Water...

Water. Every living thing needs it. Daily.

In Nevada, there is a new committe of "wild horse experts". They are to oversee the feral horses in the state. All are "welfare ranchers".  These men get to graze their cattle on federal lands for a very small fee per cow/calf pair. One man is a former mustanger, the others are wildlife hunters.....bobcats, coyotes etc. The chairman, Mr. Stremler is a mountain lion bounty hunter. He gets $1800 per cat. WTH!!!  These are "experts"?  I think not. They feel wild horses have no legal right to the water in the state.  They want to remove the wild horses and burros for "illegally" drinking Nevada's water.  Another bogus group just trying to kill off the wild horses so they can make more money.  Round up all the wild horses and just give them to the scum killbuyers to send to Canada or Mexico for slaughter.

They also want "2-horse ranches". Now, this is plainly just stupid. If I own land, no one is going to tell me how many horses/burros I can have. As long as I feed them well and make sure they have enough water.  They also want only 1000 wild horses in the whole state. 

Give me a break. I guess some people never have enough of anything and always want more. No matter what they have to do to get it. 

The big wigs in Washington are lucky I'm not the richest woman in the country. I would be digging up all the "dirt" I could on all of them and I would use it to stop horse slaughter and the round ups of all the wild ones.  Blackmail you say?  Sure is. 

And, don't forget the young state senator in Nebraska who wants to build a slaughter house there for horses.  He's a buddy of Slaughterhouse Sue.  The whole slaughterhouse gang is making me sick. 

I hope I'm dead long before the last wild horse. 

FIRST SNOW

Well, we got our first snowfall last night. Not a big deal as you can see. But, it was enought that hubby decided to burn brush piles. So, he drives down to the front of our property in his truck. He can sit in the truck and watch the fire. He stays warm and keeps a close eye on the fire.  Now, anything that is different immediately gets attention from Sonny and Hawk as you can see.

Now, the donkeys were too excited about the fire. They were more insterested in the hay. We also kept Tessa, Sandy and Ace in the barn last night. Today, they are out in the pens munching on nice hay.

Ace is on the west side of the barn. We have doors on that side to shut when the north winds blow and they were closed last night. It was really nice in there with the doors shut.  I don't like to keep them in the barn unless the weather is going to be bad. Fire scares we so very much.  Charlie Daniels' barn burned yesterday. I have read that 11 horses and a bull were lost. This is heartbreaking. Thinking of animals dieing in a fire.  Tonight, the temps are forcasted to be very cold with wind chills below zero. So, once again the doors will be shut and the 3 old ones will be inside.  I think they enjoy being spoiled, lol. 

RIP Munition.

For those of you who don't know, Munition was an OTTB.  That stands for off-track TB, a race horse that wasn't very good at running races. His trainer cared about him and worked at finding him a good home.  The  trainer placed Munition with a woman whom he thought was a good match, even made her ride him at the trainer's for a month before taking him. A few days after getting the horse, she learns she can't afford him and either gave/sold the horse to a kill buyer. Whether she knew this man was scum remains to be proven. Anyway, 22 days after this took place, she asked for help finding the horse.  Many people tried to find Munition, including the former trainer who was understandably upset at what happened. A $2000 reward was offered.  Guess where Munition is now......floating around in some sewer, or what is left of him.  Yep, he was slaughtered.  Now, there are  EU regulations on what meds slaughter horses can have in their system and Munition had those that were not allowed. Someone lied on Munition's paperwork. So who ate poison horsemeat????  I hope they die a horrible death like Munition probably did.  As for the witch who sold/gave him away, I hope he haunts her the rest of her life. I hope she never, ever  has a good night's sleep again.

Rest In Peace Munition

 

The Little Donkey Who Can't/Won't Bray

This is my sweet, little donkey boy. He is adopted and I love him to pieces. He likes being held and loved on. He can raise his little brown nose for kisses. He is 1 1/2 years old. He squeaks, snorts, says hee hee heeeee, haaaaa haaaaa haaaaaa and the other evening he giggled!  He makes all kinds of sounds but never really brays.  I never know what is going to come out of that cute, little body.  He likes to take my sleeve in his mouth and tug on my arm for attention. He also likes to drag things around. We never know where the feed pan is going to end up.  We need to nail it down but I don't think that would help. He would figure out a way to drag it off. We find chunks of trees that he has brought up to the house. He will carry off the buckets if he gets a chance.  He just never brays.  But he sure is loved.

