What’s Up with the Bucket Fund?

Yup. I hear you.

Well, here is what is up…

In case you are a new reader and have no idea what the Drop In the Bucket Fund is… basically, Horse and Man has set up an escrow account of sorts where anyone can donate any amount – even a dollar – into the ‘bucket’. At the end of the month, we make one big donation. No one has to worry that their donation being too small because when we put it all together, it becomes large! Here is a link to the Bucket Fund page.

Anyway, every month we have a specific horse (s) that receives our Bucket Fund.

JUNE BUCKET FUND

The June Bucket Fund was set up for Itsuko, great grand daughter of Native Dancer who had 99 starts, a bunch of foals and won almost $100K. She was found starving to death. (Here is the link to the original post.)

Then, a few days later, we heard of another TB, Admiralty, saved by the same rescue (BHFER) who was winched into a trailer when he refused to go… Uh huh. You can imagine… (Here is the link to the original post about Admiralty.)

So, the June Bucket Fund was for these two poor horses.

THEN I GOT BUSY

Then I got busy. Too busy. I had the job from hell and I didn’t resurface until June was over. So, I hadn’t really promoted the Bucket Fund like I usually do. I hadn’t done many updates and we hadn’t collected nearly what we usually collect.

I felt badly.

I decided to extend the June Bucket Fund (Itsuko and Admiralty) into July.

Sounded like a good idea.

But…

LOTS OF BAD STUFF

Unfortunately, there were two very sick horses at BHFER, one who was acutely injured and passed… and another who was from an earlier save who had contracted colitis.

They did everything possible and fought every battle. But, Faith, a wonderful mare, passed too. She left behind her 75 day old colt.

It was around this time that the owner of BHFER broke her wrist.

Sigh.

… I felt badly pressuring them to give me updates on Itsuko and Admiralty when they had their arms full of sadness and hospital visits.

So, I didn’t have any new news. And, without updates, it is kinda hard to fund-raise.

July’s Bucket Fund just sat there.

UPDATE

After a few days had passed since the last miserable day for BHFER, I asked for an update on Itsuko and Admiralty.

Theresa, with the broken wrist, responded. She told me that it was really sad around there but that Indy (the orphaned foal) was doing well and he has a perfect mix of both of his fallen parents who didn’t make it out of the Junkyard in time…

I asked about Itsuko and Admiralty. To my surprise, “They are doing GREAT!” was the response!

ITSUKO

Itsuko has gained about 100lbs! She is still wary of other horses but has come to love the youngster Legacy, a huge TB yearling. They hang out together all day every day. She’s finally at a home where she doesn’t have to make a baby – she just gets to hang with one she really likes! And, Itsuko gets food! Good food. Yay!

Not bad for a regal gal who has served her humans so well…

Here are Itsuko and Legacy together in this photo below. Itsuko is the smaller one without the white sock.

Here is Itsuko, playing with the kid, Legacy. She is the smaller one without a white sock.

ADMIRALTY

Admiralty was suffering from internal injuries as well as all the external hole, divits, scrapes and bangs he endured while being trapped, kicking and fighting, under the trailer via the winch.

Grrrr.

Anyway, besides all of that, Admiralty was also very skinny.

BHFER didn’t want him to gain too much weight too fast and exacerbate his internal injuries. So, he is gaining slowly.

But the good news is that he is healing and way less sore. He can put weight on both of his back legs. And, his personality is coming back.

For Admiralty in his depleted state, it is lucky he fell in love with Pebbles, the starved mini. They hang out all day and neither of them stresses the other.

Yay! Food and love for Admiralty.

Oh, and by the way, he has no resistance to hopping into the trailer. Fancy that.

This is skinny but healing Admiralty with little Pebbles.

JULY BUCKET FUND

So, here we are around mid July, starting up the July Bucket Fund again.

If any of you feel like helping Itsuko, Admiralty or BHFER who has so graciously housed and nurtured these TBs, please click the button below. And, today, we will put all donations in the name of Faith, the wonderful Percheron mare who lost her life because of the illness she contracted while living in a junkyard – but not before she gave us Indy…