The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive

THE GOLDEN CARROT

Newsletter, April 1, 2003

This is a newsletter full of news, unlike the last one. A lot to think about - please take the time to review this whole newsletter and let me know what you think of these matters.

SPONSORSHIP

In the past, I have suggested Sponsorship of an individual Golden Carrot resident as a way to personalize your donation. Today I am glad to announce that TWO horses have been sponsored, as follows:

My last newsletter mentioned Georgia, and Max and Steve, who visited several times towards the end of last year. Georgia sent a friend of hers, Patricia Newman, to visit me, due to Pat’s interest in horses. Pat came to meet the horses and offer fund-raising suggestions. Of foremost importance, she fell in love with Cuervo, and is now his proud sponsor, on behalf of her grandchildren Georgia (age 5) and Tucker (age 2 ½) Panitch. Pat’s generous sponsorship will take care of Cuervo’s feed, carrots and farrier work, and she has asked me to keep her notified if Cuervo needs a fly mask or blanket, so that she can help with that as well. Wouldn’t you say Cuervo was a lucky horse?

Then, let’s look at NAVIGATOR! Many of you will recall Navi’s story - he was owned by the same woman who abandoned Andy at The Golden Carrot. I was amazed at the gall of a woman who had done that to Andy, calling to ask if she could do it again with Navigator. After a long conversation, with several home truths spoken, she promised to support Navigator. Again, she lied, abandoning Navigator as heartlessly as she did Andy. The last 6 months or so that she owned Navigator, she had leased him to the stable’s lesson program, to earn his keep. She simply doesn’t feel any obligation to care for these kind fellows - they are just objects to her. Navigator came to me with a suspensory problem, and the stable had spent several months trying to rehabilitate him before he came. Given a year off, he appears to be mostly sound. I would imagine hard work might cause problems, but maybe not - this is a horse who REVELS in the freedom he has here at TGC - he runs from the stalls to the paddock every morning, stretched out, tail high, and despite not making any particular friends in the herd, seems very happy. A young woman, Stephanie Olsen, who used to have lessons on Navigator, has generously donated to TGC each Christmas on his behalf.

Danielle Reel is a patron of the Golden Carrot for the past 9 months or so, sending donations when she can, and having just completed a move, has promised to send me some "horsey things" she found in the course of packing. Because of the move, she’s not really set up to have a horse, although she’s looking, but in the meantime, she asked if she could sponsor one of TGC’s residents - and after some debate, has chosen to make Navigator’s life easier. Her generous sponsorship will take care of his feed and farrier expenses, neither of which are small matters. Navigator requires shoes on his front feet, and as an absolutely HUGE horse (17'1") and nervous, so hard to keep weight on, he’s a big eater. It appears that at last, Navigator’s luck has turned.

Are you interested in sponsoring or partially sponsoring a horse? $50 per month will provide feed for most of these horses; depending on their feet and disabilities, farrier expense varies from $25 to $70. Some of TGC horses have former owners who have been generous supporters over the years, but some have been "rescued" or were just abandoned, becoming my burden instead. The following is a list of those horses for whom nothing is donated each year - do any of them appeal to you?

The horses not listed above have people who still donate for them on a fairly regular basis. However, they seldom donate enough to meet all their needs, so if there is another horse you’re interested in providing some sponsorship support for, let me know. There are only two horses on the property whose former owners donate enough for almost all of their needs - Jet and Joyful. There are still costs I bear for all of these horses, and I can use all the help you can send. I emphasize again - NO AMOUNT DONATED IS TOO SMALL. I can use it all - believe me!

For sponsors, I have two available "perks" - Pat Newman is willing to take a good portrait photo of your sponsored horse, and if you’d like, for an additional amount, she’ll paint a portrait for you - and she’s offered to donate everything paid over her own costs back to TGC. In addition, I can obtain for you a Golden Carrot baseball cap (with the same embroidered logo that’s on my web site), including the name of your sponsored horse, for only $20 (part of that cost is also a donation to TGC!)

Marsha Rugg of Ru Horse Tack & Equipment LLC out of Los Gatos CA (866-664-8439) generously donated 10 rope halters with 12' leads. For those of you who don’t know what a rope halter is, check out their web site at www.ruhorse.com. Pat Parelli, a well known horse trainer, uses a version of this equipment. The donated halters were "seconds" but I absolutely can’t see why - they are gorgeous! We’ve used them extensively - one benefit of these rope halters is that they are very adjustable, and fit just about every horse I have on the lot. Thanks, Marsha!

Mandela Arabians has closed its doors in the Desert, and sent halters and ropes; saddle racks; various medications, salves; water barrels and miscellaneous equipment to TGC. It’s all useable except the adorable foal halters - you think baby shoes are cute, sheesh! I’ll be offering those to the breeding farm across the road ... Thank you Helen Mandela - we’ll make good use of these donated items.

