About SOS Equines

February 10, 2010 ~ playful

This morning had sunshine..it was really nice to wake up to. I got everyone fed outside, cleaned a few stalls in the barn & then started turning out horses for some playtime. Daisy completely cracked me up today..she was bucking, rearing & playing with Brodys calf "Bama" he is about 6 months old & Brody bottle fed him..he doesn't understand that he is supposed to be afraid of the horses, instead he tries to play with them. Daisy & Kringle had a ball carrying on with him this morning. Split Pants greets me at the gate every morning because she knows she is coming in the barn to eat her equine senior, she is really beginning to blossom. Benny has been doing good, steadily gaining weight & he has a heart of gold. Kringle is also gaining weight and I am finally starting to show what a personality he has. Ruby is getting friendlier each day & she is on the schedule to have her feet trimmed tomorrow. This evening I got everyone fed, watered & back in there pens...My friend & I decided to ride. I hopped on my rope horse bareback (ok..I didn't hop, I took a leap of faith from the fence) and we rode in the arena for quite awhile with Brody & Bullseye. I loved catching up with my friend & riding with my son. I need to ride more often just because & not because I need to. Tomorrow Busy is on my list to start getting back in shape, his vacation is over. Hoping for sunshine tomorrow...

Picture is of our favorite barn kitty soaking up the sunshine.

hugs to my personal fanclub....collette, joanne, jimi, karan, shelly, diane & helen..

February 4, 2010 ~ Busy Busy

Woke up after a less than good nights sleep. I swear every noise made outside I woke up too. It took more than one cup of coffee this morning to get me going. The sky was grey & it never changed..just a dreary day. I got everyone fed, Brody off to school & tried to get caught up online. After picking Brody up from school we headed out to the feedlot. We have several new horses going up on this site in the next couple of days. I managed to get Kelli to go with me, which takes a toll. Kelli used to go on every trip, now its fewer and fewer its just to hard on her to see the ones we don't list. It is hard for me because she does such a great job for SOS. It was anther teary trip home from the lot for Kelli which always causes me to cry. Finally made it home, cleaned some stalls & was heading out the door when a neighbor came by, then Kathy ( a volunteer) came by to visit. So Kathy & I walked thru most of the barn & looked at all the SOS horses...it was kinda funny so many of them she couldn't believe either how much they had grown or how much they had gained. I pulled Kringles blanket & YIPPPEEE we have WEIGHT GAIN..FINALLY. After Kathy helped me feed up top she headed home. Thank you for your help Kathy. I finished feeding & watering then rode Kelli's cutting horse..WOW was that alot of fun. I had planned on riding Busy also, but I was just coughing so badly it was time to go in the house. I am trying to get caught up on emails, so if I havn't responded to you maybe resend me one.

The first horse I put up is a 15 year old Arab gelding his name is Chip. He was friendly & easy to ride. The picture is of Chip & Kelli.
Have another busy day tomorrow. I have hay to haul, need to go to the feedstore, finish putting up the new horses, clean my house & do laundry.

February 3, 2010 ~ thank you

I have been gone for the last couple of days with my kids. I want to be sure to say THANK YOU to Kyle, Emma, Jenny, Seth & Gene if it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't of been able to accomplish what we did for Kelli. THANK YOU...

I got home this evening, got our horses unloaded & taken care of, then went & looked at all of our SOS horses. They all looked great, happy & busy eating. Looked like someone managed to clean stalls in the last day which is always MUCH appreciated. While we were gone I managed to get sick. I still feel terrible & am hoping a good nights sleep will be of some benefit.

Dave called me while I was gone to let me know we have new horses on the lot, so I will call him first thing to find out if they are already gone or if I can come over & go thru them. I hope everyone feels better than I do..I 'm off to bed..good night & god bless.

January 30, 2010 ~ RIP QA Tramira

This is the story of:
QA Tramira.
Mira as most of us know her as, was born on April 16th, 1999. Out of a mare named RA Bask Amira and a stallion called RA Antraz of Quest Acers in Omak Washington. Miras breeders Wendy and Don are long time breeders of Arabian horses for years, they loved her and showed her when she was younger. In 2004 Mira was given to their family doctor for his kids in exchange that she comes back to them if they didnt want or couldnt afford her anymore. That never happened. They didnt even know they sold her at a sale ridden by kids. The following section is written about her life since that sale and how her will to live exceed everything anyone could imagine.

August 2009 Mira was purchased by a feed lot owner in Tri Cities Washington, Destine to slaughter in Canada. With the help of a local rescue group, Mira and several of his recent purchases were given the chance of life by advertising them on line for adoption. I looked at her photos for over a week and decided to adopt her and bring her home to Puyallup Washington to live with me a long time fan of Arabian horses. Mira and her body Karma a 3 year old TB filly learned that life is good beyond the feed lot.
September, 2009 I went to Tri Cities and picked the two of them up with out quarantine. They went to my friends place in Eatonville Washington for thirty days before going to the boarding facility. During that period Mira was my distant friend, she wanted to know me but didnt want to be caught or messed with, it was like she was in her own little world and humans of any kind were not included. Her friend Karma was soon coming to realize that I wasnt a bad person and would come limping over to me with Mira in tow. After being caught everyday, learning that brushing is alright, she started to come around by a little bit at a time. Mira was soon talking to me as I came down the isle to their field; she even started doing the typical snake neck that Arabians are known for. She would even run to the gate greeting me leaving her partner in the dust. After their thirty days of quarantine was up they were moved to join my long time friend of 14 years Chablis (Arabian mare) at the boarding facility near my house.
During this time of being at the barn Mira realized that it was ok to be my friend, I brought her apple treats from our local feed store and real apples that she soon would come running to me screaming because her person showed up. She would scold me if I didnt come out everyday by giving me the cold shoulder. I started taking her on walks around the property trying to see how she would react to different horses and different animals, thats when we realized that anything smaller than a Great Dane she would rear up and stomp on them like they were a desert snake in Egypt. She would put them through the wringer letting them know that was her territory and they better move and quick. The barn owner soon realized that if Mira was outside her turnout she better keep her rug rats in their pen or they were going to be lunch Miras style.
After weeks to bring her to trust me and realize that I will show her nothing but love, we found out she had cancer, thinking it was just on the skin, we soon found out it was internal. We removed all the out side tumors in January 2010, and got her teeth floated 2 weeks after her tumor removal. Three days after her teeth floating Mira coliced, 24 hours after her first day colicing, Mira was rushed 30 minute drive time away to a medical facility where she would soon recover(at least we hoped). Last Wednesday I drove to see her thinking that just maybe she would be ok after pooping so much. Mira looked tired, and loss of weight. Even sedated Mira recognized me, I talked to her and said that she needs to pull through and I cussed at her out saying dam it horse dont leave me now. Thursday morning I received a phone call saying that the morning rotation found Mira passed away between the time of 4 and 6 AM. Just heart broken I left college early and went home.
Mira was my friend and companion. Even though I called her my Problem Child because of how spooky and jumpy she was, she was a good horse. She had emotional issues from someone or something that happened to her and was very leery of people, but she tried so hard to trust me and my nephews.
Today I pulled her blanket out of the back seat of my truck and fell to my knees praying to her saying that I was sorry for not trying something else to help her out, that I was sorry for all the pain that she had suffered during her short life time. I even said that I love her and will always love her, and for her to RUN FREE over the RAIN BOW BRIDGE and I would see her someday and for her to take care. By now youre wondering why Im sharing you this information. I wanted everyone to realize that in the 5 months that I have owned her, Mira finally learned what LOVE is. Please always remember that even if you adopt a horse, rescue a horse down the street that someone can not afford their horse because their husband lost his job, horse's like Mira are always going to be around and in todays horse market Miras around the US will end up at our feed lots waiting their turn to being shipped to Mexico or Canada because their miss understood. This is written in memory of my dear MISS UNDERSTOOD FRIEND QA TRAMIRA.

Youre Friend;

Sherri M.

January 29, 2010 ~ happy Friday

Got up this morning & it looked like it was going to be a really nice day. Then the rain started...and never left. Turned Daisy Mae & India out for a couple hours, but the two princesses don't like the rain, so they came back in. Kringle got some turnout time today also. Ruby is getting more friendly each day & even nickered tonight when she was impatient for her grain. I considered that a break thru. Dave called & said he has more horses on the lot, so I am hopefully going to get out there over the weekend. We picked up 40 bags of alfalfa pellets yesterday so hopefully we won't have to go get more anytime too soon..but with all the senior horses here right now we should be getting them at cost...which of course we don't. Thank you Cathy for bringing by the rope halters we always need them & they are much appreciated. Brody was home sick again today & terribly disappointed he didn't get to ride Bullseye even if it was raining. Got all my stalls cleaned & have a family coming out tomorrow to look at a couple of horses. So lets hope a few get adopted.

I am headed to bed, its late & I have a full day tomorrow.

P.S...
we havn't even begun yet Jimi, Joanne & Clot.

January 28, 2010 ~ Rhino

Someone was kind enough to send this to me, so others can easily understand what Rhino is. The sad part about Trolls is they know how to use Google, collette was a nurse at one point in her life. She chose ignorance because her hatred of SOS/ Me personally over shadows all common sense. She is also the puppet of another Troll who I will talk about tonight..

Also wanted to make sure it was understood that Ridge was vaccinated TWICE during his time here at SOS. He was halter broke & yes he did have Ringbone. He loved attention & recieved plenty of it from myself & numerous volunteers that frequent SOS.


Another disease in horses caused by herpes is Rhino-myeloencephalitis.
This is a debilitating and life threatening syndrome caused by EHV 1.
It causes neurological disease, which symptoms include:
un-coordination
tremors
paralysis
and dribbling of urine
This disease can present after an episode of the respiratory form, Rhinopneumonitis, which was
mentioned earlier. Additionally, EHV 1 can cause late term abortion or stillbirths in pregnant
mares, which can result from recent exposure to the virus or from re-activation of a virus which
was acquired months earlier.

It's sort of like shingles, in which the virus rears its ugly head out of the blue.

Hey Joanne troll number 2...Rhino is extremely contagious when it is external...like snotty nose, warts..ect...when it flares in a horses spinal column its not contagious and it caused him to have trouble getting up & down. Being vaccinated with a 5-way wouldn't help if it was already in his system before arriving at SOS.

January 27, 2010 ~ Sad & then just pathetic

I got up this morning & got my cup of coffee to lose in the barn while I feed. I first went to the arena & fed Ridge. He was up & greeted me at the fence for some attention & his breakfest. I filled his water bucket & gave him a few scratchs & went to finish feeding for the morning. After I finished feeding all the rest of the animals I headed to the house to make breakfest for my kids. Kyle came up to the house a couple hours later & told me that Ridge had died. I was shocked. It appeared as though he was walking across the arena & dropped dead. I called our vet again & he said a heart attack was most likely the cause. So it is with a very heavy heart I tell you all the Ridge crossed the rainbow bridge this morning.

If you are a person that thinks rescue is all unicorns & rainbows, I suggest you stop reading at this point. For the next couple blogs I will be talking about a couple of absolute trolls. The first is named Collette Bakken. The first of our featured trolls seems to think that posting misinformation regarding Ridge was a good way to help future SOS horses. So let me clear up a few of her mistakes, because I am sure that nobody would on purposely try to harm an organization that is trying to help horses.

Collette posted to a message board earlier today that reportedly " Ridge lost use of his hind quarters 2 days ago. " Yes Collette on monday I found Ridge down in his pen & I couldn't get him up by myself, so as I posted in the blog that day Kyle came back home & we got him up. Apparently you missed the part where I called the vet & spoke with him. Ridge wasn't in any pain, he could walk he just walked on his toes. I am confident if my vet thought something was life threatening he would of come right out, but it wasn't. Ridge was eating, drinking & in good spirits he just couldn't get up without assistance that first day. her next sentence "he was put out in a roping arena so he wouldn't hurt himself in attempts to get up" well Collette yes he was put in our arena that we do rope in, we also run barrels, poles, cut & practice 4H out in that same arena...so its not like you make it sound some remote area where he was left & ignored. The arena has the best footing in it, has big stadium lights so that we can use it at night & is big so his chances of getting himself cast on a panel somewhere were much less. her next statement "reportedly was not seen by a vet but condition was discussed with a vet & diagnosed without bloodwork done, he was found dead this am" Collette did it ever occur to you that with the number of times that my vet & I "discuss" horses is more often then most clients? SOS alone has 23 sponsor horses here, I see my vet on a weekly if not daily basis at times. He knows when I tell him something its accurate & not always is a farm call needed. I "discussed" Ridge with him MULTIPLE times in the last few days. IF we had pulled blood yesterday, Ridge would still be dead today those results would not of been back by this morning & our treatment would of been the same. DID you miss that he was getting Banamine to help reduce the swelling in his spine that was causing his muscles to not fuction normally? Or is that your just a troll who always looks for the very worst things in SOS & me? Did you miss the part where I got up continually the last 2 nights checking on him? Did you miss the part on our message board where I fed, watered & petted him just this morning & he had gotten up AGAIN on his own? Instead his body wasn't even cold yet & your spouting your poisoned opinion where it did nothing but literally kick a dead horse. I hope your proud of your pathetic self. Most trolls I guess went to some kind of manners class & would of at least got some facts & maybe waited few days before making his death sound like it was something sinister. Ridge was very much loved & will be missed here at SOS & to make it sound otherwise is just PATHETIC.

January 26, 2010 ~ progress..

I got up several time thru the night to check on Ridge, he was always happy to see me & bright eyed. He keeps looking at his rear as if to ask why won't it work?? He got up twice today all by himself & actually trotted down the arena...granted his current version of a trot is pretty sad...but he was trying. I noticed something within the last 24 hours of watching Ridge. He has a fan club. I moved him to our arena last night. When he lays down it takes ALOT for him to get up, multiple tries & usually some thrashing. So I moved him into our arena, the ground is great we have been roping each day & he has plenty of room to get up & down without gettting himself injured. On one side of our arena is our return alley & on the other side of that is one of the pastures my personal horses are in. Each time I went to see Ridge, one of my geldings was standing directly across the fence from him, it was like they were taking turns keeping him company. When Kyle & I went out this evening to get him up & make him move around a little they all came over to the fence as if to encourage him. He is in great spirits, very bright eyed & wants to get up. As the swelling in his spine goes down he SHOULD gain more mobility, I am hoping that he does, he is such a kind hearted & sweet soul.

