Sunday night

11:21pm PDT

Final tuck-in check and all the horses are fine, full tummies, fresh water and a lot of evening nuzzling..love those soft velvety noses against my cheek or in the palm of my hands..what a wonderful feeling to have soft whiskers brushing against your face, breathing in deeply the scent of these beautiful, yet delicate creatures who rely on us humans for their care and love.

We and you are here for them..Bless you for this and Good Night All!

Stephanie

Video of Hope and AJ

Here is a little snippet of Hope and AJ leading lessons this morning. AJ became a bit stressed over the whole ordeal so it was time to quit.

Sunday morning

Hope one month old today, AJ two weeks old, both are 11.1 hands tall according to the horse measuring tape... picture taken 6/29/08, 10:15am PDT

Here is Acey, 40 yrs old, sporting one of the new lovely fly masks that Brady and Ro purchased for some of the horses. Acey is blind and is doing quite well at her age.

Pictures from the football field

Friday morning

Some pictures from the other night...I call it dinner by bug light. Here are Rosie and Whiskey with Utah watching the herd.





Two of our dogs, Utah and Ginger, have recently had haircuts to help keep them comfortable during the summer. They aren't real thrilled about it!

Utah with her new 'do'


And Ginger

Stephanie

Wednesday evening

Good Evening All,

A great deal of work was done here at the ranch today. We are preparing for the 4th of July. Our preparation is not because we do anything special, it is because of the horses. Though fireworks are illegal in our county (except for professional doing a show at the park) some people do not get it. So all dried hay and such had to be cleared out and we begin wetting the grounds to avoid the potential of fire should a stray bottle rocket makes its way anywhere near the ranch. Additionally, we do not go anywhere as we remain here in order to ensure that we can keep the horses calm should the noises become to much for them.

AJ aka Forest Gump is doing so well. He is standing completely up off his fetlocks now and has beautiful straight legs. He has been nuzzling around in his mom's feed barrel since he was three days old and is now eating cube crumbles and the chafe. He loves it. His antics in the roundpen are a riot, to the point where he has my sides hurting from laughing. Gracefulness is not in his vocabulary that is for sure. This morning at 6am he came barreling back into his stall and he actually lost his footing on his hind legs and it was THUD. He laid there as Hope was watching and he decided to give the appearance that he was going to take another snooze. He is learning daily and is a very strong and healthy young fella. In the roundpen he will take the little ball with the rope through it, begin swinging it and bopping himself in the head, stops as if to think who did that?? It is quite comical to watch. We are working on teaching him to give his feet and he is a bit stubborn but he is slowly getting it.

Hope aka Le Petite Stinkbug, is a little gem. She really loves her people here. When she sees us she comes running up, she surely loves her scratches. She is eating very well, she loves to hear those cubes hitting the feed barrel as you can never call her late for breakfast or dinner. She will be getting her little feet done within the next couple of days, tiny little trim and a bit of rasping. We can pick up her feet with or without her being haltered she just stands there. When you go out to their stall she talks to you in the sweetest little whinny. She is a heart breaker.

These two little ones will make some very lucky person(s) wonderful horses in a "FOREVER" home.

Baby B and Spirit's play area was made even bigger today. Pretty soon they will be lounging on the patio with us, drinking their Perrier' and telling us of their day. They each spent an hour in the roundpen...sigh...doing nothing..LOL

We put the new fly masks that Ro & King Brady sent on several of the horses today. I will take pictures and post them They look very nice on them..thank you again Ro and Brady.

All of the horses are doing well, fly abatement is working and the fly population is very very low. In fact Rob made a comment that we have very few flies compared to some of his clients who only have one and two horses. Thank you LindaNV and LindaH for assisting in the demise of flies.

Casper and Dancer are doing great!! Robert saw them this past Sunday. He said they look great and of course very well cared for. They are both undergoing training, and before long Dancer will be ready to ride. Casper already had ten rides on him that we did here, but their new mom and dad are using the gentle method and they are responding well. I had explained that this was how we did it and they have followed suit.

Honey is doing well, I know I must get pictures of her for you. She is a sweet soul. She will live out the remainder of her life with us.

