The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
July 2011
Golden Carrot Newsletter
I hope you all had a safe July 4th, and are back in your air conditioned offices! :-)
I have a lot of things to report, so get ready ...
First of all, on fairly short notice I set up and had our First Annual Chacha Memorial Open House/Yardsale/BBQ on June 18-19. I had an offer of help from Carolyn Puga, to man the yard sale, and grabbed it. Most of us find selling stuff at a yard sale to be the 10th Circle of Hell, boring and oddly stressful. But Carolyn and her daughter Shirley, as well as Nadine and Kaitlyn came to help, and with Mike Roth manning the BBQ, we were well staffed for yard sale, tours and food. Then Jan and Lisa and Julia and Alexa came to help with the chores and horses, and a good time was had! After food costs, the horses benefitted not only by lots of carrots, but $735.00!! For a last minute thing, I think it was pretty good.
Please click here to see how the day went.
Sponsor Update
Shortly after that, I had the pleasure of meeting Marilyn Braly and her friend Kathy. Marilyn was the owner of Evening Jewel, a lovely stakes winning Thoroughbred mare recently retired to a happy life as a broodmare. Marilyn impressed me with the care she took to find just the right home for Evening Jewel, and her obvious love for the mare. She has recently suffered several terrible personal losses, including the death of her husband, and yet still reaches out to help others. Yes, she made a generous donation to TGC in honor of Evening Jewel, and is sponsoring Buck, Joyful, Allie, Keller and Surely for a whole year! Thank you, Marilyn, for your open heart and generous spirit, and I look forward to seeing you here again soon. Marilyn and Kathy both have expressed an interest in doing some grooming of the TGC herd, and you all know I need help with that chore as it’s usually last on my list. For those of you interested, please visit Evening Jewel’s website at www.myracefilly.com User: Evening Password: Jewel to read about this extraordinary horse and her career.
Now, we lost Navigator and Jeeper's sponsor (the same economic strain we're all feeling, and she does promise to come back when her financial situation betters), but Jeepers was lucky to find Paws of the Planet of Newport Beach, who have donated a part sponsorship for him for the next year! Welcome to TGC, Paws of the Planet and thanks so much for stepping up for our Jeeps!
Volunteers
I’ve also been so happy to have new volunteers, one who comes on Wednesday mornings and the other probably Sunday mornings. Wednesday is Ashley, a local girl who has an appy gelding of her own, but comes to help me with chores. I think her interest is not just to help me, but to learn more so she can take good care of her horses, and I’m glad to oblige. She recently had a riding lesson on Falcon, and I found her kind to him, and relaxed in the saddle. I hope I can give her tools to make riding her own gelding even more fun. She has certainly been a great help to me so far. Welcome, Ashley! Sunday mornings is Maren, a woman my age who has her own TB mare and a pony in Temecula, but wants to help these oldsters. Maren not only cleaned 14 stalls, but brought some water barrels and made a donation to boot! Oso and Keller are happy with their new, bigger water barrels, and thank you, Maren!
Well, you all know we lost Chacha on the 17th of June. It was kinda sudden, but it was definitely time and of course our sweet Chachaloo was very elderly. Many have asked about Debbie and Mary, whom you’ll recall are frail and to my eye, failing. Although Mary has perked up a bit and has eaten everything I’ve given her for the last 10 days, she is still thin and her collapsed hind pasterns are still obviously causing her discomfort. They don’t respond to bute which Mary objects to anyway, so I’ve done what I can by massaging them. Tough girl Mary tells me exactly how much of THAT she wants. Nothing really makes the swelling go down.
Debbie, on the other hand, eats like two horses, and is still losing weight. Her time I believe is very short. Two nights ago, outside her stall, I found a pile of manure that had blood on it. I don’t know for sure if it was hers, but suspect it was. And evening before last, she apparently stumbled in her stall and broke down part of her fence. I didn’t see any wounds on her, but suspect weakness is increasing. I’ll admit I’m finding this hard to deal with. On her own, I might have already made the decision for Debbie. But her excellent appetite combined with Mary’s love for her keeps me putting off the dreaded decision. Mary seems to be doing a little better and I’m not sure what losing Debbie might do to her; I’m waiting to see if Mary's little upswing is that often seen just before death. And I can then do as I’ve promised them, and send them onward together.....
Having Chacha’s stall open, as well as Inch’s which has been open except for the brief period Laddie was here, I gave in to the many calls. TGC welcomes two new residents...
Sooner, born to the ridiculous name "Katie Fabulon", is a 20 year old Appendix Quarterhorse, (that is a cross between Thoroughbred and quarterhorse) according to Courtney at Under the Angels Wings rescue in Phelan. (What ARE these QH people thinking? Look at poor Victor, born "Victory Chick"! Do they have trouble telling the foal is a boy?) Since he was born in Oklahoma, I guess the name Sooner at least makes a little sense...
