The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive

December 2012 Newsletter

The Golden Carrot

Sorry I didn’t get a newsletter out last month, but I’ve been pretty busy. I do have some good and some bad news though, so here we go! If you’re on Facebook, or just want to check in there, click here for our FB Page I try to post something everyday....

First of all, we lost our dear Sunny on November 15, 2012. I’m still reeling, and each day that I watch poor Victor stand alone breaks my heart anew. Please read Sunny’s story

Just short of a month later, I lost my Bruhad. After 24 years, having had him since he was 2, going thru his training with him, being my boy for all that time, I hope you can understand that I can hardly tell you he’s gone, let alone write. Bruhad along with BobbySox were my inspiration to start The Golden Carrot, but were never rescues. As many of you know, I do all this work without pay, and felt that was my ‘sponsoring’ of Bruhad. I may find I can write about him later, but right now, the wound is too raw. The only bright spot on that is that Tierra Del Norte Arabian Horse Association, who had donated a portion of the proceeds from their two annual community horse shows to TGC and Bruhad, have indicated their willingness to have their future donations made for Lester’s support! Thank you, TDNAHA, for your continued support of the breed you represent, and the Golden Carrot!

NEW SPONSORS!

In addition to Lester’s new supporters, TDNAHA, I’m so very happy to report that several other horses now have sponsors of their own. Brave has two, Linda J and Cindy M have joined forces to meet his needs! Poor Brave has been unsponsored for so long, I had despaired. But now he has two wonderful someones in his corner. Thank you ladies, for helping this wonderful horse!

In addition, Cindy M has offered a full sponsorship for Jasper, one of our new Castaic shelter rescues! Along with Linda J’s support, Jasper’s monthly expenses are now covered. A little additional news is that Jasper IS "Peppy’s Willow Park", so again, if anyone is knowledgeable about the AQHA record keeping and can give us any information about his career (which we understand includes a couple of trips to the National Finals Rodeo) I’d sure love to hear about it. Thank you, Cindy, for stepping up for this deserving oldster.

Finally, to my delight, Donna N. has offered a part sponsorship for our Biscuit! Donna just added an additional amount to her monthly support in memory of Jessica Rekos, one of the victims of the CT shooting, who loved horses. YAY! Dear Biscuit is looking good these days, and with his good friend Silver by his side, and Donna having his back, things are finally looking bright for our old boy.

Some sponsors have fallen away, usually without a word. Some have had to reduce the amount of their sponsorships. These ARE hard times. I am so grateful for those who can commit any amount to the care of these elderly horses. Thank you ALL for your steadfastness....

VISITORS

Ellie Rose, one of Dominic’s sponsors, came for a visit - and she was hugely helpful, cleaning stalls with me! She checked up on her boy, and her dog Olivia made us laugh as she ran everywhere. Katja came to visit as well, bringing 150 pounds of carrots! She also helped me with chores, gave Diamond his first official TGC grooming, and had a lovely lesson on Montego. And early in November, Jan Heppert and Lisa Brozek came to see me as well, with the usual riotous results! Hard to know if the horses, or I, enjoy our visitors more! I feel stupid for not getting pictures, but will do better in future.

Katja has also been selling some riding boots which were given to TGC on eBay, and we’re gonna try to sell other things that way as well. If you have a horse and need some kind of tack, let me know what you need. If I have something, I’ll shoot you pictures ... we may have a deal for you! One supporter sells things on eBay and lists them through our Mission Fish account, allowing a certain percentage of the sale price to be donated to TGC. I can’t figure eBay out, myself, but if you are interested, I can discuss what I know about it with you, shoot me an email or call.

FUNDRAISERS

The Run for the Rescues got The Golden Carrot some exposure and raised donations of $2500. In addition, Rescue Train graciously gave extra money from their funds to help GIO with his special shoeing needs for one year, and one of their volunteers has pledged $150 for another bottle of his pain medication! All in all, I think the Run for the Rescues was a good thing, and I’m hoping many more of us will participate next year. I want to thank Rescue Train for the whole idea, and After the Finish Line for inviting The Golden Carrot to participate for the horses!