I have many pictures I want and need to take, but right now I have a full plate but it will get done.

Everyone have a nice evening!

Stephanie

[FYI YahooLive has been doing maintenance today which causes the picture to drop intermittenly. Hopefully that is all behind us now.]

Wednesday morning

Good Morning All,

Another beautiful morning in Nevada.

My dad has been in the hospital for a couple of days. Today, he will undergo a scan of his heart and lungs to double check everything. He was diagnoised with a severe case of bronchitis. The treatment that he has undergone has helped significantly. He is on his way to recovery and may get to come home in a day or two as long as tests come back clear.

The smoke haze from the So. Calif. fires can really be seen in the mornings and evenings across the mountains. We had a slight breeze yesterday afternoon which seem to blow more into the Pahrump Valley.

All of the horses are well, fly abatement is working, and will begin the first phase of Operation Barley Straw bags. Water barrels must be scrubbed once again to ensure total effectiveness of the bags. Thank you all once again it is appreciated tremendously.

AJ is really finding his legs as he is zipping around like a pro, I guess I should say lumbering along. He is fun to watch as well as Hope as they both have such interesting personalities..they are people babies. They equate people to scratches and loving.

Have a great day all.

Stephanie

Monday morning

Good Morning All,

It was a busy and hot weekend here in this desert paradise.

My friend Cathy was out for a visit and it was wonderful. She arrived Friday evening, and it was so comfortable outside, ahhh the calm before the storm. Storm of heat that is.

We fed Saturday morning and knew at the end of the feeding that the day was going to be an inferno...which it was. Water barrels were scrubbed, and eventually Cathy had to go indoors and get her body temp down. Everything got done, but we came back in and collasped. We sat and watched television for a bit.

All of the horses received attention and some extra when the sunset.

The babies are just too too cute, and this includes our bigger babies, Spirit and Baby B. All four of them are so very social when it comes to their human partners. Jerri has really come around since the birth of Hope, Joseph fed her by hand a hay cube, and she allowed him to scratch her under her forelock..amazing. (Cathy witnessed this) When Cathy placed Cloud in the round pen, of course he was curious as to what is that little guy (AJ) over there? Apple charged at him and said "Don't look at my baby!!!" Actually, quite comical as Cloud knew he was safe and never moved.

Despite the heat, chores and the chat issue (trolls/Varmints) it was a good weekend. I hope that everyone had a good one as well.

Have a wonderful day only suppose to be 103 today, (cold snap)...LOL

Stephanie

June Hay Ride

We have some very special items available this month.

One offer is a beautiful silver sterling brooch, created with the blessing of Gretchen Jackson, by the talented artist Jane Heart:

This is is part of the press release announcing this piece:

Jane Heart announces the introduction of her original, licensed jewelry designs of the charismatic race horse Barbaro. Through his valiant fight to recover from a broken leg and then laminitis, he touched our hearts with his courage and incredible spirit. In cooperation with Gretchen Jackson, Jane has adapted a favorite picture of Barbaro, looking out of his stall the morning of the Preakness, to an inspirational heart design. "Our powerful heart center is our guide in this world to help us on our path. It aligns us and helps us stay true to ourselves if we listen and follow its messages. As we know, Barbaro had an incredible amount of heart and was destined for greatness with his speed and love of racing. This design, whether we wear it or just look at it, will be an inspirational reminder of the great heart of Barbaro and give us hope and courage."

This sterling silver piece has a retail value of $210 and could be yours at a bargain price of one ticket for $15 and two tickets for $25. More details on our web hay page.

The second very special offering is the winner's choice of ONE of three signed Barbara Livingston framed 8x10 Barbaro photographs. We are delighted and very grateful to say that these signed photographs have been donated by Barbara Livingston herself, who is a fan of Miracle Horse Rescue. Thank you so much Ms. Livingston! More details on our web hay page.

This is the last full week for this hay ride. However, the number of tickets sold will determine whether or not this hay ride will continue into July.

Thank you for helping us feed the horses!