Barry Waugaman and Helen Glacy of Banning, CA, were kind enough to visit with FORTY 50# sacks of horse carrots! I gave some to the neighborhood but mostly, TGC horses have been in HEAVEN! Thanks Barry and Helen - despite the name, TGC horses never get ENOUGH carrots.

NEW STUDENT

Felicity Reed of England and Anza has volunteered a couple of days a week for the last 3 weeks at TGC, and what a help she is! Felicity, like a lot of English girls, has been riding since she was one. (Ok, maybe five). But a year or so ago, she had a terrible accident, when a bolting horse threw her, and badly hurt her back. She was off horses for a year - and that makes getting over that fear just that much harder. She’s horse mad though, and TGC horses are just what the doctor ordered. Although she’s ridden Josh, and loved it, and rode Prophet, with a little less success, her favorite by far is Falcon. I’d been told Falcon was "too tough" to be a good lesson horse, but frankly, that has not been the case. He and Felicity have bonded, and both are working slowly together to become fit again. It’s a pleasure to watch them work together. And believe me, Felicity earns her rides - she’s a great stall cleaner, and figured out making feed buckets in just one try. The only thing she can’t do for me, due to hayfever, is load the hay carts up. I’ll try to get photos on site as soon as possible.

O, I can hear it already - WHAT? She took on two more horses? With finances so tight? Well, now, calm down. Apparently my faith in people is unharmed, despite people like the prior owner of Andy and Navigator, and the last horse who came to me whose owner has not lived up to the terms of her agreement either. I’m trusting the owners of Buck (16'2" Tennessee Walker gelding, age 19) and Hava (16'1" Appendix Quarter mare, age 18). Misty and Jeff McPherson are DEVOTED owners, who have donated not only the money necessary to build stalls for their horses, but enough money to defray their expenses for 3 months, with an agreement to continue to do so. In addition, various items of feed which reduce expenses for the first month, and items of tack, came with Buck and Hava. They trailered the "kids" (as they call them) here themselves from Santa Barbara, and have already been down to visit and be sure the kids are OK. Misty is donating the baseball caps offered in the sponsorship program. Maybe I’m making a mistake, but I just HATE judging people by the actions of others, and am hoping this time I’ve got prior owners who really care. I did have the chance to speak with the last "home" Buck and Hava were at (she had to move to Oregon, or they’d still be there with her), and Tracy gives Misty and Jeff a glowing recommendation.

As you’ll recall, with my reluctance to take on more horses until I can find work, I’ve been feeling very bad about the many horses whose owners call desperate to find a home for their old friends. I don’t feel sorry much for the owners who don’t offer to provide donations to help defray that retirement expense, but I continue to worry about the horses - if those owners don’t find a home, those horses will end up at auction, and probably on the slaughter truck.

In addition, I get a lot of calls from people looking for a horse - wondering if I adopt my horses out. Despite the snide comment I heard recently that I must feel I’m the only possible home for my horses since I won’t adopt them out until all support fails, in fact, finding responsible caring homes for older or disabled horses is no easy task. I simply don’t have time to follow up and be sure the match was a good one. A horse will try hard to please, even to their own detriment, and a person who won’t acknowledge a horse’s age or disabilities can cause irreparable damage, and pain and suffering, to an old campaigner who tries his heart out for this new owner. That is what the Golden Carrot offers that other homes don’t - an understanding of the aches and pains that limit a horse’s ability, and a willingness to work with and tolerate those limitations.

Within the limits of that and other problems related to horse ownership and maintenance, and the law that considers a horse to be "property" and thus to be used and disposed of at the "owner’s" discretion, I’ve tried to match up the people looking for horses, and horses looking for homes.

DONATIONS SO FAR THIS YEAR:

So far this year, donations total $1,408 (not counting Nancy Antioch’s generous donation of her trailer; and the part of Joyful’s annual donation not yet used). If that rate of donation continues, donations for the year will be $5,632 - barely more than ½ of what was donated last year. Has everyone forgotten us? Did you all think your help wasn’t needed because of Ms. Antioch’s donation? Remember, if I get donations from you to equal last year’s, ADDED to Ms. Antioch’s donation, I’ll still be $6,000 short of the feed bill. Remember, the feed bill up here is at least $25,000 per year - the farrier expense annually is $4,800. WE STILL NEED YOU!!

Call or e-mail me if you’d like to make a donation; or if you would like to sponsor a horse. We’ll find a way to make it easy for you. $10 per month is $120 per year. I have 40+ people on my mailing list. If you all did this - the farrier expense for the year is covered! Is $10 per month so much?

When the lucky day dawns that I win a SuperLotto, in addition to the good work I do here at TGC, I’ll be donating some money to an organization called Habitat for Horses in Texas. The man who runs that rescue is very politically active, and has done a great deal of good for horses, but mostly, he writes about horses like an Angel! The following is an excerpt from his newsletter that I think expresses a lot of what I feel and believe: