Alone Isn't Always a Bad Thing

Just a quick blurb to update everyone.

I have set a deadline for Ellie. She has to find a retirement home by January 31st, or I will have to euthanize. I can't continue feeding and cleaning and paying for her massive amounts of bedding etc. for months and months just to end up having to euthanize her(at a cost to me of $700) I am giving her every chance I can by emailing each and every rescue/sanctuary that I find to be reputable to see if they or someone they are aware of might have room to house a retired pony.

I am willing to help pay shipping, and even send her with feed etc, and pay for another trim if I need to. This mare really deserves a proper retirement, but I can't do it myself. I board and I can't afford to pay long term board on more than one horse. If I could find someone willing to pay for her board/feed/bedding, I'd totally be willing to keep her for however long but right now it is just about killing me to get out and take care of her every morning (buying feed, bedding, then heading to the barn, cleaning her stall, feeding, water bucket, soaking beet pulp, setting out PM feed, rebedding stall, hand walking and grooming) and then going take care of Tango, and then working until 8pm and getting home at 9 and starting all over again the next day. I've gotten sick a lot this year, and I have a sneaking suspicion that lack of sleep and cold air might be why.

That said, I really like Ellie and feel a real responsibility for her that I don't think anyone else could understand. She may be a grumpy old girl, but if I had my own place I'd keep her until she was gone in a heartbeat. SOMEONE must know of a place for her. If you do...tell me!

So on to the title of this blog. It snowed yesterday morning, then melted, then hailed, then froze, so it was COLD (20* plus windchill) this morning AND sunny. Made for a treacherous drive, but golly it was pretty. I took care of Miss Ellie this morning and I must have been the only one willing to drive all the way there...the only people around were the barn help! It was really peaceful, and beautiful....heres a quick cell pic I snapped: (that is the sun right next to Mt. Rainier so pretty!!)

Rainy Days

So today was my day off at work, and I had plenty to do! I got up early to go feed Ellie, then out to Maple Valley to care for a friend's 4 horses, 2 dogs, 3 cats, chickens, turtle and guinea pig. After that I made a run to Tango's barn and cleaned his stall, made some grain, and played with him a little. Then I went BACK to see Ellie, got her out, groomed her, hand walked her (inside of course, thanks to the rain!) Then I took her back inside, gave her a treat and re-blanketed her.

Got to have a nice chat with a boarder and her farrier today, and they were so nice and you could really tell how much they love horses. I got to tell them Ellie's story, and they agreed with me how unfair it is that a horse has to suffer due to the greed of humans. I marvel every time I see her pretty face greeting me in the morning how different her life could have been if just one person had stepped in and given her the surgery to remove her tumor. Or if she hadn't broken her pastern. She could have gone on to become a fabulous western or hunter horse, then had several very nicely bred and conformed foals for someone. Probably would have made back what was spent on her surgery and more.Of course, now it is too late. She is looking at one of two realities....a retirement with someone who has a big heart and a little extra money to spoil a very sweet little girl, or euthanization. The one thing I can say, is that either way, at least she will have closure once and for all. No more being rescued at the last minute out of a kill pen. No more living in muddy pastures with a herd of horses twice her size, stealing her feed. No more waiting so long to get her feet done she starts to look like an elf horse. At least for now she has someone who spends time with her every day, and someone who doesn't care if she can be ridden, or have foals. Someone who doesn't care if she's having "one of those days" and someone she knows will feed her every time she comes:)
Today I also wormed Ellie again. Last time I wormed her she was pretty weak and she didn't put up a resistance. This time she is fat and sassy, and only really put up a meager resistance. She sort of put her head up, but she realized very quickly that if she brought her head down, and took the wormer that she would get a treat:) Smart cookie, this one is! Another milestone...today she let me brush all four of her legs. I just kept the brush on her leg until she put it on the ground, and then I released the pressure on her by removing the brush. I'd brush again and she'd hold her foot up (remember, she never kicks, just picks legs up really fast) and then when she'd put it down, I'd remove the brush again. I was able to brush all four legs, brush off her hooves (she pees and poops so much (I take an entire wheelbarrow of waste from her stall daily) which causes her to get it caked on her feet) and also to pick out all four feet thoroughly and spray a bleach/water solution on her soles to help with the minor infection she has going on. She is great with sprays too. Really I've not found much wrong with her.

My favorite quote of the day was from the farrier, I said to them that I hoped that someone would want her because she is a really sweet horse, and the farrier said "Well yeah, she's a puppy dog!"

For fun, I wanted to show you a pic from Nov 14, Nov 16 and today Dec 23 to show you how much she has come along!:)

Nov 14:

Nov 16:

Dec 23:

Wind, Snow and Flooding Oh My!