Arielle left this morning for her new home in Okalahoma, the picture of is of her after she was loaded & getting ready to head out. I am exhausted from not sleeping last night & will be getting up a few more time tonight, so I am headed to bed early. I was supposed to take my daughter over to Roy tomorrow for 3 days of cutting practice, but I postponed our session until next week much to her disappointment. I am afraid to leave Ridge until he has some improvement. Headed to bed....hoping for an uneventful day tomorrow. Hey ... would seeing the sun be asking to much? I moved from the Willamette Valley for a reason....If I wanted rain I would still live there. :)

January 25, 2010 ~ scarey

Today was kind of a scarey day..or at least this evening was. I went out to feed & Ridge was down, like down & couldn't get up. Of course I was home alone except for Brody who I didn't want helping. Ridge was so sweet, I got his halter on him & tried to help him up but he just couldn't manuever his back legs. I got ahold of Kyle who was on his way to go hunting & got him turned around while I waited in the pen with Ridge. It was now dark & I was upset. Ridge is one of my favorites, he has been since the moment he stepped off the trailer with all the yearlings. I was pretty convinced he had broken his hip somehow. Kyle finally arrived & we went to work on Ridge. It took Kyle literally picking up his hind end to get him up. Once we did get him up he was walking on the tips of his hind legs...WHAT THE HELL???? I called my vet who calmed me down a little bit. He will be out tomorrow to draw some blood to confirm but he thinks its probably a virus of some kind that is effecting his spine. HE has had several horses over in pasco recently with the same issue. They have all come out of it & HOLY MOLY it scared me. I have to say if Ridge & I hadn't bonded before we damn sure did tonight. Heck I am crying again writing about this. So anyway..please keep Ridge in your thoughts & prayers he is happily eating &drinking...even whinnied at me when I went down a bit ago to check on him.

Brand inspector came out today & Ariel is set to leave tomorrow. The rest of the "crew" is doing good. Kringle worries me some...I have him in the barn & today I noticed that more of his food is on the ground than in his stomach...so I made it even souper today & we'll see if its all over the floor mats in the morning. He came off the feedlot very sick & thin..being sick didn't help his already very comprimised weight. He has a great attitude & is full of energy, but he really needs to SWALLOW his food...so also jingle for his new soup mix.

I am headed to bed..>I will be up all night checking on Ridge & I have a busy day tomorrow. So night & please keep him in your thoughts.

January 24, 2010 ~ brrrr

Woke up this morning & boy was it cold. I swear it feels like more snow..but the weather keeps saying just rain. I was cold all day, didn't seem to matter how high I turned up the heat or how many layers of clothes I wore. brrrrrr... The horses are all doing good. Were still going thru about 14 bags of pellets a week and 7-8 bags of equine senior. Luke will be here on thursday & we have several horses that are due to be trimmed again & I really think Daisy needs pads on the front since her abcess, she is really tender soled right now. Went to the Ranch & hauled a load of big bales to the house. I will have to go get another load of small bales sometime during this next week. Tom is coming out tomorrow to complete a brand inspection on Ariel & then tuesday she is off to her new home in oklahoma. Need to get some new riding photos of a couple of the sponsor horses for potential adopters, so lets hope for some better weather tomorrow.

I wanted to thank Erin for coming by today & dropping off some extra beet pulp that she had. It was great to see you & thank you again for the beet pulp.

The picture is of Lucky...He was about 3 days old when he came to us & has been here ever since...very much a part of the family. I just thought you all might want to see how much he has grown. He is a very LUCKY boy....and dearly loved.

January 22, 2010 ~ sheesh

time flies..Its 1:34 in the morning & I am still at my desk doing paperwork...where did my day go? I swear it seems like I was just in the barn looking for my coffee cup. No major issues today at SOS all the horses are happy & eating to there hearts content. I cleaned pens, wormed Kringle again, made a list of everything I need to get at the feedstore tomorrow, worked on our round pen since we had a horse try to crash thru it & bend 3 panals...we got it fixed...naughty horse. Daisy is feeling better, still a little sore, but we got her abcess popped in her foot & I got it packed with Iodine. Daisy Mae gave me the cold shoulder most of the day, she did not appreciate me trying to give her stall to Goodie last night. India...well India I need to get up to the vet & have her preg checked. She darn sure looks prego to me so need to get that on my list for next week. Ariel is leaving on tuesday & the brand inspector is coming out on monday, so all her paperwork will be in order. Angel is doing good since she came back, she is steadily putting on weight & hopefully we can start riding her again in a month or so. Thank you to Bonnie for taking the time to send some blankets down with Kurt...they are already in use & much appreiciated. No calves at the ranch yet...Brody is very excited..he names every one of them & can tell you who they are 3 years later even after they have been out on lease. It amazes me the things he remembers. Bullseye did get a day off today, Brody was too busy giving directions on how the round pen should be put back together...don't you just love how much experience a 6 year old thinks they have...Actually Brody has been working hard helping outside filling water tanks, scooping some poop & packing feed buckets..he wants to earn stickers so he can fill the chart we made in my office. Once its filled I am taking him & a friend to Chuck E Cheese...little does Kyle know Brody already told me its him that he wants to invite... For those of you who are friends of mine on facebook...yes we will be having a farmville addicts meeting at my house soon...LOL

Time to put my head on my pillow...tomorrow is a longer day than today.

The picture is one that Emma took & sent me...of course with my best two helpers...Brody & Annie...they fight over who rides in my lap...Brody always wins as he should. Today for some odd Reason our other dog "Boots" decided he had to ride with me..I finally made him get off...2 dogs, one Brody & my fat butt were a little much for the poor tractor seat. Now someone tell me I don't have my hands full....

January 21, 2010 ~ Happy Horses

Today was another long day...Got up early, had my cup of coffee while feeding & watering in the barn..so that means I set it down multiple times & forget where I put it. Its sort of like "Where;s Waldo" except with my coffee cup..which is usually cold by the time I finally drink it. Got Brody & Kelli breakfest, then took Brody to school. The next 2 hours were fairly exciting for Kelli & I. She decided last night out of no where that she wanted to get her driving permit. I honestly didn't think by taking her this morning that she would be driving me home...but SHE IS DRIVING...considering she is 17 its about time. She just never had the desire...the look on her little brothers face when we picked him up at school & she was driving was priceless. Got home & fed them both lunch & went outside to turn out horses. WHAT A HAPPY BUNCH...India bucked & chased Brody's calf all over the place..she is usually so reserved it was great to watch. Got stalls cleaned & realized we were out of ABI pellets, so had the feedstore bring some more...we just had 20 bags delivered last thursday..so we ordered another 25 bags. We have a couple of horses that REALLY get there stalls wet each day. I will have to go get alfalfa pellets the 14 bags I bought last week will be gone after I feed in the morning. Ariel will be leaving on tuesday of next week for her long haul to oklahoma, she is going to a great home. She has her coggins ready but still waiting on a brand inspection. Little Ruby who came back over the weekend is doing better, she isn't painting my stall walls green anymore. She is getting friendlier each day..she really doesnt' have a choice since she can't see over the stall door..so her only real source of entertainment is me...When I was bringing horses back in the barn tonight I noticed they were all meeting me at the gate...they are such creatures of habit. We rode Rose the last couple of days & she is doing GREAT...what a nice mare to ride. Although her foster mom told me she is definately an alfa mare & can't be put in with too many horses. Cricket is doing great, she is Bullseye roomie for a few weeks & follows the old guy everywhere..

Have fence to build tomorrow, hopefully a brand inspector to meet, feedlot horses to pick up, a coggins to pick up, alfalfa pellets to buy, equine senior & some more beet pulp. Were anxiously waiting for some of our cows to start calving, thank goodness we have Kyle who checks them all the time, I wouldn't have a clue what to look for. I am just hoping none chase me out of the pasture this year. Its going to be a busy day...I hope nothing throws a wrench in my schedule.

Off to bed & ready to read another chapter of "Hank the Cowdog" to Brody...its a chapter where hank falls in love with a coyote..I am sure Brody will Love it.

picture is of Emma with Tanner & Cloudy in the pasture on monday. They are both so friendly.

January 20, 2010 ~ long long day

Got up early to feed, water & check on everyone. Got breakfest made for Brody & Kelli. Couldn't take Brody to school today because the only time we could pick up hay was right at noon. I am supposed to pick Brody up at noon, so big conflict & he had to miss school today. It took WAAY longer getting the hay loaded than we thought, which put us late to meet Westcoast Hauling...Kurt brought Good Time & Gidget back today & was picking up Jackson, RCA Singer & Scout. So were down one horse. After Kurt left (bless his heart, he is such a great hauler) we got busy getting the hay unloaded & moved where it needed to go. Somewhere in the middle of all that I managed to get Brody Lunch & get Bullseye saddled so he could ride while we distributed all the hay. Thank goodness it was a day that Emma could stay late. She helped me get horses caught & some pictures. She watered everyone in the barn & then had what looked to be a great time chasing cows with the boys in the arena on Pokey. I got the stalls cleaned, finished feeding & finally made it back into the house well after dark. While feeding I realized that we only had 2 of the 14 bags of pellets we bought last friday...so were averaging 2 bags per day of pellets & 1 1/2 of equine senior. We have alot of horse that eat a pelleted feed because of missing teeth. I hope tomorrow is not quite so busy, I really need to get our taxes done since my appointment with our tax guy is in a few days. Wish me luck I need it more than most of you realize.

Pictured is Heath, he was gelded a couple of months ago & is still in need of a home.
headed to bed to read another couple of chapters of "Hank the cowdog" to Brody.

January 19, 2010 ~ first truck of the new year

Sigh.....it has been a long day. It started early this morning about 6:30 am getting horses fed & getting Miss Noelle ready for her trip to her home today. She arrived safe & sound & sounds like they love her already. We made it thru the first truck of the year with no horses getting on. So that is a HUGE relief. Its been a busy couple of months around here with all the sponsor horses. We had dental done on all of them & our efforts are really beginning to show, they are all gaining & looking so much better than when they arrived. Seems like we went for a couple months with every horse coming off the lot with Strangles...YUCK... I am hoping we don't have any this time. Our sponsor horses are all available for adoption to approved homes, remember when submitting your application for adoption to get PICTURES SUBMITTED....without photos we won't even begin to process. We still have several that were used in kids camps this last summer. I hope that the new year finds everyone happy & healthy.

October 30, 2009 ~ complete

I finally got to pick up Heath today. He was gelded earlier in the week & had to stay at the clinic for a few days since he had surgery. When I got there this afternoon, he was happy to see me & eagerly hopped in the trailer. Once home he was turned out in a small grass pen with Lucky. The 2 of them have had a great time tryinig to determine who is the "stud" of the group...little do they know its my minature horse Fluffer. Anyway, mostly wanted to let everyone know that Heath is a gelding & his surgery was expensive but successful. He is recovering GREAT.

We have quite a few horses we are sponsoring right now, so we were busy hauling hay today, also my shoer was out today. WE FINALLY GOT TANNER TRIMMED...he was a complete turd about it, but we got it done. I think he just likes to test all new people. Once he bonds with someone he is great to do things with, but otherwise he is the joker of the group. Split Pants also got her feet trimmed AGAIN...GEEZE were they in terrible shape. Both Jazzy & Split pants had on shoes that should of fallen off months ago, whoever nailed them on damn sure made it so they would last. Split Pants was a dream to trim & other than she cribs so much its hard to get any weight on her is a sweet mare to be around. Jazzy is gaining weight like crazy & looks better each day.

Rodeo is back & looks OUTSTANDING, he is sharing a big run with Bullseye. Bullseye is very jealous if Brody even looks Rodeo's way, much less tries to pet him. Its honestly really funny to watch.

Its late, I'm tired both kids are sick & I hear Brody watching CARS in the background. Sick kids have no concept of time..LOL

and since I don't have any other pictures to post tonight & I am still steaming over the comment in the guest book, here's another OLD HORSE PICTURE...

October 29, 2009 ~ Oh Really?

I found this message in our guest book today & felt like we needed to respond.

From: costworld@juno.com
Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Subject: Not a rescue

The animals you place are not lost or abandoned, the horse are at the end of their lives and should be put down. Placing very senior animals with families who then have to take on the expense, emotional and financial to put the animals to sleep. Shame on you! A rescue should never allow a family to take on animals that are at the very end of their life and then make that family go through the stress of putting the animal to sleep!

October 28, 2009 ~ Lucky or not?

Some of you might remember Lucky, the orphan foal from 2008, well he is now officially a gelding, much to his dismay. Doc came out a week ago & Lucky was on his short list to become a gelding. He has had some swelling, more so than the others that were gelded at the same time, but Doc came out today & said all is good. Heath also became a gelding this week, I should be able to pick him up on friday as long as there are no complications. We have been busy around here trying to prepare for winter. Looks like were going into winter with about 16 sponsor horses.

I also wanted to let everyone know that we did recieve some recent pictures of Slack, so we are not at this time still looking for him. Thank you to everyone that responded.


Have a busy day tomorrow, so I am off to bed.

June 26, 2009 ~ Summer Fun with SOS!!!‏

SOS would like to invite you all to a day of horsey fun this Saturday (6/27/09). We are having a fundraising event to meet everyones needs. There will be a garage sale, a tack sale, a BBQ and a competitive grooming contest of the sponsor horses. Come on down and meet the people and horses of SOS!

I would also like to let everyone know we have 3 horses on the feedlot that we are fundraising for, they are scheduled to ship on Saturday.

I hope to see some of you on saturday for our "spa day" for the sponsor horses. If your needing directions please email me for them.

June 2, 2009 ~ Have you seen Slack???