View from the porch

Wow, didn't realize that it has been a whole month since I've posted anything. Time is flying by that's for sure.  Gary had some biopsies done and they were negative, yippee! 

Ace continues to do well. He's almost at 1000 lbs now.  We are now officially feeding hay. Three bales at a time so far.  Gary put up some hay racks in the barn for when Tessa, Sandy and Ace have to have access to it.  Using 10 ft panels to make 10 x 10 pens instead of building stalls was a good thing to do here. The other horses have a big run in but for some reason, don't like to share with the 3 older ones so they get the barn. Of course Pokey and Lil Bit have their own pasture with a run in so they have shelter too.  Makes a lot more work for us when we have to clean the barn before feeding but that's ok, work is good for the soul.  These cooler mornings really get the horses to running and playing. Especially Star. She is the youngest at 4 and really can put on a show. Of course, I never have the camera ready.

We did get to ride a couple of times this Fall. First time in 3 years. Boy it was so much fun. Hawk and Sonny did so well, one would never have believed it had been 3 years since they had  a saddle on their backs. 

We are ready for the really cold stuff from Mother Nature. All the hay is here and the heaters are in the water tanks.  The horses are growing their furry coats.

This is going to be a hard winter for horses though. Many don't have adequate food or shelter. It breaks my heart that I can't help/save every one of them.  Please be watchful and if you see a horse in need, please, please try to help it.

Remember to be thankful for all your blessings.

Good and Bad news

This is Ace. A survivor of  the Winding Roads fiasco. First pic is in July, seond is a week ago. He's doing well thank you.

Next, I want you to read the following at Horse and Man. Don't just sit there, do something. This POS should not get away with this with nothing but a slap on the wrist.

http://horseandman.com/

Finally, not to leave a bad taste in your mouth after the last link, go here. There are men with a heart of gold.....

http://www.necn.com/10/15/10/Kan-man-determined-to-raise-funds-for-bl/landing_health.html?&blockID=3&apID=f61bca34663242a0872edc15ecb3eea3

The BLM reportedly shot a mare that was blind in one eye while Levi survived being almost totally blind.  Shows how stupid the BLM is now doesn't it.

Have a great weekend everyone and remember.....love your horses, they know if you do or not. They have feelings too.

Smart Little Donkeys

Yesterday, we had planned to leave early to go up to Rainbow Meadows to pick up some more Thrive for the older horses that live here.  Well, you know the saying....the best laid plans.....  We have divided the 6 donkeys into 2 herds which works better and keeps all of them from fighting. We have the bigger ones in the north pasture and the smaller ones in the south pasture. Cruiser, Belle and BJ are in the north pasture. At feeding time yesterday morning, these 3 were AWOL. This is very strange as they are always at the barn when it's time to eat. Gary took off on foot with a bucket that had a small amount of grain in it.  I got the rest of the equines fed and out of the barn, water tanks filled etc. All done.  Where is Gary with the 3 donkeys????????  I'm getting a little worried so I take off on foot up north. I meet Gary (without the donks or feed bucket) at the shop. He's getting the truck???? The donks were on the wrong side of the fence. Crap!!!!  So much for leaving early.  We take fencing materials in the truck with us and head north. We meet Cruiser about half way. He was heading to the house.  When we get to the fence, there is Belle on our side of the fence, running back and forth. Little BJ was still on the wrong side!  We had to cut the fence and let BJ come through. OK, fix the hole we made and start looking for the one that they got out of. Finally found it and the 3 top strands of barbed wire were broken. Now, before anyone screams over the words barbed wire, remember we live in Oklahoma. Perimeter fence is barbed wire. There are cows on the other side and that's the only thing that will keep cows out. We figured that several deer got spooked and just ran through the fence, yes they will do that. The north fence is very old and we will have to replace it soon.  My point to all this is...I think Cruiser was coming to the house for help. What makes me think this????  Gary left the feed bucket by the fence where we let BJ through. The feed wasn't touched. Getting BJ back in safely was more important to Cruiser than eating.  Now, if my tame donkeys are so attached to each other, how do the wild burros and donkeys feel when the BLM rounds them up and only lets one go free.  What in the hell is up with that!!!!  ONE???  The BLM is just plain stupid and money hungry in my book. The equines they have control over don't mean a damn thing to them.  Anyway, all donks are back where they belong and are safe. No harm done except to the fence and that can be fixed pretty darn easy.  BJ is the grey and white donkey in the photo above.