I'm writing this post on both of my blogs, so if you read both, so sorry for the duplication!:)

I have been unable to update on both horses due to a myriad of circumstances, the least of which is the busy schedule I've had in this Holiday Season including Christmas Parties (a party each day of the weekend for the last three weekends), Pet Sits (it IS the time of year that people go visit family, or run away from it if thats your thing), and of course caring for my two ponies and my home.

In addition to all the normal goings-on that we endure during this beautiful time of year, is the lovely weather that little Ms La Nina has brought us...with today being the very first day of Winter, we've already experienced (in the last month) an ice/snow storm, a wind storm, record rains (which of course equals flooding) and another large wind storm (following the flooding, of course). All of these things have caused us all some amount of grief, mine being the influx of vehicles in our dealership to be fixed from all of the accidents.

First I'll chat about the snow/ice storm which happened just before Thanksgiving. We had something like 8 inches of snow in our area. It stuck around for about a week, melting, and freezing, and sleeting, then snowing, then melting and freezing again creating a giant mess of our roads, and ultimately our cars. The boyfriend and I made it through with no negative issues. It was cold, and icy, but my 2010 VW Jetta made it's way home safely the first day (amazingly avoiding all the huge issues just half an hour behind me!) and the rest of the time I convinced the boyfriend to run me back and forth between the barns, making sure I had enough feed and bedding for both horses, as well as to work and back. We flew out to Vegas for Thanksgiving, and when we came home it was dry and cloudy:) Photos below of my parent's road, and then a pic of a friend's backyard about 5 miles from my house.

Then we had a nice big wind storm. I woke up in the middle of the night to a HUGE gust of wind blowing sheets of rain, and hail into my window. We woke up in the morning to no power. Crazy night with very little sleep. Horses survived, thankfully!:)

A few weeks later we were subjected to Washington's favorite weather condition--rain! We had record amounts of rain (I can't remember how much, but something like 4" in a few hours in spots). It DUMPED. Every river on the West side was swollen and threatening to spill their banks...the Green and White Rivers (the two the we are sandwiched between) stayed within them, but the Stillaguamish and Snoqualmie overflowed. Like a lot. Photos below of the Green River, and then a couple from news channels about the Snoqualmie and Stillaguamish.

And last but not least we had our most fabulous wind storm. There is damage EVERYWHERE, including a beautiful historic barn that collapsed. The news was saying top wind gusts in Enumclaw (the next town over from us) was 74mph. A family friend, who lives just off the main Hwy in Enumclaw, has a home weather station that clocked one gust at 83mph...and she claims she saw it peak at 115mph during one particularly strong gust. Needless to say, I was worried about the horses. Power was out at both barns, but everyone was snug and calm. Gotta love nicely built barns!

Anyhow, thats what I have now. Tango and I went on a nice walk, and he is enjoying his new suite between the two arabians...I think they are exhausting him because he was SUPER good for his walk on Sunday! I'll update again soon!

Ellie's Slop

So I don't have much to write today, other than that I am exhausted due to lack of sleep. I went to bed at midnight last night after spending hours networking and attempting to place Ellie. I was then rudely awakened by the beating of hail, trees, rain and 60mph gusts against my bedroom window at 1am. Lighting and thunder and transformers blowing all around us. Somehow we didn't lose power (we always do)!

Soo...here is a quick video of Ellie eating her slop...nummy.

Rainy Days!

So it was nasty outside this weekend, but it was SURE warm! I didn't do a ton with Ellie, just groomed her and handwalked her inside since it was so wet. She did rear up on me while leading her this weekend, but a quick shank brought her right down, and she didn't seem upset before or afterward, so not sure what the trigger was there.

Otherwise she's been really nice to be around. She is still really touchy about her legs, and it makes me wonder if perhaps she was a victim of being trained to "dance". I've been working with her on it, and she seems ok when you actually pick them up...very eager to pick them up if you even act like you want them, but get anything else near them (brush, pitchfork etc) and she'll grab her foot up like you poked her.

She has gotten less reactive lately, I'm trying to gradually get her used to things touching her legs, the brushes have been the hardest, but she's getting better about the pitchfork being near them. She now lets me throw shavings at her legs without getting too riled up. She LOVES her slop and I'll hopefully post a video of her eating it here in a few days. In the meantime, here are a couple pics of her after I took her blanket off the other night--it was so warm!

Busy Bodies

That title was to reference three things in one.