Has anyone seen this horse recently? We homed him last year to someone that we thought was a good adopter. We were obviously wrong. After finding 2 other horses she was gift contracted on craigslist this year alone we feel nothing short of betrayed. Slack is a nice older gelding that was severly underweight when he was taken to the feedlot, I had that horse at my house for months, knew his previous owners & alot of history. I jumped thru alot of hoops to see that old rope horse have a retirement home & I am extremely concerned she has sold him also. She sold Scarlette & now we found out Coby. THANK GOD Coby was PURCHASED...yes I can't believe she was given the horse to be a companion to Slack & she sold him as a riding horse. If anyone has seen Slack in the last month, or if by chance he was on CL and you bought him. I would really like to see some pictures of him & know that he is safe. I have contacted A/C in the area that he was last known to be & hopefully they are going to go to her house & check on him for SOS.

This picture of him was taken about 3 days before he left my house. I am not sure what condition he is currently in & am very very concerned.

June 1, 2009 ~ The overlooked win big

Its been a long weekend & my blog this evening will be far from kind...BUT since I just got an exciting phone call & even BETTER pictures....I wanted to share some really great things FIRST.

Remember back in March? When on the 21st I wrote about Bullseye & Brody? Asking how many of our sponsor horses were being overlooked? Then on March 24th I wrote about Abby? Well Both Bullseye & Abby had amazing weekends. Abby & her adopter have been competing in a local playday series...GUESS WHAT they won the ALL AROUND TITLE...and Abby's adopter won her very first buckle EVER on Abby...I am so excited for them both. Abby has a great home, doing what she loves & a young girl giving her all the love a horse could want. I would say Abby is definately a success story.

Brody & Bullseye had there first jr. rodeo this weekend in prosser. Bullseye isn't probably ever going to be the fastest peewee horse..but by golly he does everything Brody asks him to do. Brody & Bullseye placed 2nd in goat tail untying. Brody even ran poles on Bullseye & never once was I worried or concern about Brody as he rode all over the rodeo grounds. I knew Bullseye would take great care of him. I swear that old horse brings me to tears more than anything else.

Sierra...I am so excited & Happy for you & Abby..I know this is just he beginning of many more buckles for you both.

May 28, 2009 ~ more calls

Woke up this morning early so I could get the brand inspection done on Tula before she left (nothing like almost forgetting & praying that Tom will able to work me in) got it done, drove to the coffee stand & got myself a blended chia tea...I love those & rarely treat myself to things like that...It was just that kind of a morning. Got back home, fed, got Tula loaded & on her way then my phone started ringing...and ringing and ringing...as I type this my voicemail box is full...I was on my phone it seemed like all day today...while I changed irrigation, saddled horses, fed, cleaned pen & even when I was driving the tractor. I am in awe of how many people have horses they want to "donate" to SOS. I wish we had the room, the funds the manpower to help everyone...we simply at this time don't. To be honest I am not sure what opened the floodgates today & where my phone number is listed as the "girl to call" but its a little overwhelming. I am not sure what I am supposed to do? I can't take them all in...anyone have any ideas? Should SOS Maybe look into a program to help people with there unwanted horses...help with the cost to put them down? What??? What can we do to help? I know that me taking them isn't the answer if I don't want to burn out by next week, but there has to be a solution somewhere out there...I would love to hear some ideas.

On a happier note, we are successfully finding homes for alot of our sponsor horses. I have had a couple of offers from people that are local for some of our SOS older horses to be turned out in pasture for the summer...I am thinking that is a great place for them to be, since we haven't had alot of interest in them.

Brody is still bringing in Beasley & Bullseye every night, tucking them in & giving them all the attention one little boy possibly can. Tonight I overheard him telling Mrs. Beasley that she was going to have to be brave while Bullseye was with us this weekend at Brodys first jr. Rodeo of the year, that Bullseye will be back gone just one night. I was dying as quietly as I could in the feedroom listening to him...to be 5 years old & have my biggest worry be if Mrs. Beasley would miss her buddy Bullseye..

Ok, my eyes are so heavy I think they would snap toothpicks, so I am headed to bed. Hubby just got home from a dinner meeting & is wondering if I am ever NOT on my computer or attached to my phone.

May 27, 2009 ~ Adoption gone right

Woke up this morning to a beautiful blue sky & and 70 degree's outside. Got everything fed, watered & ready for the day. Tonto left with his adopter this morning & Topper left last night. Both of them went to GREAT homes, I look forward to wonderful updates. We still have ALOT of sponsor horses needing homes, mostly the yearlings (who are actually 2 now)..they are nearing a one year anniversary with us.
I do have a happy ending I would like to share with you. Anyone remember Patsy? she was an sos horse last summer, she was adopted by a family for there 6 year old daughtger. Well she joined my 4H group this year, we had our first riding meeting & Jaelynn brought Patsy...I couldn't stop smiling, Patsy couldn't of taken any better care of her young rider. The difference between Jaelynn's riding last summer to tonight was amazing. Patsy has been the perfect first horse. I forgot to get a picture of them together, so I wil get one in 2 weeks when they come to ride again. I love it when everything works out like it is supposed to.

SOS took back 4 horses that were homed to a wonderful lady in California. 2 of the horses were actually SOS horses originally & 2 of the horses were from CBER. I had at one point done the QT on them all. The lady in California reconized that she needed help & asked for it. I was so anxious to get home from state finals so Brody & I could see Mrs. Beasley. In her couple of months she spent here with us, Brody fell in love with her & she him. He would sit for hours on the fence of her pen telling her stories. The old mare would always wander over to where he was perched & listen. She was one of the first horses I cried about when she left. I got out of my truck & headed straight for where I had told Kyle to put them when they arrived...I WAS STUNNED....THEY ALL LOOKED ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL....I can't even begin to tell you what a great job she did with this group of horses. She took the worst of the worst & he rehab job is AMAZING. As soon as I said "Mrs Beasley" she perked up her head, I was so happy to see her. What surprised me was who was standing at the fence near her...BULLSEYE...I had completely forgotten that they were in pens next to each other & both spent an amazing amount of time with Brody last summer. Brody was in heaven..he caught Beasley led her to a stall he had bedded in sawdust & then caught Bullseye & put him next to her. His two favorite horses in the whole world are here & he couldn't be happier. Tonight when we went out to catch them & bring them both in for the night, he asked me is Mrs. Beasley was ever leaving again...I told him No, she would live out the remainder of her days with us...what surprised me was his reply..."WELL THEN WE NEED TO GET OUR BRAND ON HER SO NOBODY TRIES TO STEAL HER FROM US...SHE IS PRETTY & SOMEONE MIGHT TRY" I couldn't help but giggle...in Brodys own way he had given Mrs. Beasley the biggest compliment he could.

May 11, 2009 ~ The Name Game

We have 3 new horses on the feedlot. I was unable to go out there today because of some horses needing my attention here at the house. Kyle went out & got pictures so we can at least get them up & named. So anyone wanting to help name them needs to send in the name. I am cutting off the name game at noon tomorrow. I am going to go back out to the feedlot tomorrow to get more information. It was a crazy monday & the rest of the week is looking to be just as busy. Were actually home this weekend, so hopefully we can get some of our sponsor horses homes. The cut off for the new horses is thursday night.

We are also taking back 4 horses that were homed in californina. We are trying to help raise the funds for there transport. The total expense is $900 we have 1/2 raised already. Anyone wanting to help us get them transported back to SOS can donate using this link. http://www.soshorses.org/DEF-Horse.asp?hoID=118 she is one of the horses coming back & all donations will be applied to the transport for them all.

We are also fundraising for Heath, he only has one testical so his gelding is going to be alot more than expected. We are raising $600 to cover all the costs. Here is the link if you would like to help him become a gelding. http://www.soshorses.org/DEF-Horse.asp?hoID=163

May 6, 2009 ~ Sponsor horses

We still have over 20 sponsor horses. Most of them are in a pasture we have rented in Prosser to try & keep the cost down, but its still slowly killing SOS. Our pasture rent is $200.00 per month & hay is costing us about $1500.00 per month. We don't have the donations to support them, each month I pay out of pocket mostly to feed them. I just can't keep doing this. SOS needs to support itself, not support itself with my savings account. Any idea's? I would love to hear them. I would love to get some volunteers to help process applications, help home our sponsor horses, write new ads & someone to make sure we have fund raising going on to feed the 20 horses that need daily support. Figuring $1700.00 per month isn't including wormer, trims or any vet needs...we need to not only be capable of caring for our sponsor horses but we need to have a slush fund for emergencies..which we currently don't have. If we could get our 20 sponsor horses into homes, it would really free up my time to work with a few of our younger horses or better yet...DO OUR 501c3 PAPERWORK... but I don't have any time to do much of anything, I constantly running to get hay, check on horses, haul a horse for someone to look at, going to the feedlot, picking up horses from the feedlot, cleaning pens, feeding, paperwork & arguing with the bank about holding checks when we need the funds asap..ect... not to mention I have a family & horses of my own.

What I am saying...is this. SOS needs everyone that wants to see it continue step up & help make it successful. Everyone can help, you can help place ads, bump up threads, fund raise, donate ect... there are a million ways to help us even without having money to donate. HOMES... homes for our sponsor horses are NEEDED. I hate asking for help, its my biggest downfall in many ways, but I am at my whits end. Its time to make it or break it...I am going to leave that up to each or you personally if we make it or we don't. I know I am personally everything I possibly can plus some.

April 30, 2009 ~ 36 hours

I am honestly just stunned. We have some of the nicest kids / beginner horses we have ever listed on the feedlot right now. Topper has a home to go to but needs funds, but donations have been very very little. 36 hours from now is our cut off. I was hoping to at least of had Topper safely here before I left for the weekend, but that isn't in the stars. I honestly don't know what to say. I hope this economy changes soon, its killing more horses than any of the slaughter houses. Squirt is showing all the signs of strangles, so we once again have sick horses coming off the feedlot, which makes Bleach my best friend. GUYS...we really need to get this group homes & off the feedlot.

April 27, 2009 ~ Fintucky?

Been a really long weekend & looks to be a longer week with 4 new horses listed late tonight & a truck cut off of friday morning. This group has 3 older been there done that geldings that anyone looking for a beginner horse should be taking a serious look at. Nice group of horses.

Reddy, Starlight, Castle & Squirt all are doing great, settled in nicely. Squirt has a bit of a cough, but it not too bad. They are all eating good & taking everything in stride. Thank you to everyone that helped find them homes & get them bailed last week. I hope this week is as successful. From what I was told today I can expect a truck to be coming once a week for the next couple months. So we aren't going to have alot of notice on any of the horses, I will get them up & listed as soon as I possilby can.

I have to say Topper is my favorite this round, he reminds me so much of Bullseye I almost bought him home with me tonight. Brody could have a matched set. I felt awful for Tonto is poor face was badly sunburnt last year & is still trying to heal up. I honestly think it effected his eye site on his left side, but you wouldn't know it by hanging out with him. Tonto is very very friendly & wants to be friends.

So many things going on around here, between being gone alot on the weekends and its only going to get worse. Thank goodness we have Kyle around to keep an eye on things, feed & water. Butterscotch was gift contracted last week & left for her new home today & I coudln't of been happier, she went to a great family. We still have ALOT of sponsor horses, were actually making some good progress on getting our numbers down, I hope we can keep it up.

If you have submitted an adoption application & havn't heard back from us, send me a quck email at tufnspendy@aol.com I will check to see where were at on it. Please Please Please make sure you have included your vet & farrier names & numbers we do call them to verify your a client of record. Also please submit your pictures, I don't expect it to look perfect, nobody is perfect. I just want to see it safe. I am far more concerned with safety than I am pretty. Making sure all the information is included makes our processing go much faster & the ones that come in complete get preference on horses. FYI.

In case anyone is wondering what the heck Fintucky means...well is kinda like Bentucky...you know tyler where you live...LOL....any how I did live in Fintucky about 5 years ago, but moved to kennewick (seriously 1.2 miles away) although today my yard really needed to be mowed & Bullseye really looked like a great lawnmower, so you guessed, I didn't have time to mow my yard, so I took the easy way out & put Bullseye in my front yard & closed the cyclone gate. I can't tell you how many people drove by ever so slowly...I had to get hay for the prosser horses, go the feedlot, get hay for the steers, work on applications..planned on worming everyone , but only got partially complete...I just didn't have time to ride my lawn mower around for an hour twiddling my thumbs...so yes..I had a fintucky moment. Thank you Bullseye...the most economical lawn mower I have.

The picture is of Sneakers puppies, they are getting so big & of course sooooo Very CUTE

April 19, 2009 ~ Horses ship wednesday

We have 4 new horses that are listed. Reddy, Castle, Starlight & Squirt are all scheduled to ship on wednesday this week. I stopped at the feedlot on my way home from the high school rodeo & just got them all onine. Castle really needs someone patient & kind. Castle really looks sad, sweat marks all over him, cinch sores that are open & he is trying so hard to make friends with anyone that will have him at the feedlot. Starliight is a really nice broke mare, she just has some speed. She's no plug. And squirt...well Dave is feeding first cutting alfalfa & it has caused this poor little arab to literally poop water...so I named him squirt. He is very friendly & gentle. I think he will make someone a great trail horse. I hope that we can get these horses homes, we don't have any room in our sponsor program so they have to have a home to go to in order to come off the feedlot. We can QT them if needed, but not sponsor.

I am exhausted & have a busy day scheduled tomorrow, gotta get all the stalls cleaned, get hay for here, get hay for the prosser horses, get equine senior, hopefully pick up a ton of pellets, collect Busy & rope in hermiston at 4pm. Not to mention I have 164 emails to go thru...sigh...I love & hate this time of year. Lets network & find some homes for this group of horses.

Starlight is the horse pictured with Kelli.

