The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
May 2012 Newsletter
The Golden Carrot
I am sorry to advise that our sweet showgirl, Lola, is gone. Despite her spirit and overall greatly improved health, her blindness had progressed to be total, and like Allie, she was unable to cope, with no one was willing to act as her guide horse. I couldn’t allow her to struggle for over two months the way I did Allie .... I sent her on as my last service to her.
Please remember her and read her story
Having lost so many recently, I finally gave in and brought in another horse who needs our help. Biscuit is an elderly Thoroughbred, not tattooed, whose history is murky at best. We believe he was in a local shelter and "rescued by a local rescue", who either adopted him out or placed him in a foster situation where he was sharing a pen with another horse. Apparently that horse was getting the bulk of the feed. Then that horse died, and the location wanted Biscuit gone. So he’s here now, and we hope to make some improvement in his physical well being. He does have a load of sand in his gut - so at any time, we may lose him. With luck, psyllium, chia and plenty of moving around will help that sand to slowly make its way out of his guts, and the intestine it is laying on will be undamaged. Can you help Biscuit? A monthly commitment of support in any amount would make you a sponsor of this sweet old guy ....
On Cinco de Mayo, Kentucky Derby Day this year, I was thrilled to have Jan and her son Patrick out to help me with chores, so I could watch the race! They gave some love and carrots and TLC to Biscuit and poor Silver, cleaned 20 stall, filled all my water barrels, and shook out, rolled up and stored the winter blankets! Such a LOT of work, and brought treats for me, carrots for the horses, and made me laugh, as they always do. Love them! You can see them working on the www.thegoldencarrot.org/Pages/2012Visitors.aspx page ...
I’m thrilled to report that Tigertail Foods wwwtigertailfoods.com has a program where they give a percentage of their monthly revenue to a rescue, and this month, that benefit will come to The Golden Carrot! Now, Tigertail sells a lot of stuff, but they have a nice cookie for horses - I bought some and all the horses quite enjoyed them. And since they’re a hard cookie, they don’t crumble in my pocket! http://www.tigertailfoods.com/whoats.php takes you directly to the page for those cookies. If you want to send some treats our way, visit their site and your purchase will not only provide the treats, but some dinero as well! Thank you Tigertail for not only making a nutritious treat the horses love, but for helping organizations like ours too.
In addition, Lori's Natural Foods Center of Rochester New York donated 96 bottles of Stomach Soother to our organization! The stomach is a point of weakness in horses in my opinion - so many race horses suffer from ulcers due to stress and medications, and most horses are emotional enough to deal poorly with changes in diet and circumstance. An all natural product like this is a godsend and I'm grateful we got this donation - I just wish I'd known about it while Sooner was still alive, it might have helped him.
These are due to expire next month, so I'm feeding it to everyone - a nice puree of papaya to sweeten everyone's evening buckets and provide relief for anyone needing it! In particular I'm making sure that Silver and Buck, both still grieving loss of their friends, and Biscuit with his poor condition dealing with all the stress of a new place and new friends, get plenty of it. Because of Lori's generosity, I was also able to give two cases of it to Equine WellBeing Rescue in Ramona, who had a mare that was suffering from colic and ulcers, among other things! Thank you, Lori, and also Dawn of Horse and Man blog who referred us to Lori - Dawn has been a great friend and supporter of ours for a while now, and I recommend her blog to anyone with horse-itis! www.horseandman.com
About two weeks ago Laurie Henkel came out to visit, and was able to help Shine, Queenie, Sunny and Sarge with adjustments to their necks. Queenie had had a bad fall; Sunny was "paddling" with her left foreleg; Sarge showed signs of pain in his front legs, short striding; and poor Shine - well, I don’t know what he did but he had several days where he could barely use his hind legs. We’re pretty sure that Shine has wobblers, so we had Laurie adjust his neck (he had two vertebrae out of alignment) and he walked off MUCH better. They ALL showed improvement immediately, and have been doing great (except Queenie who fell again while trying to evade me when we needed to trim her toes). Thank you, Laurie, for "being there" for these horses. Many horses can hurt themselves, but then lay down, roll and self-adjust. But the older guys are less happy about laying down - it takes a lot of effort to get back up! So having another way to ‘fix’ little problems is invaluable in maintaining a good quality of life for them.
The horses are still hanging on. Elderly Buck, Victor, Queenie and Sarge keep plugging along. It was horrible to lose Lola, who in body was much healthier and sounder than any of them. But some people last longer than others, and it’s hard to say why. I’m grateful my old friends have come thru the winter, and so far have not given up. Laddie continues to bloom. I’m planning to start lunging him, Keller, Star, Chief, and Montego. I’ll work on getting them back in the habit of work again; then saddle them and lunge a little more, perhaps with reins attached; and then maybe ride. I’ll be working with Joyful as well, and hopefully she’ll help me get my riding legs back in shape before I throw a leg over the crazy boy......
I continue to search for new supporters and ways to raise donations. I have submitted a couple of grant requests, and will report as soon as I hear. But summer approaches, and in the almost 20 years I’ve done this, summer has always been a really bad time for donations. I hope some of you will remember us - small amounts are great, especially if a lot of people send them! Please don’t feel that $10 or $20 a month isn’t enough. It all adds up and helps so much. And of course, larger amounts are appreciated too! :-)
You can shop online at www.iGive.com and designate us as your charity - this is an easy way to help. It seems like tiny amounts, but again, if enough people do it, it really does add up.
And if you spread the word, talk to your friends, family, co-workers, you might find us another supporter. These old horses need your help. Put up a can at work and ask people to drop in their change - at the end of the month, you’ll be surprised at what you have to donate! One lady bought candy in bulk and cheaply at Costco, and sold it at work for a little markup to collect money for us. Some employers have ‘matching’ donation programs. I’ll happily prove up our 501c3 status to them. If you have a yardsale, perhaps put up a donation jar for us? I was going to have another yard sale/open house but we had way more volunteers last year than visitors (although I did have it on Father’s Day weekend). I’m not sure it’s worth doing again when this year I don’t have volunteers to man the yardsale.... Thoughts? Anyone want to sit a yard sale? Anyone willing to donate and/or collect items for sale? Let me know.
And please don’t forget the two big needs we have outside of money for food. We need land - The Golden Carrot continues to hope for that big donation of a piece of land, anything over 20 acres, which can be a forever home for these old horses, and perhaps, if big enough, a training facility, and adoption center as well, for other horses in need. Someone somewhere owns a piece of land they’re not going to develop, and are tired of paying taxes and insurance on - can you help us find it? And I need help, at least a part time worker (a week or a few days a month? A day or two a week?) Who can dig post holes, and make repairs on the fences and stalls. Finding anyone willing to do this type of labor is turning out to be very difficult! For a hard worker, I can pay $10 per hour. Can you refer anyone? What if I organized a "work day" - could you come and lend a hand? If so, when would be good for you?
I hope you will keep us in mind for visits too. I know a lot of our supporters are out of state, but if you’re coming to California for vacation this year - come by! I’ll do all I can to be available on your schedule - Thank you all for your interest, and your support, whatever form that takes. These horses need us on their side in these vulnerable twilight years.....