First reference was that Ellie's body has been busy putting meat on her bones. She has gained somewhere around 25 lbs this week. I have been doubling the dose of probiotics for her because she had started getting diarrhea and as such, had not put on any weight for about a week and a half. I didn't like seeing her at a weigh gain plateau when she wasn't where I wanted her yet. At 20 years old I don't expect her to become a fat cow (and it's probably better for her legs that she doesn't) but to even out at a weight that is less than a 6 on the Henneke scale was not my cup of tea either. Seems the probiotics have done their magic...the weight is coming back on again and not so much loose manure. I still think I am going to attempt to add some pelletized grain to her diet and easy off on the beet pulp just in case all of the water is what is making her loose.

The next reference is to MY body. I am working my butt off...getting up early every morning to go feed hay, clean stalls, and mix Ellie's slop (which she slurps up very loudly btw). After that I try to hand walk her each day, and spend some time with her grooming etc. since she isn't getting turned out right now (some paddocks are closed due to the Winter rains). Then I go clean Tango's stall and play with him some, then strip off my sweats and fleece and boots to my work clothes underneath and go to work until 8PM, go home, make dinner, clean dishes, etc and then go to bed and do it all over again. It is REALLY draining, but it is one of those things that TOTALLY makes you feel accomplished once it's all done. Nothing like leaving your horse blanketed, in a clean, warm stall, with hay, grain and fresh water...makes you feel very useful:)

The last reference is to people who think they know your situation. Unless they are very close to you and know what you go through every day, they don't have a clue who you are, what you do and why you do it. I had a comment today after saying offhandedly that sure, Ellie may end up being euthanized at some point, but at least for now she is getting plenty of food, vet and farrier care and treats/attention and that she is happy. I got a reply that "How can she be happy if she's not getting turned out and just living in a stall. That doesn't seem very happy to me. I mean, do you even take her out and walk her?" Now the gal who said it doesn't know me, or my situation, and I'm sure had good intentions. She is familiar with Ellie's story, but I don't think she knows the whole thing. She does not however live at the barn 24/7. She does not know my schedule, and just because she doesn't see me each and every day out there riding (which I cannot do) or other such tasks, does not mean that I am not there caring for the mare. I spend as much or more time daily with Ellie than most people do with their boarded horses. I am there at LEAST once a day for AT LEAST an hour making sure she is comfortable, fed and happy. Anyone who knows me and has spent time with her and I can tell she likes me, appreciates what she is getting and is not unhappy in any way shape or form.

I know this sounds like I'm irritated, and I am to an extent but I also appreciate that at least she cares. I do want to say that if Ellie seemed depressed, uncomfortable or unhappy with her situation in any way, shape or form, she would not be standing in a stall right now. I don't believe in keeping a horse around just to assuage your guilt, or boost your ego. If she were uncomfortable due to her soundness, or not gaining weight, or pacing/weaving/stall kicking due to boredom I could absolutely see euthanizing her right away, but she is happy, and I have no doubts about that.

Anyhow, I just needed to get that off my chest. That said, I hope you enjoy the photos I've posted of Ellie taken today while I hand walked her and let her graze a bit (only a little, as the grass is still green and I didn't want to give her any excuse to bring back the diarrhea!) I'm hoping to have a farrier out again next week for another trim. She is growing hoof like crazy, and her frog is doing something funky while it has been growing out, and she is not walking evenly on her left fore...so we need to nip that in the bud before it becomes an issue:)

Ellie's Spa Day

So this Saturday I decided to bathe/clip Ellie and get some nice photos of her, that are a little more flattering;) Unfortunately Saturday dawned and the frost was so thick on the ground, and the wind so insistent that I decided that bathing wasn't the best idea. Soooo my good friend Coral and I went about clipping her face up, and washing her tail and legs.

Ellie has developed on again/off again diarrhea the last week and it was all over her butt/tail/rear legs, so she really needed a good thorough grooming. I got her all cleaned up and Coral (the talented photographer) pulled out her trusty camera and out into the bitter wind we went. Ellie was really well behaved out there in the open parking lot! Unfortunately all she wanted to do was look AWAY from the light at the turnouts where there were horses. She also wanted to be right in my pocket, so every time I stepped away to get out of the photo, she in turn stepped forward so it was nearly impossible to get her to stand in a flattering stance LOL. Poor Coral didn't have much to work with....just a scruffy, skinny, inattentive mare:) I think she did pretty darn well considering!


With the development of her diarrhea last week I started Ellie on probiotics, I'm giving them the week to make a difference. If I don't see an improvement in the consistency of her manure, and/or see her beginning to gain weight again, I will start tweaking her feed schedule. Hopefully she will find a good retirement home within the next couple of months, because she sure would love someone who can put every ounce of their love into her every single day!:)

Just a Quick Share

Just wanted to share a quick photo I snapped of Ellie turned out this morning...she seemed so happy! Also just wanted to share that she has been getting along great with the gelding she is turned out next to....so far I've seen no aggression issues!!