MHR's littlest cowgirl turns 1

Amelia's First B-Day....Mmmmmmmm......Yummmmmmmm

Apple and AJ, Thursday night

Part 2

CB and Leaguer

Here are CB and Leaguer two of the eight OTTB's at MHR. Here they are sporting their new fly masks given to them by sponsor mommy Susanandcats.
Thank You Susan very much!

Thursday morning

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Well, our little Hope is three weeks old today, and sharing this day with her is our granddaughter Amelia who is one year old..where has the time gone?? Of course our little man AJ is four days old. What a whirlwind year this has been, quite the journey I would say and we have got to share it with all of you.

All is well here. Today we are going to putter around doing our daily chores. We have been working on fly abatement the last two days and have been quite successful. Today, I am going to hang water bottles half full of water and a small piece of tin foil in the bottles in stalls as yet another experiment. A friend does this and it keeps the flies away as well, pretty much the same theory as the zip lock bags half filled as well. Will try just about anything to keep them pesky varmits from the horses, thus far what we are doing is working well..very few flies.

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to my friend and fellow FOB Cathy P. for contacting Mr. Stone who generously donated the signed print of "Legacy of Hope" it is beautiful. This will be for future fundraiser. Thank you Mr. Stone and thank you Cathy. You can see this print here.

The Barley Straw bags are working, I do recommend them for water tanks/barrels. You have to start with a clean barrel, but it does the job of keeping the slime out.

Please consider purchasing your tickets for the June Hay drive for the chance to win the Barbaro brooch valued at $210.00 which was donated by a wonderful FOB who prefers to remain nameless at this time. It is a beautiful piece.

Also, please remember we've started running a new live web cam. Here's a photo snapped from the camera last night:

Quite a difference! You can access the cam at Yahoo Live.

Well, must get ready to start the day. I hope each of you has a wonderful day!!

Stephanie

Exciting announcement!

This evening our wonderful UPS Guy, Brian, hand delivered to us

from

MR. FRED STONE

a signed print

of

"THE LEGACY OF HOPE"

along with a certificate of authenticity

for a future fundraiser!

It is absolutely beautiful, brought tears to my eyes

Thank you CathyP for making the contact and

Thank you Mr. Stone!

Announcement...New Live Camera!

We are trying something new. Please help us test our new camera and chat room:
http://live.yahoo.com/miraclehorserescue .

You're welcome to join the chat and meet new friends who love the MHR horses!

Stephanie

Pictures, Wednesday morning

Photo caption contest

This picture of AJ is priceless and one of our ABR readers suggested we enter it in an animal photo contest. My husband Rob then suggested the following:

MHR would like to conduct a contest of their own. We need a quote for this photo

The quote would be placed on a shirt and the winning quote/winner would win the T-shirt.

T-shirts would then be placed for sale to help all the horses at MHR.

Quotes will be judged by the MHR advisory board. Please send your suggestions to miraclehorserescue01@gmail.com

Deb thank you for the inspiration!

Tuesday morning

Good Morning to All,

I hope this finds each of you doing well. Yesterday was quite an eventful day and by the time the sun was setting over Shadow Mountain, I felt myself fading as well. When I finally laid my head on the pillow about 10:30pm, I actually had a smile on my face. It was a smile of joy and relief knowing that Hope and AJ were healthy, been seen by the vet, had their shots and their mamas were healthy as well. Life is good and what more can we ask for.

Despite the emotional roller coaster yesterday for all of us, you can all be proud of yourselves knowing that you are the reason the babies are here and that their mothers are safe never having to endure the PMU line ever again. When I spoke to a friend last night, I told her there should have been three. Though the birth of AJ is great, I felt a huge void. Looking at him this morning along with Hope renews the need to let others know of the cruelty these mares endure. Please help us send the message to others regarding the plight of these magnificent horses.

We have come a long way with Jerri, and I think today if this is as good as she can be with humans then that's okay, but I know it's not, because with each passing day and the more we handle Hope the more curious Jerri gets and the closer she comes on her own...so daily we are continuing to make progress. I must share a tidbit with you though, I was standing in with Hope giving her skirtches, I could hear Jerri coming up behind me, I did not move and continued loving on Hope..all of a sudden I could feel Jerri's breath against my head, she was sniffing my hair..I stood there and eventually I felt her nose move across my shoulder and to my upper arm...this was all done on her own..to me this is progress.