April 18, 2009 ~ No service

I am hoping I manage to have service long enough to get this wrote. I am at a high school rodeo with my kids, have no cell service & if the wind blows just right & the stars are in alignment I have very unfrequent internet on my laptop. High Tower left this last week to his new home, Brizoria also left for her new home yesterday. We have a new horse listed, he ships on wednesday & I have to have him pulled off of the feedlot by tuesday for him not to ship. Feedlot owner was going to 3 sales over weekend & all the horses will be shipping wednesday that don't get adopted. I am planning on driving from the high school rodeo directly to the feedlot so I can get any horses we list onine late tomorrow night. I know this is a short notice, but Its not up to me. I hope everyone forwards our website to friends & family you never know who might be looking for a horse. We can not take any new horses into our sponsor program. The sponsor program has not been able to support itself without the help of my checkbook every month, so no new horses can be pulled until we get our sponsor horses fully funded & numbers down. I hate that it has come to this, because horses like Bullseye would of shipped to slaughter without our sponsor program. WE NEED HOME OFFERS & HOMES...

I am headed to bed, its been a long dusty day...I actually got sunburnt on my arms. I have many funny stories about our trip this weekend..lets just say if it could go wrong it has... I will be back tomorrow night & have to list...so everyone be ready to place ads & hopefully get them homes to go into. We need all the help we can with only 2 days.

April 12, 2009 ~ Finally home

What a long week & weekend. So much has happened. I have some GREAT NEWS, we found JEB Kyle's dog, after I went out to see the reunion at the ranch, I got really really sick on tuesday night, I spent that much time in a bathroom since I was a teenage girl. I didn't have any room in my schedule to be sick. Wednesday (feeling & looking as bad as I felt) I went out to prosser to meet with some potential adopters for Sassy. I am so glad I drug myself out there, not only did SOS gift contract her to them, but there is a remote chance she will be used a movie or commerical in the future, since Sassy's adopters husband is a Hollywood horse trainer. They sent me a update once already saying that she is doing great & of course living up to her name. So thursday I was still fairly weak, so I didn't get much accomplished other than sleep. Friday poor Brody woke up at 3am puking his guts out, so I felt awful that I had managed to share being sick with him. We also left for Kelli's high school rodeo on friday night. Kelli so far has managed to NOT get sick, how I have no idea. My truck had the rear brake line ripped out of it when we were feeding the horses in prosser (how I have no idea) so my truck spent 2 days in the shop.

I am headed to mabton tomorrow afternoon to pick up more big bales for the prosser horses, they will cost us $330.00 they will last about 10 days if were lucky. I then need to stop at the feedlot & go thru horses. I am also taking Busy to hermiston tomorrow to collect him, we have a outside mare to AI. I am hoping to get done in time to put a few rides .on some of our sponsor horses. Also need to order another ton of alfalfa cubes or pellets this week. If anyone has any wormer they can donate to SOS it would be greatly appreciated, we are going to need to worm everyone again soon.

April 6, 2009 ~ Safe

What a roller coaster day. Woke up to the sun shining, first day back to school for Brody & a truck deadline. Got Brody off to school, horses feed & watered, had called the feedlot owner to let him know that Brizoria was paid for & it looked like Tula would be by the end of the day (looking like a great day so far) then the bomb dropped. If SOS was pulling Tula & Brizoria he was most likely shipping High Tower. Panic set in, I had been confident that he wouldn't ship because he was so thin. I emailed Debbie to let her know, since she is who does a huge portion of fundraising & updates most of the message boards to the status of the horses ( HUGE HELP TO US) then I started going thru emails, made several phone calls to people that thought he might be there old horse, he wasn't each time. Started going thru old applications trying to find someone looking for a horse like him, still nothing. I was starting to lose hope. Then it happened out of no where A HOME OFFER. It was hard, no time to pull him for them to see him, feedlot owner won't let people come to his place to look at horses, so they had to decide if they were willing to take the risk of adopting him site unseen except for a few pictures.. .They decided he was worth the gamble, then came time to raise funds, To everyone that helped by offering homes & by sending in donations THANKYOU...I went and picked up Tula & Brizoria, I was almost to the freeway when I got the phone call that all the funds were in, so we turned around (didn't want to tempt fate & have him ship) and picked up High Tower also, all three of them are tucked in for the night nickering to the horses in the pastures wondering where they are. There safe from the truck that is taking there friends in the morning. Truck is supposed to come about 4am (or so I'm told)..The really hard part of this is, while everyone is celebrating for the 3 horses saved, I'm usually really bummed. I unfortunately see the faces of the other horses, the horse that for one reason or another we didn't list. So I am thrilled that we made a huge difference in 3 lives, I know that the truck still comes in the morning for the faces of the others.

ON a completely different note...I am sitting here at my computer its 1am, my dogs started barking with that bark that something isn't right. I walked to my front door & the dogs are going nuts, so I grab my 5000 candle spotlight (I am a prepared nosey neighbor lady) and this guy dressed in black is walking up the road, very quickly as my spotlight hits him. He doesn't stop, just keeps walking. I notice he's carrying a small child, like 2 maybe, young enough its trying to still snuggle in on his chest. The child has on a tshirt no coat, no blanket to cover his arms & its cold outside. I asked him, if everything was ok, he replied YES still walking away. I asked if he needed a ride somewhere? NO, still walking away. Can I get you a blanket for the baby? No and kept walking. I for a second didn't know what to do. I closed my door looked at my phone for the time & called 911. DUDE what the heck are you doing walking around in the middle of the flipping night dressed in black carrying a small child? To say I completely freaked out is an understatement. Well the sherriff came & was spotlighting up our road when they found him in front of my driveway again, they stopped him & talked to him. He is a neighbor that lives across from me in a house that has numerous renters each year. The family currently there has been the best so far...well after he walked away I approached & talked to the sherrif, he said the guy decided that it was to far of a walk & turned around. They watched him walk back to his house & go inside. I for a second felt kinda bad I called the cops on my neighbor, but for hells sake if my husband is wandering around the street dressed in black carrying on of my kids at 1am....I would hope someone would call the sheriff. Sheriff no more than drove out of site & my dogs started barking again, this time I watched from the window without my spotlight, the man was alone walking up the street again. Neighbor guy if your reading this please let me know if I can give you a ride somewhere next time, if I see you walking up the road carrying your child again in the middle of the night I'm going to call the sheriff again. Am I the only one that thinks that is weird as can be?
nosey neighbor lady out.....

April 5, 2009 ~ updates

I have been so busy the last couple of days I havn't found time to sit down & write any updates, so here goes. Abby was adopted by the young girl that tried her last week, she left to her new home on Saturday. It looks like I might get to see alot of Abby, I think the young girl is going to be in my 4H group, so that would make TWO SOS horses in the group. As most of you know, we currently have 3 horses on the feedlot. I have been gone at a highschool rodeo all weekend & am sorting out all the emails & questions right now. Please be patient, my right hand Hillaire is usually a big help in answering alot of the emails (we share a email account, so we can get questions answered quickly) but her uncle passed away on friday & it has been very hard on her entire family. SO...I am trying to get them all answered & will hopefully be able to answer most of the questions right now. I don't know what time the truck is coming. I called Dave & have not heard back from him. I am GUESSING only GUESSING he is at a horse sale somewhere. If in fact the truck is first thing in the morning, I know we will lose Tula. He has the horses sorted out in pens as to when he plans on shipping them. Tula is scheduled to be on this truck. Depending on what size truck is coming will depend if Brizoria gets on. Hightower is somewhat lucky, since he is thin he most likely won't ship until the truck next week or even in 2 weeks. I hope that answers some of your questions.

The next big question is why are we not pulling any of the current horses on the feedlot into our sponsor program? Its because we have 20 horses currently being sponsored without any real sponsors. We have several people that donate each month, but not enough people. As of last week, SOS was about $2000 in debt to me. I just can't afford to continue to support more & more horses. So until we either have actual support for all the sponsor horses & some money in the bank for an emergency its just not responsible to continue putting more horses into the program. It makes me very sad because alot of really great horses would be dead if we hadn't pulled them. The one of course closest to my heart is my son's beloved Bullseye (posted about last week) so I really hope that we can get our sponsor program kinks worked out & going strong again. I think its needed.

third biggest question is if the horse has a home offer can we help? ABSOLUTELY, if the horse has a home to go to lets get it off the feedlot. I do have room, I just can't support anymore out of pocket. I do have room for QT, which would actually help to pay some of the bills the sponsor horses have right now.

Its been a long week & a terrible weekend for us personally here. Kyle a week ago owned 2 of the nicest border collie dogs anywhere. Kyle could do some amazing things with cows with his two trusted dogs. We bought 50 head of cows last week & after getting them all branded & vaccinated Kyle left for home & Jeb for a unknown reason jumped out of the truck. He was spotted by a neighbor with the cows in our feedlot ( cattle) Kyle went back up & he was gone. We haven't seen him since. We have knocked on more doors than I ever did selling girl scout cookies ( I was a high seller) put out ads & rode thru pastures. Still no Jeb. I was woke up this morning at about 7am to a very upset Kyle. Sneakers (the female pictured below) had been hit by a car & died. Kyle found her in the road with no skid marks, it didn't appear as though anyone ever tried to stop. How she got out of her kennel is unknown. She left behind 7 puppies, who luckily are eating soft dog food. Any of you that have been out to our place know very well that I think alot of Kyle & spoil him as rotten as I do my own 2 kids. Its awful when someone you care about is upset. I am going to take Brody & Bullseye out to the sage brush pasture tomorrow & search for Jeb. I hope we can at least find him. Sneakers, I will miss you everyday. I cried each time I walked into my feedroom & you weren't in there with me trying to help.

March 30, 2009 ~ Abby

We had a young lady come out tonight & ride Abby. She did great, her parents are going to bring her back again later in the week to ride her again before making any decisions, but she was such a good girl I think they will adopt her. We are currently raising funds to have Cloudy & Cricket transported to Western Washington to a private rescue. The rescue contacted me & offered to take 2 that were hard to place. Cricket & Cloudy have been here the longest & had little interest even though they are both nice young horses. I am very grateful to them for helping us out & adopting them. The trip is 14 hours long & 853 miles of driving, so $450 is a bargain price for hauling them. If anyone can help out with donations please paypal them to sosequines@gmail.com it would be greatly appreciated.

I need sleep, so I'm headed to bed. sorry for the short entry its been a long frustrating day.

March 29, 2009 ~ Windy

Woke up this morning to a beautiful day, sun shining, bird chirping, horses whinnying. Then we left & went to prosser...YUCK..the wind blew the entire time we were there. Kelli roped in the breakaway but missed both of her calves (not a big shocker considering the wind) and I decided againest spending any money entering the roping when the wind was blowing so hard. So I pulled my trailer around where we could watch from the comfort of my dinette & we had a great time.. I waved to poor Marnie who was announcing several times, pretty sure she didn't appreciate my humor much. Kyle roped good, his horse is pretty sore again, so I need to start him back on the Platinum performance product that has helped him so much in the past. It does amazing things for horses. For those of you that follow the Brody Bullseye story, they couldn't of been any cuter today at the roping together. Ol' Bullseye took excellent care of Brody in less than ideal conditions, my head horse was jumping sideways at every thing that blew by him, Bullseye just stood like the solid rock that he is & handled it all with ease. Brody proudly told more than one person all about "HIS" horse. One guy kept asking Brody how much he wanted for his horse, Brody kept telling him Bullseye wasn't for sale. Finally out of frustration with the man that wouldn't quit asking, Brody informed him " You don't have enought money to buy him" I couldn't decide if I should be horrified that Brody said that or proud that he loved Bullseye that much.

I am not sure what is in the air, but I had 3 phone calls today about horses. Each caller has horses they would like to see SOS take instead of having to call the Feedlot owner. I asked each person for there numbers & to please email all the infomation that they could. I am so torn, I don't want to see any horse go to the feedlot if we can intervene, but at the same time we can't support the ones we have without begging & pleading for funds or borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. I did offer to put up courtesty listings for the horses, but they were more interested in us taking them. So we will have to discuss this on our message board in the next couple of days. I worry so much about how many people can't keep horses for various reasons. Alot of them good people with good horses, just bad economy. When are those stimulas checks supposed to come anyway? that would probably help more than a few horses.

I was supposed to be getting up around 4am to head to Prinville oregon tomorrow to pick up another 50 head of roping steers, but I got lucky & am just sending Kyle with my truck. Which means I will be driving the BEAST all day tomorrow. No exhaust pipe, or at least if he has one it damn sure doesn't work..I can tell when Kyle is 5 minutes away from home because his truck is so loud, and of course I have a ton of running around to do all day..should be an adventure...LOL I just hope my truck comes home in one piece.

We have a couple of people coming out tomorrow to look at Abby & Fonzie, I am hoping at least one of them might find a home. When I was in prosser I looked at our group in the pasture, they seem to be getting along good. Cloudy for whatever reason thinks he is the King & constantly is making sure everyone is aware of his status, it cracks me up. They seem to love the big bales of Timothy. Rodeo looked like he was traveling better already, so the key to him might be constant turn out to keep his old joints loose. Its the beginning of spring break here, so hopefully we can get alot done with rehoming some of our sponsers. I will be going to the feedlot either late monday or tuesday (not driving the beast that far) I know he has quite a few new horses on the lot & is shipping later this week, so I need to get any we might list up on our site ASAP.

Apple is very unhappy with me today, she is missing her friend Rodeo alot. I hope she forgives me soon, I feel so bad when she gives me stink eye. If she will gain just a little more weight she can be turned out there also, but she just has to keep eating I am afraid without the 3quart bucket of senior everyday she might lose weight quickly. If anyone is in the Kennewick Area & has a pasture with green grass they would like mowed please let me know, I have several lawn eating experts available to assist you with your problem..LOL
Hope everyone has a great monday.

March 28, 2009 ~ Looking better

What a day...pouring down rain for most of the day. I moved Butterscotch, Rodeo, Sassy, Cloudy & Cowboy to the prosser pasture today. After we got them unloaded I unhooked & drove to mapton where I can buy quality big bales at a decent price. So I bought 4 1600 pound Timothy hay bales. We put 3 of them out in the pasture so nobody should be getting run off of any feed. The bales were $110 each which is a decent price, more than what we have been paying by a little but the quality of hay is much better. That leaves Apple, Angel, Fonzie, Fancy, Abby, Cricket & Nadine here at my house. I am back out in prosser tomorrow for a roping, so I will be able to see how everyone is getting along in the pasture. I am going to bring Admirals Impression home as soon as the weather gets a little better & I know we can put a few rides on her. I will try to remember to take my camera in the morning to post some pictures.