A brief back story is that several months ago I was approached to take a 30 something QH gelding in the Kern County Animal Shelter, but at the time, I didn’t have the funds or room to do so. I got "Moses" placed with Courtney, and the plan was when short term promised funding ran out in 6 months, I would take him. But Courtney fell in love with Moses, who fits in well with her setup, and asked if, instead, I would take Sooner, who was so miserable spending so much time in his stall. She felt the 10 hours a day turnout would be good for him, at least mentally. Since Sooner has a bad injury, perhaps of his low back, I agreed.
Both Courtney’s vet and my farrier independently told us that they felt his injury was the kind experienced by horses when they flip over backwards. Although Sooner was trailered loose, Courtney tells me she’s tied him many times without incident, so we’re not sure what might have caused his accident. Suffice it to say that Sooner moves slowly but steadily; was composed when the herd came to meet him after his 3 hour trailer ride, and in one day figured out to come back to stalls for dinner. He’s glossy after a year of Courtney’s good feeding, but his top line looks terrible. I suspect he gets along by using his front end more than horses do usually. It seems to me his left low back is causing his discomfort, and it appears to me that the musculature of his back, butt and hip has atrophied. I have Laurie Henkel scheduled to come on Thursday, July 7, to see if there is anything she can adjust to help him. He is smart and kind, and I really hope we can improve his quality of life. Please click on his name to see other pictures, and read his story.
Look at that wierd stance - always with one rear leg swung far forward.
Sooner needs a sponsor! I have tried to take oldsters from other rescues, in order to free up their stalls for younger, healthier more adoptable horses, and in return Courtney shared with me several hundred dollars worth of donated supplements in an effort to help me out for taking Sooner. Thank you, Courtney! But he still needs someone of his own to care - can you do even a part sponsorship for Sooner? Any committed amount will make you a sponsor....
Now, Spencer came in on July 1, and is also an Appendix Quarterhorse. Spencer is 29, and looks much better than Sooner, although his former owner Megan believes he has a pinched nerve in his back. (Laurie will be looking at him too). Megan will be providing a 3/4 sponsorship for Spencer. Spencer is a HUGE boy, but an absolute love bug. He talks a lot, and does that Beau-thing where he looks at you directly with huge orphan-eyes, and wiggles his nose in his desperate weak effort to get you to bring him food, wuffling softly. Oh, so dramatic! He got his toes trimmed on July 4th, and stood like a perfect gentleman for that. He loves to play in his water barrel, sloshing water everywhere, and eats his dinner with good appetite. All that despite the fact that I think he is a bit bewildered at the sudden change in his circumstances. He has a weird patch of baldness at his throatlatch, and managed to give himself a bad scratch on his right hip in his first day here, and has been patient with my ministrations to these areas. I would appreciate anyone who could give a part sponsorship for Spencer .... and I know he would too! Click on his name to see other pictures and read his story.
Thoughts on our mission here:
You all know that I’ve taken a number of horses who had been through auction and ended up at feedlots, about to board the slaughter truck to Mexico (Oso, Anaba, Surely and Brave). I’ve taken horses from Animal Control and different Animal Shelters (Daisy, Mr. Happy Grump, Queenie, Keller and Star). But I prefer to be able to take a horse directly from it’s owner when possible. I often don’t even like the owners or their trumped up reasons for dumping their oldsters, although in many cases I felt circumstances were difficult for the owners and respected their efforts to do right by their old friend. But these old horses deserve so much after a life of service, and I can hardly bear to think of their confusion as they are shipped to an auction house because rescues are underfunded and overextended; where they are bought by the kill buyers and moved to a feed lot with many other scared horses, exposed to disease, expected to suddenly fight for their meals and water; and then marched onto an overcrowded trailer for that last desperate ride. I wonder if they hope, right up their last moment, that their people will come back for them. Sometimes, while at the feed lot, someone will raise the money, usually hundreds of dollars per horse, to bail horses out (usually the younger ones), buy them back from the kill buyers, and transport them to, guess what, a rescue. And there is still no money to support them there. The only true beneficiaries of that scenario are the kill buyers. The rescue, of course, can tell a more dramatic tale and possibly raise more money. But they still have to raise money to support the horse; and often heal them after they develop illness or injury from the journey.
If we open our hearts to the older guys who will not make it through the auction into a new private home simply due to their age or disabilities, we can save them from this torment, and give them a few golden years as our appreciation for all they have done. (And an added bonus is, we are NOT supporting the Kill Buyers.) For horses like Spencer, whose young owner loves him dearly, but has moved on to college, we can give him the love he had for most of his life with her, a little light work and attention, and a dignified death when the time comes. So, for HIS sake, please consider helping Spencer too or any other Golden Carrot horse. Help me show these horses that we understand they are people that deserve our respect and help as they reach this vulnerable stage of their life. I mean, really, wouldn’t we want someone to help us, if we were alone in our old age? Because of how we have controlled their lives, they are alone. We need to be there for them, I think. I hope you agree.... I promise you, what we provide here is truly appreciated by each and every resident at TGC.
See how much life is left in these old guys!