Author Archives: dawndi

About dawndi

I've been a very happy film producer (commercial and long format) for over 20 years. But, the horses have always been foremost in my heart... Currently I live on a small ranch in California with my wonderful husband, 13 horses, 4 dogs, 3 cats and various woodland creatures. Life is good!

Happy, Silly and Interesting but Maybe a Little Gross… Stories for a Rainy Monday!

Well, today is really nasty outside… ugh. So, I’d rather talk to you about happy things than regular or newsy things.

FIRST UP, A SUCCESS STORY!

Yay! We love these. And, we love the people that make this stuff happen.

A while ago, I wrote about DOLLY, the starved mare. She was close to death, as you can see by these pictures. In fact, she was down in the trailer and had to be lifted out by several men and and a tractor. Dolly could barely stand and spent most of her first weeks laying down. The vet said she was less than a 1 on the Henneke scale. (That means she is dead horse walking, basically.)

Now, besides the stuff we’d all like to say to her previous owners… I’d rather give a shout out to the people who brought her back. Namely the rescue facility, RAINBOW MEADOWS, run by Karen Everhart (lovely), the generous people who supported this mare as well as all the helpers from the ALEX BROWN RACING FORUM (ABR), and the wonderful man behind THRIVE re-feeding program. (Gee, I feel like I’m giving an Oscar speech…!)

Here are the pics taken today of Dolly as she merged with the herd at the rescue for the first time. Dolly was rescued in November ’09 and today, early April ’10, she is floating and running with the other horses! Wahoo, I say! This is how every Monday should begin, eh?

Here is the post from Karen regarding Dolly’s release into the herd:

“Dolly is free!

She was released to the Rainbow Meadows’ herd yesterday to live like a horse!

She loves it! She had been watching the others for a long time and has been able to meet them. Now, she is one of them and it won’t surprise you to learn that she wasted NO time getting on with her life.

Look at her go!

There will be more photos to share of this chapter of Dolly’s life.

Hello Dolly!”

(Again, I have no affiliation with these folks listed above other than to applaud them.)

IS THIS A SILLY QUESTION?

I have a problem. I am wondering if it effects any of you…? OK, here goes. I’ll be honest. I have the dreaded, didIturnoffthewater fever.

This affliction seems to overpower me when I’m trying to sleep. It doesn’t effect me as I’m doing laundry or making dinner or doing anything at a reasonable hour. It only strikes when I first lay down in my very cozy bed after a long day of work and chores. As soon as ma tete hits the pillow, the symptoms start. Hmmmmm. Did I turn off the water?

You see, I have this routine, as I’m sure you all do. We feed a certain way or else the horses would revolt. First the barn pasture, then the upper pasture, turn on the water, then feed the dogs, then feed the side pasture, turn on water there, feed the far pasture, turn on water there, sit and pet the dog while I wait for the water to fill, turn off both of these pasture waterers, take the wheelbarrow back to the barn, walk to the upper pasture, switch water to the other trough, go back to the barn, feed the cats, turn off radio, close feed room door, close hay door, give dog the empty kitty can, shut off lights to the barn, walk to upper pasture and turn off the water.

Its the last bit that gets me. If anything switches my routine, like feeding the cats first or the dogs last, it throws me off. Why can I not just remember that when I shut off the lights, I need to walk up to the upper pasture?! Well, lots of times it does work… but sometimes, I forget to shut off the barn lights so my whole method is destroyed. What is wrong with me? How hard is it to remember to shut off the upper pasture waterer?

OK, well, I now suffer. At least once a week, I sit bolt upright in bed, put on my robe and barn shoes, and walk outside in the dead of night to check if I’ve turned the water off. My husband, bless him, sniggers everytime I do this. When I come back, I don’t say a word. He is just sitting there on his computer and smiling. He then says, “It was off, right?” I usually reply, Yup.

What is most interesting to me is that if I remember to go check, usually the water is off. If I don’t remember to check, that’s when it runs all night. So, basically, I have a stupid disease that doesn’t work.

Do you?

