Iron Man and his Foallowers… An Update, a Donation Request and a Wink ;)

Get it? Foal – lowers? Followers who are foals?… I know, if you have to explain a joke, it isn’t funny. But, I still keep chuckling when I write this so I guess I’m just amusing myself and making you all groan!

OK, well today is an update on our Bucket Fund Baby, Iron Man.

As an aside, THANK YOU, to all of you who wrote and told me how to be more effective when asking for donations. You know who you are… ;)

So, of the many suggestions, there were three ideas that I am going to try today. The first is to formally ask you all to please help these babies, ANY amount from $1 to $whatever, the button is bigger and below.

OK, now I want to repeat the goal of the Bucket Fund. The Bucket Fund is a monthly donation collection that allows us individuals to just add a drop ($1 – $whatever) into it and then as a group, we put all of the donations together to gift to that particular month’s selected Equine Charity. Sometimes, as individual donator, a small donation doesn’t feel right or seem like enough so we don’t do it. But, this way, any amount is greatly appreciated and added to the other donations to make one big bucket full of help.

So, please donate to the Bucket Fund this month for Iron Man and his Foallowers (I did it again). Here is the link to read about his story. The button is right here and you can put in any amount from $1 to infinity. Every penny is greatly appreciated! Clickaway!

Iron Man and his cronies are doing wonderfully! He now has two male buddies (Austin and Drew Boy) plus his two gal pals (Ellie and Bella).

Dad and babies painting

I received a very enthusiastic email from Foster Mama Shirley at LRTC (Least Resistance Training Center). She said the little ones are doing very well! In fact, they were all helping Dad paint the Taj MaHorse last week.

I guess the storms and rain had kept the finishing touches from getting finished so last week was the painting event! How fun to have 5 noses trying to help… Shirley said that after they tried to grab Dad’s brush about a million times, they got bored with that game and went back to eating. Figures. Thank goodness!

She describes all of them:
1) Iron Man: So smart and such a love! He started it all when he was rescued and has since paved the way for all

Ellie, Austin and Iron Man

of his new buddies who were born in the BLM holding pens (Moms were either too ill or not able to nurse them). Iron Man acts as “greeter” to all new arrivals. Shirley says he is just a joy of a horse.

2) Austin: He wants to play all the time! Austin is constantly egging IM on and trying to get him into mischief. The two are always together like Mutt n Jeff. Austin is fast and sweet and in your pocket. He loves to be busy.

Drew Boy and Iron Man playing

3) Drew Boy: Drew is the more quiet of the boys. He is a thinker. He doesn’t get pushed around. He is the strong, silent type. As with all of the babies, he is very sweet.

4) Bella:

Bella

Bella is beautiful hence the name. She is very sweet, very tall and very loving. Bella already knows how to pick up her feet!

5) Ellie: Ellie is the newest and the “skinny minny” of the group. Shirley feeds her

Ellie, Iron Man and Austin

separately although she is pretty sure that Ellie could fend for herself! Ellie has bursts of energy in the mornings and evening. Soon, she will be at the same health level as the others and will blossom physically. Already, Ellie shows signs of being most wonderful and angelic with devotion

Shirley feels that these babies are now strong enough to start halter training and hoof protocol. We’ll see how that goes this week! I’m looking forward to updates and pictures of all 5 learning at once!

That is the update. Remember, just because they are safe doesn’t mean they don’t need help. Shirley and her household take care of these babies out of the kindness of their hearts. So, I’m going to ask clearly again for a donation to help these babies with their excellent care! Any amount from $1 – infinity for the Bucket Fund. You can read about the Bucket Fund here. So, please click today! Thank you all very much! Remember $1 is just fine…

“I’ve had to wait a little while to write this news but needed to let folks know that we lost little Drew yesterday. As some of you might remember he came in with a sublingual hernia. He was too young to operate on right at first so we had to wait for him to gain a little weight and get older. Yesterday morning our Vet came so we could try to fix this. What was a pretty bad hernia on one side turned out to be a fatal birth defect in his abdomen and had large hernias on both sides. When we were able to see the entirety of the situation there was not going to be any way for Drew to survive much longer without terrible and painful complications. Our wonderful Doc tried so hard and worked so hard to fix it but Drew had been born without the abdominal wall muscle and there was nothing to hold his intestines in place. Doc tried many times to make things work but there was no way stitches to close the hernia would hold. We had to make the horrible and heartbreaking decision to let him go. Little Drew was our weakest and most frail from day one but we always hope and pray that we can get them through and fix any thing that Mother Nature forgot. The reality of this defect for Drew was that he would not make it very much longer without developing major intestinal problems and would be in tremendous pain trying to live with this until it finally took him as he grew. We are missing him terribly right now but hanging on and loving the little foursome. They are doing very well and Iron Man has buddied up with Ellie to keep her in the fold. She was laying by herself yesterday afternoon and he actually came out of the little house where the 3 of them had settled down for a nap and called her. She looked up but didn’t get up so he marched himself down the hill, went to her, nuzzled and nickered and she got up and followed him into the house with all the other kids. I can never understand people that think animals do not think or have compassion and caring in that regard. I’ve seen it time and time again of how much caring and heart they have for each other and us too.

I’m so sorry to deliver such bad news but I know that everyone loves them and needed to let folks know.

Love and take care from us all. At least our little angel will not be in any pain and will be held in God’s arms.

Bruce, Shirl and Critter Kids Too”

Your purchase with Riding Warehouse through this link helps the Bucket Fund!

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

Horse and Man

Exploring the bond between equines and their people.

Tag Archives: Iron Man