In addition, Dawn at Horse and Man raised over $2,000 for Jasper, Diamond and Lester with her Bucket Fund. Although the greater part of that went to correct their awful feet, and dental work, and a LOT of groceries in that first month, we’ve been able to get sponsors for Jasper and Lester. Thank you Dawn for helping these horses, who through no fault of their own were facing death at the hands of the County. If you like, you can donate towards their on-going care by purchasing a gift certificate (Dawn creates these, not me!) for that ‘hard to shop for’ person in your life. Follow this link, and you'll have three choices - and yes, one is Lester and Diamond of the Golden Carrot! Easy to do!

And then, I found a new site, Great Nonprofits, and signed up, and was thrilled to receive 13 (so far) 5-star reviews from visitors, sponsors, board members, etc., making The Golden Carrot one of the Top NonProfits of 2012! YAY! If you have anything you’d like to say about The Golden Carrot, any of the horses here, me, ideas for what you think I should be doing, or thoughts on what our mission is or should be, please follow this link, and write a review. This kind of thing is INVALUABLE to the horses - any of you who are involved, have been involved over a period of years, or who have been here, can tell people that we’re not a scam, we’re real and doing the job we claim we’re doing. In these days when so many "rescues" turn out to be horror stories, this is important!

UPDATE ON HORSES

The Castaic rescues, Lester, Diamond and Jasper, are all doing well. They’ve had a visit with the vet. So far Lester and Jasper have some sponsorship, but hay, anyone want to help poor Diamond?

Diamond IS approximately 14 and considered a "cremello"; his right eye has severe scarring from uveitis, the left a little less, but his vision is definitely compromised. Due to those pale blue eyes, he wears a fly mask a LOT to protect what vision he has left. The doc considers his left knee to be the worst, due to severe arthritis, but he gets around very well since his toes have been properly trimmed and he’s better able to break over. One additional note about Diamond is that on doing the dental work for him, we discovered that in the past, his tongue was almost completely severed, twice!

I can hardly imagine his distress while it healed! The doctor says that while it’s hanging by barely an inch of tissue, it won’t just fall off, is getting blood flow, and since he seems to eat and drink well, we won’t worry about it. Doctor Z thinks perhaps one of those awful bits was used on him in the past which can and often do cut the tongue. How much he’s suffered in his short life...

Lester, it turns out, is in his early 20s (not 12). Overall, he’s in good shape, except for that right shoulder problem which makes him stiff and gimpy first thing in the morning. When the boys got their dental work, Lester did lose a tooth too.

And finally, Jasper has actually very good teeth for a 24 year old, his skin is already healing, but he has a high pitched (ejection) murmur in his heart. (I have a lot of horses with heart murmurs, it’s common in the oldsters, but the ejection type is less common. Like other murmurs, probably won’t be a huge problem since they’re not worked hard, or regularly).

The Golden Carrot’s FB page has some videos of the boys .... They ARE thriving.

Sadly, Sunny’s passing has been difficult for Victor. Shine and Spencer seemed more upset the day she died, but have each other. (Shine is having really bad trouble with his back end again, and chiropractic help for him is only temporary relief anyway. Ditto with anti-inflammatories, which he resists taking as well.) But Victor stands alone, sad and quiet. At least once he went back to his stall early, went under the chain and stood inside, by himself, looking at Sunny’s stall. He is SO very elderly and so physically damaged. And although the pergolide has helped his skin, he always had less response to it than Sunny did. Then, he hurt himself badly. His stifle was hugely swollen (although not real hot, oddly) and he had a gash on the outside of his hip. The doc cleaned the wounds and they’re healing well. I’m watching. So far, his appetite is ok (he did leave food that first night after losing Sunny, and the second night of medication after his injury, but not since). Like Buck, Victor just keeps plugging along. They are just DETERMINED to live, I guess. See? Everyone is different.