INTERESTING BUT MAYBE A LITTLE GROSS

Ok, well, I saw in PEOPLE magazine (Yes, I read it. I even subscribe.) a blurb about Barn Owl cam. Have you seen this? Well, I tore out the article and yesterday I went to the site.

(I captured these photos this morning. I wish the audio worked because the sound of the California morning is beautiful — there — not here.)

You see a grainy but adequate picture of the Barn Owl Box. Inside, there are 4 chicks who all have names (Pattison, Max, Wesley and Austin). The Mama and Papa have names, too (Molly and McGee). There was one egg named Dudley that didn’t hatch (ironic, eh?). Anyway, the scientists have two cameras set up. One for day (less activity) and one for night (booming biz).

I found this very fascinating and some of you animal lovers might also. However, as I was watching, Mama brought in a mouse and proceeded to rip it apart for her hungry babies. Ugh. But, I kept watching. And, by the number of visitors to the site, others are interested, too. In fact, there were so many instant messages flying about from watchers that I was totally distracted by them. I read many and learned so much in the 10 minutes I was online. So, although this is not horse related, it is sort-of. I have Barn Owls in my barn.

Here is the link. Remember, it can be a little gross.

Happy Monday!

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HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth... if you like this, please pass it around!

An Update on the Skinny Foal and Other Horses In Need…

Although I look at the rescue sites every day, I don’t expect you to… unless you want to. But, today, being Sunday and all, I decided to be somewhat “do onto others” and am going to write about horses in need.

SKINNY FOAL UPDATE

First on the list is an update on the skinny foal I wrote about a few weeks ago. He was in this awful state and still listed on Craigslist for sale. Ugh. This wonderful rescue, Beauty’s Haven Farm and Equine Rescue, actually had to buy him to rescue him (and he wasn’t cheap — go figure). Anyway, to back up, when they got to the home where this foal was for sale, they also noticed a sickly mare who was standing guard over the baby. The mare was not his mother (Mother was nowhere to be found, sadly) but she seemed to be taking on that role. The rescuers from BHFER made the decision on the spot to purchase her and bring her to safety where she could watch over the very sick baby. (What a sweetheart mare.) So, now BHFER has the baby they’ve named Evan Almighty and the broodmare (yup, she is preggers, sadly) they named, Reva, under their loving care. The mare needs support and groceries. Evan has rain rot, is riddled with worms, has no muscle tone, no energy and needs careful re-feeding. They estimate he was 3 months old when they rescued him. Who knows how long he got to nurse before his Mom was taken away…

Happily, here are some up to date photos of Evan and Reva. As you can see, they are doing much better. Evan had a bath to get rid of his severe rain rot. The great part about his bath (yes, baths can be great) is that THE HEALING TREE upon reading this story, donated their gentle but accurate rain rot remedy TEA-CLENZ. It is working! Yay!

If you would like to visit BHFER’s website to get updates, here is the link. Also, if you’d like to donate you can do that here. They are a 501 (c) 3 Non-Profit.

Here is an email I received this week from BHFER regarding Evan:

“Oh little Evan Almighty is such a doll! He’s doing better each day – he makes us all smile. He’s getting braver – he even runs around with little Kami now at times when she gets to running all over the place. Look how he’s grown and the belly is finally starting to be absorbed. There was so much fluid built up – it was terrible. He gets dirtier then any baby I’ve ever had! Here is Evan getting his Tea Tree treatment. He didn’t want anything to do with it at first but once the warm water and rubbing started he loved it! His coat is very, very thick. We had to soak him to get the tea tree down under his coat and to his skin. ”

Ahhh… so thanks to BHFER and all its supporters for saving these two lovelies. Go Forth and Prosper!

NIMROD HORSE OWNER

Next, I’d like to talk about something that makes me crazy. I just hate it when I see stupid human tricks. This story really gets my ire up.