We have an adopter in Aberdeen willing to take two of our harder to place horses if we can get the transportation paid for, so anyone going that way thru Kennewick, please let us know, it would sure be great to see them get some more one on one attention. Or if your a hauler & can give me a quote on 2 horses please let me know the cost. We will need to raise the funds.

Kelli's puppy Annie seems to be back to her normal energetic self this evening, so I am guessing she just ate too much horse poop yesterday outside & had an upset tummy. Thank you to everyone that prayed & worried about her.

I am off to get a hot shower & go to bed, being out in the rain 1/2 the day has wore me out. Hope Kelli & I rope good tomorrow & if we don't at least we have fun, since that is why we do it anyway.

March 28, 2009 ~ Quick update

Annie is doing better this morning, she didn't puke at all thru the night. I can't seem to get her to drink so were watching that. I am headed out here soon to move some horses to Prosser & some back here. Will update again in the evening..thanks for all the emails of concern for Annie.

March 27, 2009 ~ Twila & Princess Gander

woke up this morning to clear skies and the wind blowing everything all over the place. The gal that was adopting Twila & Cloudy came to pick them up today. After meeting Cloudy it was decided he might be a little to much of a project for her, she didn't want Twila to be alone so we went & looked at Cricket. Cricket is fairly unsocial, she really doesn't want anything to do with people & with Twila being so friendly, it would be hard to spend time with a horse that doesn't care anyway. So we went & looked at princess Gander, she was a foal born here in October, one of the county horses had her. I was thrilled beyone belief that they wanted her, so Twila & Princess Gander went to there new home today together. Yippeee....and they went to a GREAT HOME.

Cloudy is going to go back to the pasture in prosser. I have to bring home all my horses from our hay field this next week, so our grass can grow. So I decided today that I am going to have to put more horses in our Prosser pasture. Rodeo was doing great when I kept him in a small turn out 24/7 but I can't do that full time, so I decided I am going to turn him out & see how he does. So tomorrow going to Prosser are Apple, Rodeo, Nadine, Sassy, Cowboy & possibly Fonzie ( not sure on him yet)..I do think I am going to bring Admirals Impression back along with Macy since both are broke to ride & have a better chance at finding a home quickly. So our hay bill at the pasture is going to go up ALOT. Lucky for us were not charged per horse on the pasture.

I do have some sad news, for those of you that have been to my place in the last year, you met our dog Red..the one that decided he lived here & never left...Red was always getting in trouble with the neighbors, killing cats, killing chickens, chasing cars ect...over time Red became part of my family, he quit being such a pain & became one of the group...heck I even started telling people he was ours..last year I would say ...thats not my dog..he just thinks he is..I tried to put Red in a Kennel he jumped out, I put a top on the kennel he chewed a hole in the cyclone fencing. If you tried to lead him he would freak out & drop to the ground & you literally had to drag him. I tried to give him away a couple of times, but the scene of trying to get him in a car always brought me to tears & I couldn't do it. Over time the abused dog quit being standoffish & greeted me at my truck, followed me everywhere & absolutely worked his way into my heart. I woke up this morning to no Red, I found him in the field across the road, a neighbor had shot him. I am not sure who did, but I am sure he was probably doing something he shouldn't of been. RIP Red...you finally had a home & people that loved you.

Now some of you remember the post I made awhile ago about Kelli's puppy Annie..I think I even have a picture of her on this blog somewhere..well she has become quite theoitlittle buddy to us all. Annie follows us everywhere outside & even jumps into Kelli's arms while she is riding her horses so she can ride with Kelli. She was outside with us all day today, tonight she puked, then dry heaved. She isn't herself at all, the usually VERY energetic puppy is Lazy & has very sad eyes. I called the emergency vet in town, they advised us to wait thru the night & see how she does. So far she hasn't puked again. I hope she is herself in the morning. I don't think I could handle Miss Annie having something bad happen. Please keep her in your thoughts tonight. I'll update tomorrow.

March 26, 2009 ~ Long Day

Its been a long day. Part of our house decided to not have power last night, so Kelli had no lights or anything in her room today. Our master bedroom had zero power, was real fun trying to find clothes in our walk in closet in the dark. I almost wet my pants laughing at my husband who wore his hunting light (straps to his head) into our closet this morning to find clothes to go to work in. We luckily have our power back today in that part of the house, I was amazed how one single power outlet could have a wire touching something it shouldn't & 1/2 our house goes dark. I went to prosser today & picked up Cloudy, he is hopefully leaving along with Twila to there new home tomorrow. Somehow we lost power to all of our automatic waters & heaters in the lower 1/2 of our place over the winter, so the electrician was out to give us an estimate on how much to fix all of that. Had some new lights installed down below where all of the SOS horses are, so I can actually see something in the dark now.

I turned Rodeo out today, when I took him out of his stall he could once again barely walk, I cleaned out his hoof, looked and felt for an abcess found nothing...so I once again am not sure what is going on with his front foot. Just when I thought we had him sound again. Apple loves her turnout time, she runs around our arena like its a racetrack & were all cheering for her to win the Kentucky Derby...It totally cracks me up each day. Of course she can't hardly walk around shortly after her arena race..but she continues to run even though it hurts.

I am tired & need to go to bed, I have a long day tomorrow with adopters coming & some friends coming over to rope at noon with Kelli & I, so I need to get alot of my chores done early. The prosser horses look much better, buying the more expensive big bales has helped them alot.

March 25, 2009 ~ blondes

Today was a great day for SOS horse Blonde. Blonde was adopted by a very sweet 4 year old lil blonde girl. I can hardly wait to see pictures of the two of them together. Blonde was picked up early afternoon. We are going to pick up Cloudy tomorrow in prosser so we can get his health cert before he leaves for his new home on friday, along with Twila. We are working on getting our numbers closer to a reasonable amount to care for each month. I think we are going to have to make some tough decisions in the next coule weeks. We have several older horses that just aren't sound enough for much more than companion pets. As we all know that is the hardest home to find for a horse.

I did confirm that we lost Sorrel to slaughter last week. RIP I am headed to the feedlot tomorrow mid morning to go thru the new horses. I know they won't have much time, since he has a truck already scheduled for mid week.

I have been working on our 501c3 paperwork (my head hurts) I know for most it is probably easy, but for me its almost overwhelming. I never know how to word things & darn sure don't want to make a mistake on anything that would cause us problems later. Its going slowly, but its going. Hopefully when high school rodeo starts next weekend & I have some time to myself with no chores or people coming in & out I can focus & get alot of it done.

I hope everyone is having as good of weather as we have had in the last couple of days. Managed to get all the stalls cleaned, hay hauled, cows fed at the ranch, mares checked on and somewhere in all of that I even managed a shower during daylight. Busy day tomorrow with picking up Cloudy & going thru new horses. Hoping to get a few new rides on some of our sponsered horses also. Don't forget about them...we have several nice horses that have NO INTEREST....

March 24, 2009 ~ Abby

Sheesh..it seems the weather just won't give us a break. I woke up this morning to wind & it stayed all day. At least the wind helps dry out things from the Rain. I have been trying to catch up on paperwork, my desktop computer went kaput, so I am struggling trying to retrieve information & use my laptop that I am not familiar with. I loaded a new photo program on my laptop, the one on my desktop was easy to use...well not my new one. It has seriously taken me most of this evening to successfully crop & label about 5 photos. We rode several of the sponser horses the last couple of days & Abby is one of them. Abby is easy to ride, has some energy I would guess she might have been used for some gaming, since she seems to perk up some in the arena versus when we rode her by the ditch bank. She needs a intermediate rider or at least a solid beginner. She is very light & responsive I think a beginner would give her cues without even realizing it & both Abby & her rider would be frustrated. She can be a little standoffish (is that even a word?) but once she gets to know you she is very sweet. Nicely put together mare, with many years of riding to come. I honestly can't believe she hasn't been swooped up by someone.
We also have a couple of horses listed in our courtesy listing area. All of the listed horses if placed thru our website will have 10% of there purchase price donated to SOS. If you are interested in any of them please let me know.

I am very excited for tomorrow...Blonde is being picked up by her new adopter, a very sweet 4 year old cowgirl. If the weather will be nice, I'll get some pictures for everyone. Cloudy & Twila are going to be leaving in the next couple of weeks to a great new adopter in Idaho. I am really happy to see some interest in our babies. I know there will be alot more of them being pulled off mom in the next several months, so we will be picking up orphans again.

We are currently trying to raise some funds for our sponser horses for equine senior, alfalfa cubes & Pellets, cool calories & of course Hay. We also are always in need of wormer, so if you see it on sale & want to buy an extra for a SOS horse email me & I will send you our address.

March 21, 2009 ~ how many are overlooked?

SOS currently has 23 sponsor horses yesterday we had 24 but I finally decided that one of them needed to become my sons horse. Damien who from here on out will be referred to as Bullseye has been here at The Lazy Spur since the beginning of July. When he got here, he had a slight limp in his front foot. Person after person came to look at horses, Bullseye with his sway back & slight limp was overlooked every time. Throughout the summer my son Brody (water boy) spent a lot of time with him. Whenever we were down feeding it was Brody's job to fill the water troughs. Bullseye always came to the fence to see Brody, often leaving his food to do so, over time the developed a friendship. Brody at the time was riding a mare I have owned for 12 years, he took her to all the jr. rodeos & she was awesome for him. Nellie is always turned out at the ranch each winter for a "vacation" as most of the horses we use all season long are. About November we were out roping, Brody of course wanted to ride & I had taken Nellie to the ranch. Kyle said "surely with all the horses here there is something Brody could ride?" Brody remembered his friend Bullseye, so I went & saddled him. We stayed with the two of them that first couple of times, but I have to say we didn't need to. Bullseye is one of the greatest horses a kid could ever wish to ride. Brody can push him over to the fence & climb on by himself, put a stool next to him & try to shimmy up on him, take the reins & try to toss them over his head (missing repeatedly) while Bullseye gently lowers his head further and further to the ground to help his young friend. Brody brings the steers up the alley by himself on Bullseye and one of the steers bumped Bullseye with his horns in the rear about 2 nights ago. Bullseye did absolutely nothing (ok well he bit the steer when it passed) he didn't jump or act surprised, he just kept about his business. Brody on the other hand was hysterical, just sure that steer had horned his beloved horse. It took Brody checking Bullseye from ears to rear for him to believe us that he had just been bumped. I love the smile on Brodys face when he see's Bullseye & the expression the old horse has when Brody walks in his pen to get him.

I sincerely type this with tears in my eyes as I think of how if we didn't hadn't decided to sponsor this great old horse he would of shipped. I can't believe someone discarded him at a sale & he was ever on a feedlot waiting to become someones dinner. I can't believe how lucky my son is that Bullseye was overlooked by so many people for so long & how lucky Bullseye is that he will forever be safe and hold a very special place in a young boys heart as his FIRST HORSE that wasn't a hand me down from mom or sis. I wonder if Bullseye will ever understand how thankful I am for a horse like him for my son to learn from & gain confidence. I also wonder if Ol' Bullseye has any idea how many Jr. rodeos are in his future or grateful kisses from mom..LOL

I wonder how many other horses we have sponsored that just need that special someone? How many treasures are being overlooked? I know we have quite a few project horses, but we also have some other wonderful older horses that could be great teachers. Please everyone give our sponsor horses a second look, there are some nice horses just waiting to be taught or to teach a new rider. As of right now SOS can't take on any new sponsor horses until we get our numbers down to about 5, so we have along ways to go.

March 18, 2009 ~ Sunny Day

Today I woke up to sunshine...its about time. THe rain, snow & wind left. It was almost 60 degree's outside, the horses were all feeling really good. It seemed like everytime I looked out a window or walked by a pen they were bucking & playing. It was great to see. Got all of our stalls cleaned today, alley way raked & hay hauled. I went to riverwood to buy some more Equine Senior, right now were feeding just over a bag of it each day. Anyone know a good place to buy Flax seed in bulk? I am paying almost $70 right now for a bag of it. Got a couple more applications approved & am hoping to hear back from several potential adopters. Fonzie looks like he may of found a wonderful home today. Fonzie will be going on a gift contract & I will let everyone know if it for sure happnes.

Tomorrow we are going to go thru and ride all of our sponser horses, take pictures & do new write ups on them. Of course that is if the weather remains nice. We also are going to try to get some new pictures of our foals from this last year. Twila & Cricket are both in need of homes, it won't be long before we will have more to bottle feed from the feedlots. I hope everyone is having as nice of weather as we did today.

March 17, 2009 ~ too long

WOW, I can't believe I managed to let 15 days go by without writing on the blog. The more time that goes by the harder it is to start again. So much has happened in the last 2 weeks. Rodeo is moving MUCH MUCH better, he still at times has a slight limp in his front foot. I am somewhat concerned about why his back end kept going out from under him. I am really hoping we can find him a retirement home. I have had several people interested in him, but when I really stop & ask myself " would I put Brody or Kelli on him"? the answer is NO, I would be afraid his problem would come back & he may fall with them. Rodeo & Apple have become best buddies, in a perfect world we could home them somewhere together. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, but I can still wish for the best.

Some of you already know that we had a accident here a couple of weeks ago that involved Ben. He was tied in a pen next to my barn, he pulled back & broke his tie, when he lunged forward he hit his head SQUARE on the side of my barn & literally dropped to the ground dead. Kelli, Kyle & I were all in the alley way & were just shocked. Brody was on the other side of the side he hit playing with the puppies. It scared the hell out of me & I always knew if a horse hit its head just right that could happen, but hadn't witnessed it that up close before. What was really freaky was we went to the rough stock rodeo on the 7th and one of the bucking horses ran straight out of the chute & into the wall where the grand stands are at the TRAC facility, did the exact same thing dropped dead. Kyle & I looked at each other like we were somehow bad luck even though I know thats not true. I was really glad Kelli had decided to stay home, it would of been too much for her. Since I brought Miss Kelli up, she is in London this week on vacation with my family. I never thought of myself as a worry wart or one of "those parents" well GUESS WHAT...I think I might be the leader of those parents..I have never worried so much in my life.