Dominic had a few wild nights tearing his stall apart. (I think Spencer is still the Demolition Man here, but Dom is bucking for the title) He knocked down his gate chains once by accident, but then, realizing he could do it, he KEPT doing it and destroying the front fenceline of his stall in the process. I was able to find and purchase a couple of pipe corral panels and now.... peace again! Yes, I WOULD love to have pipe corral panels completing all the stalls, but they come in 10, 12 or 24 foot lengths, while the outside part of our stalls are 16 feet deep. Even if I could find used panels, and get to them before someone else snapped them up (I HAVE been researching this on Craigslist), I need my neighbor’s trailer to transport them, and he’s not always available, or I need to pay someone to do so, which would really add to the cost. It’s kinda funny, because one of the manufacturers of pipe corral panels is literally 2 miles from my house! But new? I wish....

Sara’s weird wooden shoes are still on, but it is kinda hard to know if they’re helping her. She still has days when she can hardly walk; others when she seems perfectly normal (for her). She isn’t laying down outside her stall, and is eating well, so .... we’ll probably keep on with it.

Smokey is doing well. He’s an odd duck. Devoted to Dion and Peanut but nowadays, the minute those two are in their stalls, he’ll wander the whole stall line, chatting up any ladies who will talk to him! I have to MAKE him go in for his own dinner.... He’s too frail to push for his "own" woman in the herd, but smart enough to hook up with Dion and Peanut.... And like some white horses, he simply cannot stay clean ... always looks a little scruffy. Sigh.

Everyone else, knock wood, is doing ok. After the shock of losing Sunny and then Bru, I refuse to predict who may leave me next. I just do the best I can by each of them, and try not to think about the future...

FANNY

I’ve been pretty deeply in the dumps between our losses and difficulties with weird animal-abusing neighbors, and the weather, but decided to take in a mare, Fanny, who is in her late 20s, and a Cushings horse. It seemed serendipitous that a stall just opened which was taken by an elderly quarterhorse mare who was on pergolide .... now Sunny’s stall and medication can help another. I’m hoping (kinda desperately) that Fanny will like Victor....? Fanny was abandoned by her owner, and the kindness of the lady who owned the property where she was left has been stretched thin. She’s bringing Fanny here after caring for her for 6 months. So Fanny’s elder days have been like mine - someone hurts, someone helps..... I hope we can give her a few comfortable years here. Fanny will need some sponsors folks! Fanny comes in this Sunday 12/23/12.

MISCELLANEOUS

The EzGo has been with the mechanic since November 10^th. So far, they don’t seem to have a clue what may be wrong with it (not lots of communication from them, so I’m not sure). I’d been looking at other possibilities, but getting something similar (as a backup/addition to the GEM) will cost $3,000 or so, and I was hopeful the EzGo could be repaired for less. So far, they've quoted $447, and I don't even know if the parts they've bought and 2 hours spent will actually make it go or when that might happen (they said they'd have the 2nd part over a week ago)! I’ll keep you posted.....

I keep picking away at the fence repairs. The damage shown above is just the kinda thing I have to deal with, almost every day. There are always some like that I have to fix NOW. I can’t find any labor to help with this heavy work, and find myself physically less capable than is needed. But I keep at it. Maybe one day.... a new place, a way to set things up better. Maybe next year. I’m doing all I can to keep the stalls up for another winter. Maybe someone knows a construction crew looking for a few day’s work .... maybe something can be worked out..... maybe...

And speaking of stuff I'm not really good at - Although our website is in good form I think, it seems that since April we've had all of 4,000 odd hits. If you know how to increase the website presence, how to direct people to it, and could either do it, or talk my techno-challenged self through it, I and the horses would truly appreciate it!

EASY WAYS TO HELP

Don’t forget www.iGive.com for online shopping. Whether you choose TGC as your charity or another, please choose someone, and shop! - such an easy way to help!

Spread the word about our organization. Magnets spread the word with no effort at all! A magnet is an easy way to do it (let me know if you want one, only $15).

Sharing our posts on the Golden Carrot Facebook page is another way to spread the word (please "like" our page, or join our group, or both). Share this newsletter with anyone you think may be interested. And maybe others - you never know who is interested in horses, or just helping. A lot of people think about making last-of-the-year donations about now - let’s put the horses in their minds, ok?

And although none of us want to think about tax time now, if you need any deductions for 2012, there’s only a few weeks left to make a tax deductible donation to a charity (Us! Us!).