The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
September 15, 2014
Golden Carrot Newsletter
Well, it's been a very hard summer.
LOST FRIENDS
We lost Smokey, Song, Prophet, Topper and Fannie. It happens this way sometimes. Only Fannie really surprised me, as the others had been slowly and steadily failing for many months. Please click on their name, to read of their lives.
I want to thank Katja and Jan H who were Smokey's sponsors for transferring their sponsorships - Katja to Shelby and Jan to Anya; and Irene who sponsored Song for transferring her sponsorship to the donkeys.
NEW FRIENDS
We took in Crescent Moon Jet. Please read his story here, and consider if you will making a small monthly donation towards his needs. This horse has given a LOT in his lifetime. He took several kids through Pony Club shows including jumping, and worked as a therapy horse as well. He's 30 now, and Cushings. Let's make his final years golden?
Online Facebook Auction
Our Auction was done, and we gained just over $1,000 from the efforts of Katja, whose brainchild it was, and the kind donors (Katja, Nancy Lyon-Gray, Irene Jansen, Sue Friley and others) who gave such lovely things to auction off. This was so gratefully accepted because, as some of you who have followed us for some years will know, Summertime is an AWFUL time for donations!
Finally, those Pesky Donks!
Turns out, now that Latte is gone, the boys (Diablo and Sancho) have no problems with the herd of horses at all. And I mean, AT ALL. Shortly after his arrival, I found Jet pacing the fence of his stall, with Diablo in his shed! Those dang donkeys will actually go INTO a stall now, even if a horse is there! I'd always known they went in during the day, to see if anyone left any feed, but now, the most vulnerable of my oldsters (Queenie, Hershey, Jet and others) were losing feed and their precious and necessary medication to the dorky donks! My neighbor devised a way to attach a rigid 2x4 across the lower part of the stall gates, which the donks can't flex upward enough to limbo under. We've done Fannie, Hershey, Buck, Jet, Queenie, Shelby and Biscuit so far. The Donkey Boys do NOT need more feed, and certainly don't need the meds; and the horses most certainly DO! This may explain Buck and Queenie being thin, but still "with us" - with luck, now they will gain a tad before the winter hits. Do not EVER let anyone tell you Donkeys are "easy keepers"!!!
I really hope that now that school has begun, and everyone is more or less back to business as usual, and fall is close, that everyone will consider making a donation, or setting up a small monthly donation, to help me continue to care for these horses. While you may think that I've lost 5 horses, and costs are down, we did take in Anya and Jet recently (and Jet is a high-maintenance guy), costs never seem to go down, and in fact, between vet and disposal costs, we spent more than our auction proceeds dealing with the loss of our dear friends. We still need your help. I've been getting some help from my neighbor in repairing stalls, and thus need to buy more materials to start making some prepare-for-winter repairs, I need to buy another 10-12 tons of pelleted feed ($3500 to $4000), and if I'm able, I'd like to buy another 100 bales of hay ($1,600) to be sure I have enough to get thru the winter while hay quality is still good.
And please please do not forget our need for land. Remember that we are renters here, with no rights or security. In these years here, if this property had been ours, I'd have hopefully been able to find and get grants to put up real barns. With our own property, I'd be able to set up a small mobile for a full time hand to help me with all these chores. With our own property, these horses would be SAFE in case something happened to me. And I might be able to be of some help to not only more sanctuary horses who fit our mission (older and managably disabled) but also rescue horses who need rehab or layup, allowing another rescue horse to be helped while that occurs. Somewhere out there is someone who is tired of paying property tax and insurance on a parcel hopefully in the 40 acre range, and could use a tax deduction. The more people who know of our need, the greater our chances of finding that foreever home these horses deserve.