We are still trying to home all of our sponser horses & can't afford to allow any new ones until we get our numbers down to a reasonable number. I fell awful for the horse that is currently on the feedlot, he is the first horse we havn't raised funds for in months.

I hope everyone had a great St. Patricks day, I know many of my friends are at the rainbow in pendleton..I hope they had a great time & didn't drive.

March 2, 2009 ~ Paperwork

Woke up this morning to pouring down rain...YUCK...so I decided to work in my office most of the day. We had several people offer to volunteer to process applications & are busy working away on them. A couple of hints to anyone thinking of submitting one. Have all your phone numbers handy & be prepared to upload photos of where you would be keeping any horse you adopt from us.

I moved Ben today to a stall, he was just getting picked on to much by Blonde. Rodeo is still very sore, but the bute seems to be helping him some. I talked with the feedlot owner today & we have more horses on the lot, so I will be going to go thru them most likely wednesday afternoon. Still have no idea when we can expect a truck, but I'm guessing it will be next week sometime.

I have no idea what happened with my photo yesterday...so here is the photo of Rodeo looking down the alley trying to figure out what the noise was all about. Hope eveyrone is staying dry...its pouring buckets here..

March 1, 2009 ~ Happy March

Can't believe we are already in our 3 month of 2009. The wind finally died down here at my place, but the rain came back. Summer can't come soon enough for me. My poor horses can't figure out if they should be shedding or growing more winter coat. Most of our SOS horses are doing really good, Ben & Blonde are not showing any signs of getting sick & eating well. Blonde kinda likes to boss poor Ben around, so I"m hoping to move him out to his own pen soon. I hadn't planned on keeping any of the horses from the pasture in Prosser here after the Open House, but I felt like several of them weren't thriving out there & kept them back. They are all doing well, eating non stop & will hopefully put some weight back on. With them here it has made it a little harder for the horses coming right off the lot and we bought 2 horses at the hermiston sale, so they have been in QT also.
Sis is doing great & has alot of personality. I moved both Cowgirl & Nadine to single pens & they are both doing great. Nadine was a little miffed for a couple of days about not running with her buddies & refused to come to eat..but this morning, she had finally cleaned up all of her food. She also decided it was better to just settle down & make friends with her neighbor who is Cowgirl. Rodeo is not doing good. I turned him out into the arena over the weekend & I have no idea what for sure he did, but my best guess is he somehow popped his hip out when he was rolling. My chiropractor is trying to fit me in hopefully tomorrow, I would haul him to her but I honestly think he would go down in the trailer. His left hind leg just buckles under him with every step. I have him up in the barn, on bute. I have taken him down to the arena several times hoping he would maybe roll & pop it back in, but so far I'm not that lucky. The picture of him is of him tonight wondering what all the comotion a couple of stalls down was. Kyles border collie Sneakers finally had her puppies and he could hear them. It was really cute, so I snapped a picture.

I talked with the person that Scarlette was given to by her original adopter. She has all of our contact numbers & if she needs any help she will let me know. At this time Scarlette is doing good & once again making progress. I was very sad to hear that she had developed some issues after leaving us. AS soon as we get some new pictures I will get them up. Thank you to everyone that offered to help.

February 26, 2009 ~ Windy

Wow woke up this morning to some high winds, made feeding outside a challenge. I am happy that I have switched almost all of the horses to either pellets or cubes..Our hay would be feeding the neighbors horses instead of ours. The good thing about the wind is it will dry out my pens from our mini flood the other night. Although I need to go buy some goggles for when I clean pens this afternoon or my poor eyes will full of sawdust.

THANK YOU to everyone that emailed about volunteering. We need all the help we can get. We are adding one person at a time so things will be caught back up hopefully in no time. Anyone that has submitted an application & hasn't heard from us, be expecting a email or phone call in the next week about your application. It will make things go MUCH MUCH faster if everyone remembers to submit the photos & have all the phone numbers for vet, farrier & references. If there incomplete it goes to the bottom ot list until we get all the information. If you have a incomplete application in, just email me with the information & I will add it to the application for you.

We have 2 new horses on the feedlot, both are young. One has papers & would do well as a 4h or performance horse. She isn't going to be very big, but still a real sweetie. The other is still a stallion, Dave & I discussed back & forth is he was or wasn't, finally he hung on to him while the poor colt got groped & YUP he's a stud. He really didn't appreciate my cold hands but was a good boy & didn't kick me ( I would of kicked me).

Anyone wanting to help volunteer email me. Even if your far away networking is the key. The more we can network & find homes for horses the more horses we can help. I am hoping this year we will be able to help not only feedlot horses but community ones as well.

TO THE GAL THE CURRENTLY HAS SCARLETTE....I HAVE BEEN CALLING YOUR HOUSE DAILY WITH NO ANSWER OR MACHINE. WE ARE READY & WILLING TO COME GET HER OR HAVE HER PICKED UP. PLEASE EMAIL ME OR CALL ME

February 23, 2009 ~ WHEW

Its been a busy couple of days. We had our open house here on saturday & it was great to see many of our online volunteers. I was really surprised how many drove hours to attend. Nic & her husband drove from Estacada, Tash & Jackie drove from the Redmond Wa area. Kelly D drove from Walla Walla the city so nice they named it twice..LOL We had about 6 members of our message board that are local come & it was great to put a face to the names. I was shocked by how much was donated in tack for us to sell, we still have quite abit of it left. We raised $433.50 from the tack/barn sale. Glowing War was also adopted by Jennel & was even delivered to her that night.

Today was our cutoff for both Ben & Blonde, we managed to get both horses pulled from the feedlot. The picture is of them after they were unloaded in the pouring down rain ( I think mother nature forgot were not the willamette Valley). I will get better pictures of them tomorrow, but for now they are happily eating in pens.

I sure hope the rain stops for tomorrow, I have fence to build or bills to pay...YUCK to both jobs...I think I would rather build fence, so I'm hoping for sunshine. We have 2 new horses on the feedlot, I will have pictures & information up online tomorrow. Both are young & not started. I continue to recieve phone calls about taking horses, I have heard that hay prices are going to be going DOWN....When??? it can't be soon enough for most of us. Hope everyone had a great weekend. If anyone is intersted in volunteering, please email me at tufnspendy@aol.com we are desperate for some volunteers to process applications.

February 18, 2009 ~ new horses

I just listed 2 of the 4 new horses on the feedlot. The other 2 I need some more information on before I can put them up, but they are both young one papered filly & the other a 2 year old gelding. Both super friendly, but not started.

We have been busy around here getting ready for our open house on saturday, my body aches from working on the fence someone hit..I got the bright idea to move the fenceline, I'm completely wishing I hadn't thought of it right now. My phone hasn't been ringing quite as much, but that might be because I managed to drop it in my coffee the other day, so if anyone is trying to get ahold of me & I havn't returned your call..EMAIL ME, I am not getting all of my messages.

Hopefully we will get the fence all finished tomorrow & we can go get all the horses in prosser, so they are somewhat settled when everyone comes to see them, since right now I am pretty sure it would be easier to pet a coyote than them. I look forward to next week, when this open house is over..its exhausting worrying about all the details.

February 16, 2009 ~ Long weekend

Good news, Hermiston wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were actually very few horses going to the Kill buyers, ,most horses brought decent money & some sold really good. Sunday when the open horses went thru a buckskin gelding came thru that looked familliar it took us awhile to figure it out & then confirmed it with the rider that it was one of the county horses that had gone thru the Toppenish sale in Novemeber. He was a stud then & not started to anyones knowledge. He is now in one of my pens, gelded & has about 45 days on him. Lots & Lots of yearlings went thru the sale & on Sunday as I walked around there were so many flyers on grade mares advertising them as breeding prospects???? I was shocked..I shouldn't be, but I still was. It was hard not to ask them WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING???

We have new horses on the feedlot, a few of them are from the hermston sale. Were listing 3 of them, I don't know when he will have a truck coming but he has ALOT of horses on the lot right now.

The horses here are doing great. Butterscotch is such a kind & sweet mare, she loves attention. Twila continues to love attention while Cricket is very very shy still. Macy has been doing good, were going to try to get her rode before this weekend & the open house. Actually were going to try to get new assessements on all of the horses before this weekend. I sincerely hope we see alot of new faces at our open house. All the horses are tucked in for the night, fed, watered & hopefully starting wednesday I can start getting a few of them cleaned up for this weekend.

Oh & for those that wondered about my night out with my husband, we had a great time, laughed alot & actually he completely surprised me. This summer my purse was stolen, in my purse was some ear rings that my parents had given me for my 30th birthday. I was devestated when I realized they had been stolen also. Well the reason for our date, was he had exact replica's of the ear rings my parents had given me made. I am pretty sure when I had big tears in my eyes at dinner people either thought he was dumping me, proposing to me or someone had died..None of that was the case. He for the first time actually managed to pull off a surprise without me having any kind of clue.

February 13, 2009 ~ Friday the 13th

Feeling much better this morning than I was last night. Yesterday I hauled big bales to our pasture in Prosser for a portion of the sponsered horses. Kyle & I got all of the horses in prosser wormed. I am planning on hauling them all home probably wednesday of next week for the open house. We also hauled momma cow & calf back to the ranch, but this time baby got to ride in the trailer like a big boy. Raked up a bunch of hay where my haystack used to be & fed it to the roping steers here at the house. Miss Apple is feeling really good, she was full of herself this morning when I fed & anxious to play outside with her friends. She is still limping at times, so we havn't rode her. Lucky is loving being back ina box stall & fussed over everyday. He is such a fun lil guy. Brody still refers to him as his "Lil baby bucking horse" Luckys dam & sire both came from a long line of bucking horses, so we'll see how Mr. Lucky does when he gets older, as for right now, he is a complete pocket pony.

Hopefully everyone is doing good, I am always a little leary on friday the 13th, we lost one of our stallions a couple of years ago on a friday the 13th...so I always hate this day.

I am headed back outside, I have to finish tearing out some pens & weld new braces, just came in for a quck lunch. I probably won't write on my blog again until saturday night after the 1st portion of the horse sale. My husband is actually taking me out on a Date tonight..I think our last "date" was 2 years ago, so it should be fun. Brody is not happy that Mom & dad are going somewhere without him.

February 12, 2009 ~ forgive me

I am exhausted & going to bed early. It was a long day & I feel like I might be getting sick. I have no time to get sick. I will catch everyone up in the morning. Sorry

February 11, 2009 ~ more Snow!!!!!

I woke up this morning to more dang snow...thank goodness it melted off quickly, but my pens were just starting to dry out...grrrr. I didn't write in this blog yesterday so I figured I better catch everyone up. Tuesday I had Butterscotch preg checked & she is NOT pregnant, which is GREAT news. She is eating & as friendly of a mare as we have ever rescued. Lucky also saw the vet, he has a abcess that has drained & is doing good I just got worried when I didn't need to be. Also had Doc out to put down Cruiser, which we did. I gave him an apple & a big kiss. Cruiser had been here since July, I will miss him. I also made another tough decision regarding Able. Able has been here for a couple of months & has colic'd off & on the entire time. Able also chews thru boards as quickly as a chainsaw, I have never had a horse chew on wood as badly as he does, or suck wind if you have him in a pipe pen. Able colic'd on monday again, it was mentioned by a friend that he may have ulcers, so I talked that over with my vet. We don't have a scope & even if he has ulcers his teeth indicated that he has been a cribber most of his life. He has been losing weight, because he hardly eats he just sucks wind. We made the decision to put him down. I honestly don't think its fair to adopt a horse out to someoen that colic'd on almost a weekly basis, nor was it fair to Able to possibly colic during the night & suffer until he was found. It wasn't an easy decsion, but I do feel in my heart that it was the best one.

After the vet left we had to go to the ranch to feed & check on a calf that had been born in the morning, but momma wasn't letting her nurse. Well I'm starting to think Cows just hate me. Kyle & I finally got her in the trailer without any horses or chutes, and I lived to tell about it. Brody of course yelled from the truck everything he thought we were doing wrong...(oh sure, I would be an expert from the truck too) The calf had to ride in the truck with us, which Brody thought was great & for some reason seems to think that we will be on Country fried home videos because of it. We got mom tied off, & baby nursed. This morning when I went out mom & baby were happy as could be in one of my box stalls & calf was nursing on his own & she had decided to be a good momma. We will be taking them back to the ranch tomorrow.

So as I said before I woke up to snow...I used to love snow...I HATE snow at this moment. I got all of my morning chores done, Brody to school, Kelli to school & cleaned stalls. Collette came by today to take some pictures of Butterscotch & drop off tack for the open house & our tack sale. I always enjoy visiting with Collette & she was in town to buy Buck a new blanket he managed to break the straps on his old one. She said he is doing great & gaining weight like crazy. After Collette left, it was time to pick up Brody and head to hermiston to buy some supplies for the ranch. We got back & started to tear out the fence that was hit, torched some of the top rail down, scrubbed some water troughs, unloaded feed, moved horses around and started to feed when I remembered I had a 4H meeting tonight at my house...so I hurried up, got in the house, finished dinner before the meeting. I tihnk my 4H group is going to come help at the open house. After the meeting I went back outside & finished feeding my horses up top. I got in the house just in time to watch the second 1/2 of American Idot. I was shocked a couple of my favorites didn't make it & one of the most annoying young ladies did....But she does have a great voice. Well that should bring everyone up to speed on what has been going on the last two days.

I sincerely hope I wake up to sunshine & not SNOW tomorrow morning. I'm off ot bed..have alot more fence to tear out & get rebuilt thanks to people that can't drive in the snow.

February 9, 2009 ~ Butterscotch

Butterscotch has arrived, she is tucked in safe & sound for the night. I will get some pictures of her tomorrow in the daylight, it was dark by the time I got her here toinight. We had a beautiful day here & got alot of outside work done. Fed big bales out to all 3 of my pastures, got a pasture harrowed today, cleaned stalls, raked more walnuts out of my front yard, burned weeds & worked on a few adoption applications. I spent quite a bit of time watching Able, he coninues to crib day & night, he colic'd again this morning, he is doing better this evening but I wish we could figure out why this keeps happening. Doc is coming out again tomorrow morning, so we will try to get to the bottom of it.

