Horse Rescues

I read a lot of blogs that are horse rescue blogs. I read them to educate myself about what not to do with horses as well as happy horse news. Being a new horse owner of 2 auction mares and their babies, I need all the help I can get. I am amazed how well horses can come back from the brink of death with good food, vet care and loving attention. If you want to read about good rescues that are making the most out of donations and animal care; check out these links:

Sunkissed Acres, Shiloh Horse Rescue, and Second Chance Ranch.

This past week we called out vet out to check why our gray mare was lame, she got thrush at the trainers barn. The barn is always wet in the stalls from poor drainage. He showed us what thrush looks like (is black) and smells like dirty socks. So we are putting a green liquid called Kopertox on her frogs for the next 3 weeks. Everyday she gets her hooves picked clean and this green staining liquid on her frogs. She never had thrush at home. Anyway the treatment is working and she is running all over the dry lot with the weanlings.

Our vet also checked over our weanling colt, Mr. Bean. He was looking pot bellied. Turns out a lot of weanlings go through this "ugly" stage and his body was in great shape. However, he only had one testicle drop and is Cryptorchidisc . This means he will need surgery at the vet office to be gelded instead of being gelded at home. We are waiting to see if it drops on its own by the end of February. It is never dull out here in the Ozarks.

Quilt Visit

A lady in my town called me and asked if I wanted fabric since I am a quilter. Her mother was a quilter and she had a lot of her fabric to give away. And it was a lot of fabric. She also gave me a tour of her mothers and grandmothers quilts. So much handwork went into the pink gingham quilt. The red, white and blue quilt could have been a modern quilt, but it was made in the 40's. It is always a pleasure seeing other crafter's work. It was a real treat to see these quilts and hear the stories behind them.

Icy Wednesday

This morning we woke up to ice and snow all over our farm. The wild birds were happy to have sunflower seeds to eat. Our animals are staying inside to keep warm. Icicles are decorating all the edges around the house and trees.

Icy Tuesday

Today we thought we were ready for the ice storm. All the animals were fed, hayed and watered, but we forgot about us. What if the power goes out? And it did. This meant no water pump in the house, no running water nor toilets. This meant me going out to our pond to get 5 gallon buckets of water so we could flush. I did not realize the ground around the pond was not frozen and I sunk deep into the shore getting stuck. I pulled my foot out of my boot and fell into the pond. I got out, pulled my boot out and headed home to change. I came back and finished filling 10 buckets of pond water while getting sleeted on with cracking icy trees around me. I sledded all the buckets to our porch to be informed the power was back on. I brought in half the buckets inside just in case we lost power again. The rest froze and had to be dumped.

I learned we need to have the generator ready, water filled buckets ahead of time and fill the tubs the night before. And have more seasoned firewood than you need plus more. Burning green wood is not easy. My husband plans to get a transfer switch put in so we can use our generator if the power goes out next time. But at least our animals were warm and happy this time. Lessons learned in the Ozarks.