt a couple baby goats. They spent some time with them, figuring out who she was going to adopt.
She ended up adopting 5! She has been a vet tech for years, and they will get the best quality care.
Wednesday a cute little billy goat was surrendered named Max. It might stand for Max Stink. He is a very stinky guy, as all billy goats are, but we are soon going to get that fixed.
It was a nice beautiful day, and it was decided it was a great day for Angel to be put out in a big pasture without a lead rope for the first time.
She had her seeing eye pal leading her around. It was so exciting for her!
It was so cute seeing Little Dee trotting around the pasture, with Angel frolicking with excitement and glee right beside him. She listens very carefully to where he goes and stays right with him.
All too soon play time was over, and it was time for Angel to follow Little Dee back to their big pen and stall.
Around the shelter we have signs like this. We have several ponds on the property, and Steve discovered there were intruders fishing at one of the ponds. They had to walk right by the sign to get there.
Steve told him there was no fishing allowed, so he grabbed his pole, put the fish he was letting suffocate on the bank back into the pond, and Steve escorted him off the property.
Thank you all for your support! We really appreciate it!