Tomorrow we are reworking some of my pens down below, it should be an all day job. Since someone ran into the corner of my fenceline we'll have to do some welding as well as replace a several sections. Need to go to the ranch feed a couple of big bales, check the cows, check my mares & hopefully have time to go to Prosser & worm all the horses in our pasture there. I forgot to put all the wormer in my truck when I was there this weekend. I am planning on hauling them all back here for the Open house, so all of our sponser horses are in one spot for everyone to see.

This weekend is one of the big 2 day horse sales in Hermiston Oregon. Saturday is the catalog sale, all horses in saturdays sale are either registered Quarter horses or Paints. The Sunday sale is an open sale, pretty much a free for all for kill buyers. I usually go to the sale both days, I have purchased horses from the catalog & the open sale. I eagerly wait for my catalog before each sale. I was shocked when I opened mine for this weekend. There are only about a 150 horses in saturdays catalog sale, and rumor has it only about 70 so far coming for Sundays. So where are all of the horses? I expected this sale to be huge, with hay prices & the economy where they are horses are being sold or given away daily. I get probably 10 calls a day lately from people wanting to "donate" there horse to SOS. I am planning on going to the sale both days a few of my friends are going with me, hopefully I will manage to refrain from purchasing anything, my weakness is old broodmares, I always seem to bring them home & retire them out to our pasture. I am always shocked when I find them at the sale, Old mares, own daughters of legends, that have provided baby after baby & when they can't anymore, run them thru the sale for the canners to buy. It totally pisses me off...why not just put them down? There are alot worse things in life than being put down

February 6, 2009 ~ mad cow

Woke up this morning to FOG...thank goodness the further I drove away from home, the nicer the weather. Drove out to White Swan where Kyle had to get steers, I managed to NOT get chased by any crazed cows today. Had a nice drive to Selah where we delivered 10 head, then back to prosser where 12 were delivered. We stopped in Yakima at a hamburger place called Miners...WOW..they have the biggest hamburgers ever, I'm still stuffed & I ate 9 hours ago. After dropping off the remaining steers in Prosser, we went to the pasture where we have been keeping a portion of the Sponser horses. I of course forgot to take out the wormer, so I will have to go back early this next week so I can get that done. It took us about an hour to get them all caught & sorted off. I brought Cruiser & Angel home with me. Cruiser like I said is being put down on monday & Angel has a person wanting to come look at her this week. We stopped at the feedlot, saw Butterscotch, but were unable to haul her home. We will be picking her up early this week, hopefully tomorrow if I can get ahold of the feedlot owner. Looked like a lot of horses shipped this morning. A few that I was hoping to list this next week were still there, so I'll go back & see what they are as soon as I can get it arranged. I saw on my message board that Birdie foaled yesterday, what a cute foal & wonderful pictures.

It sounds like our open house is starting to come together, we will be open from 10am until 3pm. I plan on having all of the sponsered horses here, including the ones that we have had out in Prosser. I am hoping we can really generate some local involment & homes.

The 3 King County horses that were supposed to arrive last week, still havn't. Its starting to look like its because of some kind of drama. I really don't understand all the fighting between rescues?? There is of course more to the story, but until all the drama is done unfolding I will keep my mouth shut. They know who they are & they know what drama they have caused. Seriously did you think I wouldn't call the gal at the Charity office? She was very helpful & infomative.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday, I am hoping to spend part of it with my kids, the other part I will be cleaning stalls, since I didn't get any of them done today. With any luck I might even get to ride Busy & with alot of luck I might get to ride Jim & rope....

February 6, 2009 ~ horse shoes

Its a good thing I happen to keep all my old horse shoes. We had a glitch in our fundraising this week for Butterscotch the mare on the feedlot. I didn't realize that we had to be a registered charity along with a non profit corp in the state of washington to recieve or solicite donations. We were turned in on wednesday ( thru a real hitch in my day) I called the office & found out what we needed to do. We have sent all the paperwork in & it should be all complete in office by next week sometime. The PROBLEM is we can't ask for donations for the sponsered or for the feedlot horses. Lucky horse shoes saved Butterscotch. SOS can sell something, we just can't ask for donations...so for the last 2 days we have been selling used horse shoes $10 per shoe, the buyer must come pick up the horse shoe we don't offer shipping. Well we managed to sell enough of my horse shoe pile to get poor Butterscotch off the feedlot. I will be picking her up in the morning. She is sincerely, ONE LUCKY HORSE.

My sister has been visiting since last night, WOW were my kids excited to see her. They had a great time today shopping & playing. Teri of course had to see Lucky, since she saw him several times this summer. Lucky well he isn't going to be very big, but he has a HUGE HEART and manges to win over everyone that meets him.

Tomorrow, we are gathering cows & hauling out of the pasture they have been in, Hopefully no deranged cows will be chasing me, I don't think I could run that hard twice in one month. I am stopping & picking up Butterscotch on my way home. I am also going to stop at the yearling pasture to worm the horses that are there & most likely pick up Cruiser. Which means I will be having him put down on monday if I do. Crusier has been with us since the beginning of July, I have had special shoes put on him, they didn't help him much, I have had him adjusted 3 times by a Chiropractor, each time it helped him for a few days then the problem reoccured. We have talked about it several times on our message board & its time to put him to sleep. I wish there was more that we could do for him, his former owner (asshat, POS) sent me a rude email several months ago, telling me what a worhtless horse he was & how he was supposed to be "canned" because he kept falling for no reason. Well his falling isn't a new problem & I have tried everyway I can to help him, without breaking the bank. So we decided we did keep him from the slaughter house. I hate putting horses down...absolutely hate it., more than any other thing.

Ladybug hasn't foaled as of this post. I did go ahead & let Ladybug go back home, she loved living in Spokane with Joanne & her family, it was very obvious when she wouldn't even acknowledge her foal Cricket. They came & picked her up this afternoon. She all but jumped in the trailer. I will for the first time in a few days SLEEP all NIGHT wooohoooo.....Good night everyone.

February 4, 2009 ~ soon

Woke up this morning to frost everywhere, but at least the sun was shining. I want to say sorry about no blog post yesterday, I was behind all day. When I got in the house, I had two choices...go post on this blog, or help my son prepare for "Snack Day" which in the life of a 5 year old is HUGE.. you can see Brody won. I take so much time out for the horses as it is, that sometimes I have to just stop, remember that after they have all been fed, watered, doctored & stalls cleaned all the rest of it can wait until tomorrow. So sorry, but I can't let Brody down on such a big day, when it only comes once a month.

I am sure most of you are wondering about the mare from the sale at hermsiton, she did not come home with me. She was purchased for $160 by a man I didn't reconize. So hopefully she will have a great life & forever home. She was awful cute.

So back to today. Frost when I woke up, 4 cups of coffee & BRODY'S SNACK DAY..like I said its a big day for a young man. It means we not only bring snack, but either Kelli or I stay in class & help out for the morning & of course SHOW & TELL.. Kelli & I both went with Brody this morning & Miss Kelli even let Brody take the puppy Kyle got her for chirstmas as his show & tell. Brody had a great morning, heck we all did..and best of all "Annie" the puppy managed to not pee on the carpet. Whew....

We all got home & I went out to help Kyle with one of his outside horses for awhile. While I was helping him, I got to watching Ladybug, and by golly she is looking like she might actually foal in the next couple of days. She is waxed, starting to loosen in the back, the baby has moved down, walking around with her tail up & she is slightly off of her feed...So tomorrow morning will be a 3 cup of coffee day, since I will be up all night long watching my monitors, which usually means I go outside into the cold in my nightshirt at least 4 times, because the shadows on my cameras are so bad, I'm always positive a pile of turds is a new foal...so out I go..I swear everytime its been a pile of turds, but I felt better at least knowing for sure.

Looks like the open house is going to be here at my place on Febuary 21st.. A few of the things being discussed are a silent auction, tack sale, bake sale, pony/horse rides among many other things. If anyone has some ideas or lives locally & would like to come help out, please contact me at tufnspendy@aol.com

I'm off to bed,hopefully I will be telling you all about a new foal tomorrow....

February 2, 2009 ~ Sad Day

Blizzard was put to sleep this morning. We have been discussing Blizzard for the last couple of weeks. When I picked him up at the feedlot he was mounting a mare that was in heat & had been doing so for a couple of days. After he arrived, he was awful to be around, up until Blizzard, I had been bit by a horse three times in my life. 2 were from my very first pony & I was 4, one by a stallion I was handling & not paying attention. Blizzard thought I was his chew toy, some days he was very sweet, other days he was mean as hell. We had a blood test done to determine if he was a stallion, the results came back negative. After discussing on our board, we came to the conclusion he could very likely have cushings, his feet came in terrible condition, he had fat rolls everywhere, mood swings & long coat. The decision was made that it would be best to put him down. We did accomplish our goal of not lettting him be slaughtered. I have been moping around for a couple of days, knowing monday was the day, the appointment had already been made. I spent some time with him yesterday & he bit me. He actually nipped at me when I walking him over to where the vet was standing. Rest in Peace Blizzard, I wish we could of done more. So after putting Blizzard down, I went to the ranch to feed all the cows, my broodmares & yearlings. Well a cow that Kyle had bought on saturday was dead in the feedlot, he knew it was a risk when he bought her, but had been doctoring her every day. So far Monday wasn't looking to good. So back home, to unhook the trailer, pick up big bales & head to Prosser to feed the yearlings. A few of the horses need to come back to my place, but overall they look good. I am hoping that everyone is taking advantage of the Ivemctin sale at Dover...since it looks to me like the 11 horses we keep in the Prosser pasture need wormed.

Once again, I have phone calls regarding people wanting to get rid of horses. Today's had to do with a horse that was dumped in Umatilla, the lady that found her in her pasture called around trying to find out who's horse it was, but nobody came to claim her. She called the brand inspector, they had no missing horses. So the brand inspector called yesterday & said they would be picking the mare up to take to the cow sale on Tuesday. The same sale that Definate Appeal came out of. Well the gal that had the horse dumped at her house, happens to be the mom of one of my good friends, she called me asked if I could take the mare. I talked with the brand inspector today & they can't let SOS take her, they have to follow reguations & she must go to the sale tomorrow. So my choice....hope that Dave gets her, so SOS can try to find her a home? Or drive to hermsiton & bid on her myself & cut out the middle man? Well those of you that know me, know exactly where I'll be tomorrow...at a fricken cold cow sale, watching way more cows than I want to be sold..waiting for what will probably be the only horse to be sold. Kim went out to her moms today & said she is pretty healthy, I'm hoping that she isn't going to cost me a small fortune since I know JP will be there & if she is as fat as Kim said..I'll be bidding againest him not Dave. Think positive thoughts for her & email me any name ideas...I am getting ahead of myself already..LOL

Here are some pictures of our sponsered horses that are pastured in Prosser.

February 1, 2009 ~ Happy Birthday Dad

I hope you had a great birthday Dad, I wish I could of gone to birthday dinner with everyone. I think that is what I miss most about Oregon City, is my family. When I married Spur, we moved to Kennewick because his job is here. My mom, dad, brother & sister all live in the Oregon City area. So I wish I could of drove up to visit you.

I woke up this morning, to more messages on my phone, I don't know who it is on the east coast that likes to call my phone at 4am, but please just leave me a message. My phone is on silent that early in the morning. I am not sure where eveyone is getting my number, but it seems like everyone wanting to get rid of a horse is wanting me to come get them. Horses are being abandoned all over the place, people are waking up & finding a horse in there pasture. I think SOS is going to have to take a serious look at doing more than feedlot rescue. After going outside to feed this morning, I made breakfest for Kelli & her friends. Do you guys have any idea what teenage girls do in the middle of the night? Well let me tell you what they do here...I woke up about midnight, checked on Kelli & she wasn't in her room, I walked into the living room & still no Kelli. I'm starting to panic as I walk into my kitchen. My kitchen is lit up like a football stadium which means someone has the arena lights on, I looked out my window & those goofy girls were ROPING in the middle of the night. I just sat there & laughed, how can you be mad about your kid out practicing? So while they were eating the breakfest I made them this morning, I asked how practice was? They were shocked I knew which made it even more amusing to me. I got all my chores done early so I could watch the commercials during the Superbowl. WOW what a game, so many ups & downs...I was a nervous wreck. I always feel bad for the team that doesn't win, they put so much of there heart into playing & yet no matter how hard they try one has to lose. After the game I went outside fed, watered & said goodnight to all the horses. I'm headed to bed, have more things on my to do list than I do daylight.
Happy Birthday again Dad, I love you.

January 31, 2009 ~ When it rains it pours

Woke up this morning to another calf born at the ranch, I left my phone at the house..so when I got home I had about 10 messages. The first message was from my friend that was fostering Dusty the pony pictured yesterday. Dusty was down the vet had come out & Dusty had a stroke sometime durnig the night. Dusty was put down early this morning. I honestly feel like the poor pony had never in her life had it so good & simply decided it was the best time to go since she was already in heaven. Dusty was buried this afternoon. To my friend that picked her up, loved her, brushed her & showed her what how life could be great..THANK YOU.


After listening to about 1/2 of my messages I walked in my kitchen & saw my very special friends looking at Lucky thru the fence. I put on my boots & went to go visit with them. They both spend about 3 hours here, looking at all the horses, giving them all lots of love & treats...pretty sure my stud Busy will wonder why there aren't here tomorrow telling him how handsome he is & giving him treats. While they were here they helped out while I showed 2 horses to a potential adopter. They helped when Buck (now Chance) adopter came to get him. Then right before they were getting ready to leave they pulled there PT Cruiser up by the house & said "where do you want this" They had with them, 3 halters, 5 lead ropes, 1 foal blanket, 4 bags of senior feed, 1 gallon of red cell, 5 used halters & $200 cash. I thought it was christmas...Thank you both so much for all of the supplies for the horses & mostly for your friendship.