OK, first we have the nimrod somewhere in Kentucky that puts a young stallion in with broodmares and new babies. When it doesn’t work out so well, the nimrod sniggers and figures they’ll work it out. He thinks it is funny to see all the terror this action created. Here is the original post from the woman from New Beginnings Animal Refuge:

“We were contacted late last night to help with an emergency transport of a mare in Kentucky that had been savagely attacked by a stud running loose with them. Bob went this morning to take the mare to an equine clinic were she will be treated and hopefully they can save her. He said the one wound on the side you could see her gut. The people that saved this mare had to buy her. The Animal Control in that county has been working on this for a few days trying to get something done but with the way the laws are in KY there was nothing they could do. The horses are not in that bad of shape yet.

What Bob saw this morning while they were trying to load the mare was another mare and 3 day old foal being chased oll over the place by the stud. He was actually trying to grab the baby and the momma would intervene trying to keep the stud away. Bob said momma and baby are both wore out. He didn’t want to leave them but needed to get the injured mare to the clinic for help ASAP!
The guy was contacted and he will sell the mare and foal. He wanted $1000. for them both but was offered less and he said he would take $700.”

OK, so they go down there and Bob (from the Refuge) negotiates to get the horribly wounded mare out of there and to Park Equine Hospital. I’ve embedded close-up pictures of the wounded mare who was brought to the hospital. These are very graphic photos so think before you click — I have added a password photos to these pics just to be safe. If you have a strong stomach, the password is: poor mare

I want to add that although these wounds look like surface wounds, they are prone to huge infections. And, since she has these all over her body (especially the one on her side that went through to her gut…), she is in critical condition due to infection.

OK, so to continue, St. Bob goes back to the nimrod and offers him $700 for the harried new mother who is being run around the paddock by this aggressive stallion (we don’t know if the young stallion is the sire of the baby, but obviously, he needs some learnin’ and to be removed pronto). Why nimrod didn’t remove the stallion when he saw his mare totally ripped apart is exactly why I’ve monikered him thusly.

I think Bob is a saint because I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut on this one. I’d give the nimrod a piece of my mind and take a piece of him, I’m sure… But anyway, lovely Bob works his magic and is able to load this very frightened mare and brand new baby. The new Mama is not as torn up as the older mare who went to the hospital. She has taken her blows and is very rattled, but she will be OK, once they get to safety.

Here are pics of the baby and the new Mama in a safe, warm stall at NBAR. They even set up their foalwatch cameras for all of us online helpers to keep watch on Mama and her tiny 3 day old foal. Here is a link to the http://www.mycampage.com/newbeginningsanimalrefugecam

So, now it gets even better… While Bob was at nimrod’s, he also noticed a very pregnant mare who was hiding behind a shed. This mare was shaking and quaking and way too scared to come forward. Bob knew she would be next on the stallions hit list so he, yet again, went back on the urging of all the folks at the rescue and from the rescue board. So, with only a few hours to spare before he had to report to work, Bob drove back to nimrods and bought the pregnant mare. It took him an hour to load her. She was so afraid of the stallion, they had to load the stallion first, then catch her, unload the stallion and then put her in. Oy. The good news is that she is very timid and extremely jumpy, but she is also safe in a warm, clean stall right next to the mare and baby at NBAR.

Now, we come to find out that the mare in the hospital with the severe wounds is the dam of the mare with the baby. The mare with the baby is the dam of the pregnant mare. So, the mare in the hospital is the great grandmother of the in utero baby of the broodmare. They saved 4 generations of babies. and hopefully their collective breeding days are over and they will reside in safe homes forever.

What I find quite endearing is that it has been surmised that the eldest mare (19 yrs) was protecting all of her babies which is why she was so torn apart.

I tell this story because it took several people to move this mountain. There were the original people who were observant and alerted the refuge to what was going on. It took the people at the refuge to step into action and alert all of us on the rescue forum. It took her saintly husband to make 4 trips to the nimrod palace to negotiate and load these 4 horses and it took all of the online supporters to raise the money to bail them from this fate.

Here is a link to the hospital if you would like to contact them and tell them how wonderful they are for helping this mare. Also, if you’d like to donate to them, I’m sure they would love to hear from you.

Here is a link to NBAR and a link to their “how you can help” page. You can follow this story and help them with the ongoing care for these horses, if you feel moved to do so. They are a 501 (c) 3.

In the end, I wanted you to know that they are working on getting the stallion out (and gelded) as well.