My two friends told me that another person had donated towards the sponser horses, when I got back in the house & turned my computer on all I could say was HOLY MOLY...another very dear friend had donated enough money to buy the sponser horses a 1/2 semi load of big bales. She recently lost her brother & donated the money for the sponser horses in his honor. Thank you so much. I hope that we can help to keep his memory alive, I know when I look at the sponser horses I will think of him daily.

2 years ago, none of the people that came out today to help me with the horses I even knew. I didn't know my friend that donated enough to purchase a 1/2 load of hay either. I am amazed at how many people I truly consider my friend, that I have met thru rescue. I think we not only help the horses, but each other.

On our way to the award banquet tonight, we stopped to feed the yearlings & some of the sponser horses in prosser. They all look great & growing like crazy. There are a total of 11 horses out there. Tomorrow is Superbowl, I will be watching mostly for the commercials since my favorite team The Cowboys havn't managed to make it to the Super bowl in this decade, my husband loves to make fun of me...but damn it..I'm loyal, one of these years they'll be back & when they do..it will be a long year for hubby..LOL

Tomorrow will be another busy day, I gotta get all my chores done before 3pm, so I can watch commercials (who would ever think that). It looks like we are still hoping to have the open house here the 21st of Febuary. Hope everyone has a great day & remember to hug your horses.

January 30, 2009 ~ Tired

My day began with the sun shining again, which I thought was a good sign, then my phone started ringing. A lady called me today, got my number from a trainer. She has to get rid of 2 horses asap & its either I take them or she has to call the killbuyer. I called her back as soon as I got the message, I don't know anymore details. I was then contacted by a friend & it looks like SOS is going to be taking 3 horses from King County, possibly 4, should be here this next week. The old pony from yesterday was picked up, she is safely in a foster home for a couple of days until I can go get her. Her name is Dusty, she is about 30 years old, her feet are in good shape & she has some spunk still so that is good news. I am sure some equine senior & platinum performance will have her looking like a movie star in no time. We have new horses on the feedlot, but we don't have enough people helping to support the ones we have sponsered already. I keep wishing we had a better name for sponsered, since they really are not, Unless you count me as the sponser & Iam tapped out. SOS is in desperate need of local people getting involved & supporting. We have Emma & Cassie who bless there hearts come out every week, they brush & love on all the horse here. I don't know what I would do without them, I honestly don't have time in my day to give every horse a good brushing, or pets. I feed, water & care for them all, I pet most of them & the needy ones like Apple & Buck get all my extra attention. We feed 1 bay of equine senior every day, 5 bags of cubes...I am giving up getting hay bought for anyone here at the house, its more cost effective to feed cubes, they don't waste any of it.

We have had the neighbors cow in our field at the ranch since about August, we rope it, put it back & within an hour its back. So finally the owner told me the next time we have it caught to just bring it to his house, he'll keep it there. So today Kyle goes out to the ranch, gets all the cows in the corrals with some hay, comes back to the house. We hook up the trailer & head out to load this Rebel Cow...well in the 1/2 hour we were gone she had jumped 2 fences & decided that Kyle & I were were human bowling pins & she was the bowling ball. For those of you that know me...your probably laughing so hard right now your family is looking strangly at you...I am a short chunky 40 year old woman, who doesn't run as fast as she used to...TODAY I could of set an olympic record...after I caught my breath, we decided it was best to go back to the house & get a horse to rope the damn cow with. Well we got the Rebel cow in the trailer, to the neighbors & I swear if that damn cow comes back I'm having a BBQ ...I think I lost 10 pounds today & havn't looked in the mirror but probably have grey hair now.

Buck is leaving tomorrow to his adoptive home, I will miss him banging his grain tub on the fence to let me know its empty, he is going to a great lady that already loves him dearly. I am excited for them both. I have a gal I used to give riding lessons coming out tomorrow afternoon to look at one of my personal horses that I am trying to sell, if she doesn't falll in love with him, I will of course show her all of the sponser horses. Tomorrow evening, were headed to an awards banquet for Kyle, he won a couple of year end awards at our local roping club. On our way to the banquet we are stopping in Prosser to drop off more hay for the yearlings & pay our pasture rent.

I hope the wind stops soon, it has already blown down 2 trees's along side our arena....

Its starting to sound like we might be having an open house here at my place the weekend after valentines day...I will let everyone know, when I hear the final plan. I am headed to bed, I am tired and can't seem to get warm, I 'm hoping I am not getting sick...I don't have the time...LOL

January 29, 2009 ~ 2 sunny days in a row

I was actually outside all day in a sweatshirt I hope that means Spring is getting closer. Like I mentioned yesterday Luke was scheduled to come out today. My farrier comes out every thursday. Buck was trimmed today & what a nice ol guy he was. He has some arthritis so he is pretty stiff in all 4 legs, but still stood like a rock for Luke. Macy well Macy was pretty good when we trimmed her, watchful of everything, but did good. Then I got the bright idea to worm her, then all hell broke loose, about a 1/2 hour later & 2 tubes of wormer we finally got the job done. ( poor Luke, always gets roped into helping me) Then Cowboy was trimmed again, & I thought I would worm him again since he is not gaining weight & I actually thiink he has lost alittle. Well I didn't think any horse could be worse than Macy..boy was I wrong. Both Luke & I got more wormer on us & in our mouths then the horse did I swear. So Sassy was on our schedule again today also, he feet were extremely long at the feedlot & Luke takes off a little at a time when there as bad as she was. I was fully expecting Sassy to be well Sassy, since she usually is. She must of watched all the comotion with Macy & Cowboy, and took pity on us. She stood perfectly & didn't even throw her head when I wormed her..just goes to show I can never predict anything when it comes to the SOS horses, they love to make me look dumb.

I have to say that "Apple" is one of the sweetest horses I have ever come across, I was hoping to ride her a little today to get an idea what kind of home we should be looking for. Apple loves her turn out time, she has started bucking & playing. When its time to come in, I just have to open the gate & she runs to her stall. If I havn't already put her equine senior in her bucket, she stands in the doorway looing at me then her empty bucket like I have commited some kind of crime. She was so sad when she arrived, I honestly didn' think she was going to survive. I would have to talk her into getting up, convince her to eat a little...well anyone that saw her 2 weeks ago wouldn't know it was the same horse. The only real sad thing, is today I noticed her slightly limping on her front left. I am not going to ride her, I think this mare has been raced enougth that we know she rides, and she has been bred enough, no more babies for Apple. She needs someone that really doesn't care about riding, they care about petting & loving on her, this mare deserves to be cherished I hope we can find someone that she can be " The Apple of there eye"

Yesterday I mentioned that I had rode my daughters barrel horse (which she asked me to do) well today, Miss Kelli was up & on her horse first thing. Either she thinks I'm a miracle worker or she decided that she didn't like taking advice on how to ride her own horse from MOM...I think its probably the later to the two. I did get a chance to ride Busy's 1/2 sister today Fannie & she is coming along really nice. I am hoping to either let Kelli start her on the barrels this next month, or I'm going to start tracking the lead sterr on her, so I can rope on her this next fall.

Well I hope that everyone is enjoying the blog, I am the queen on run on sentences & poor grammar so please don't expect that to change, my english teacher had hopes of that 20+ years ago...you see how well that has turned out for her. Hope that tomorrow is another sweatshirt day. I am moving cows in the morning, hauling hay home from the ranch, working the arena, cleaning stalls, pens & with any luck going to pick up a skinny pony I saw on craigs list in hood river...

January 29, 2009 ~ Pony

Well, as a person on our message board said, my heart is bigger than my wallet. I am having a really old & skinny pony picked up tomorrow, I will be going to get her over the weekend. If anyone can help donate towards her care & hauling it would be greatly appreciated. She is 25 years old & is pathetic looking. Hopefully we can post pictures tomorrow for everyone to see.

January 28, 2009 ~ My Wish came true

Well I woke up early this morning to blue sky, havn't seen blue in so long I almost forgot what life was like not Grey. I Spent most of my day outside, cleaning pens, raking up hay that had dropped here & there. Drove to the feedlot today, its hard going thru the horses, knowing what will happen to them if I don't list them. I am trying to really sort thru them first & not let my emotions decide who I list, instead common sense. The Paint mare from last week is still there, she was so awful when we rode her last week, I didn't list her, she tried to run me over & was overall not a nice mare. I knew that she had been running with a stallion (he came in with her) so I am fairly sure she is preggers, which of course sends my emotions into overdrive. The mare is so awful, I know that we can't safely place her, I am hopefully going to get her preg checked this week and go from there. There wasn't much at the feedlot that was dead broke, more projects which we are overwhelmed with right now. There was a little dun mare, we named her Butterscotch, she is sweet as she can be, she is either about to foal or she just had a baby weaned, she has milk but her bag isn't tight like a foal had been recently weaned. She rode ok, not great, but was very gentle. We will have her up online in the next day. Spent quite awhile talking with Dave, Mexico is back to taking horses, not really sure what the real story is, but for awhile no horses were being shipped to Mexico. Dave now ships to both Mexico & Canada, so we can expect a truck just about every other week if not more. Depressing...

I did take advantage of the nice weather this afternoon, I needed a pick me up after the feedlot. Came home & took out Busy (our stallion) I forget what its like to ride such a broke well mannered horse, I fully enjoyed riding him. I worked my daughters barrel horse a llittle bit, she really needs to free up, I'm thinking I am going to haul her up to the track & let her run, she needs to remember how..LOL

I am hoping I wake up tomorrow morning to another Blue Sky, I have Blizzard, Cowboy, Apple & Sassy on my list to ride tomorrow. Which means Brody will be riding Damien aka BullsEye (I"ll get some pics, there awrul cute.Luke will be out in the morning have a big list of horses for him to either shoe or trim, he should be here most of the day.

Dover Saddlery is having a sale on Ivermectin, the first 12 is $1.99 I ordered 12,but we need about 50 for the next couple of months. If anyone doesn't need more than a couple & woudln't mind donating the remaining to SOS we could sure use them. email me if you need our mailing address, but remember they will have to ship to you then you will have to send them to us or they will cost more that $1.99

Hope everyone wakes up to a beautiful day & spends it with someone or something that they love.

January 27, 2009 ~ Wishing for warm weather

I can't believe how cold it is here, my husband keeps telling me we live in the desert, where is the warm weather? Heck I would go for it to just be above freezing so I don't have to break water on 14 different troughs every morning & night. I can't remember what the floor of my tackroom looks like without it being covered in hoses & buckets defrosting. Can y you tell I'm ready for Spring?

Todays Rescue Updates
We brought Ladybug back to SOS so she could foal, she was on loan to a volunteer that had a orphan filly. Our Volunteer took Ladybug to the vet a couple of weeks ago & she is in foal, the vet thought she would foal sometime in the next month but I don't think so, she is big, but not looking like she is foaling anytime to soon. We are hoping to get enough funds to purchase a foaling cam that we can connect to marestare so everyone can watch Ladybug foal.

Definate Appeal is doing great, talking every morning & night when I come out to feed. We will try to get a very very short riding asessment on her this week if it warms up a little.
We got our blood test back on Blizzard yesterday, he is a geliding, so he has no more excuses for his stallion like behavior, he had his feet trimmed again last week they are looking much better, no more curling up. He moves around sound right now, I am pretty sure he has foundered at some point in his life.

We still have several of the yearlings up for adoption, please if you know a person with some experience that would like a project please have them fill out an adoption applicatoin, we are offering the group rescued this summer on gift contracts still, they are getting big & all of them will be ready to start in a few months.

Hope everyone is safe & warm...I am headed to get my 3rd cup of hot coco for the night & watch Kung Foo Panda with my son & then american Idol..

January 26, 2009 ~ January 26th 2009

brrrrrrrrrrrr...its cold . Had a very busy day, cleaning stalls, hauling hay, ordering pellets, breaking water on all the troughs, feeding the cows and best of all had to go pick up Macy from the feedlot. Once again an amazing group of people managed to gather enough donations to get her safely to SOS. Macy is safely tucked in and eating. Her feet are really long & in need of a trim, so thursday she will get moved to the top of the list. Miss Apple is doing great, she started eating & perking up as soon as I moved her up to the barn, she is such a sweet mare, I can't imagine anyone tossing her away at a cow sale.

November 30, 2008 ~ Happy to be home

I hope everyone had a safe & wonderful holiday, I went to visit family in Oregon City & had a great time. I miss the willamette valley. We are so lucky here at SOS to have such a wonderful group of friends, once again they came thru with donations to help get the current horses off of the feedlot. I will be picking them up in the morning.

November 25, 2008 ~ Sometimes in rescue you see things you wish you had not. This last week was that for me

I am the contract for my county, when they seize any livestock I am the one who transports & cares for them until a decision is made regarding their case. Benton County seized 25 horses this last July, that I have been taking care of. Their case finally went to court last Thursday. I was there when the judge ordered them all sent to a public auction. I spent all day on Friday hauling horses to Toppenish for their Saturday sale. The sale always has a few horses go thru but it is a farm type sale; mostly cows, sheep, goats, pigs and not many horses. So not really worth the time for a killbuyer to go to when only 4 or 5 horses may go thru. Well this last Saturday it seems there were several in attendance perhaps because of the publicity surrounding these horses. I knew that Dave would be there as he often is since its local for him & he also buys cows. I managed to bid on & bring home with me 5 of the horses that I had cared for in the last 3 months. I ran out of money and so was unable to purchase more, luckily there were a lot of people there and nearly all of the remaining horses went to private homes. The few that Chuck's kill buyer, Arnie, did manage to get were immediately resold right back to the defendant whom they were seized from originally.

October 28, 2008 ~ Lucky or not?

Some of you might remember Lucky, the orphan foal from 2008, well he is now officially a gelding, much to his dismay. Doc came out a week ago & Lucky was on his short list to become a gelding. He has had some swelling, more so than the others that were gelded at the same time, but Doc came out today & said all is good. Heath also became a gelding this week, I should be able to pick him up on friday as long as there are no complications. We have been busy around here trying to prepare for winter. Looks like were going into winter with about 16 sponsor horses.

Have a busy day tomorrow, so I am off to bed.