Apple is protective of AJ but within a few days she will calm down and I am sure she will revert back to herself...we have time. We are giving her the time she needs to love on her "Little Man." I must tell you my thoughts though..when I was watching him move around yesterday evening I giggled to myself, when asked what was funny I replied, I figured out what he reminds me of when he moves... a sloth. maybe I'm too tired to be thinking straight...LOL

I wish all of you a wonderful day. Enjoy the babies, they do not stay little for long.

Thank you all for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephanie

Good night from the ranch

Oy! , This First Day Has Been A Doozie!!

"OH FOR PETE'S SAKE, CAN'T A GIRL GET SOME SHUT EYE?"

Midafternoon, Monday

First, Dr. H. is very pleased with Jerri and Apple's conditions. He has stated that we are to feed Apple three times per day (she will get wheat hay at lunch time, plus beet pulp morning and night, which we informed him we were already doing). He stated that since we received them later in their pregnancy it would have been difficult to assess her weight, but his guess was that she was probably down when she was bred, but again that is his guess and only a guess. When the girls arrived here in January we asked his advice and recommendation for feeding them all.

The babies are in excellent health and both received their shots. (Apple and Jerri did not require shots because in January they had all their shots prior to entering US and are not due until January 09). Anyway, Hope was perfect and Jerri did not mind her being removed from the stall. She stood while she got her shots and never even flinched.

Apple was not happy about AJ being separated from her but she stood by the gate and watched as he was right there as well. He took his shots as well like a champ. As Hope is, AJ is just as strong. Goodness, his legs look like little tree trunks. When he finally comes up off his hocks like little Hope does he will be four inches taller.

So the end result of all my babbling is we have HEALTHY MAMAS AND HEALTHY BABIES!!!!!

Stephanie

Midday report

Okay Baby Born, all the horses have been fed, and 32 water barrels filled...Whewww LOL is it bed time yet?????

It is truly a beautiful day isn't it? It has been wonderful being able to share with you the joys of these births with each and everyone of you, my pleasure.

Okay, as you can see AJ has his fly mask on, he has been sprayed with a natural fly spray already, we know he LUBS his skirtches, contacted my 5 yr old granddaughter and told her Apple (whom she picked to rescue after viewing photos) had a baby this morning, which not to my surprise proclaimed that he was her horse. She will have the opportunity to meet him on the 22nd of July.

He has already had his first real big adventure this morning, while I was feeding and doing water barrels, he decided that he needed to go from point A to point B. So he did, he tromped straight through he and his mom's water barrel without even blinking an eye, I could not believe this. He then went and laid down for a snooze.

I am going to go out right now and give them access to the round pen but I will get more photos and all in a bit.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!

Stephanie

Ta Daaa!

AJ and his new fly mask!

Good skirtches!

Part 2 of birth video

Video of birth

This is one part, I cannot tell you what you will hear, I am working on another part, I have no clue what I was taking, my hands were shaking.

Stephanie

More...

All is well, Aj is snoozing. He LUBS SKIRTCHES. I had the opportunity to lub all over him this morning, what a joy..sigh

I am so happy that we have been able to share this journey with all of you.

Stephanie

AJ

More AJ pictures

It's a boy!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please help me welcome Apple Jack aka AJ into the world!!!

What a Grand Colt he is!!

More on Hope's Leading Lesson

Another video of Hope The Bad

Two new videos

These videos play back at a fast speed on the direct link. But, if you click on "download" beneath the movie window, the file will be saved to your computer and playback will be at normal speed.

News flash!

ANNOUNCEMENT

WE HAVE WAX!!!!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Dad! You gave me strength, courage, the love of animals but most importantly you taught me to treat people as I would want to be treated. For this I will be eternally grateful and I THANK YOU DAD!!!

Happy Fathers Day to all Dads! I wish you all happiness and Love and may you have a splendid day as it should be everyday!

I was very busy yesterday scrubbing water barrels. The two experiment barrels with the Barley Bags...it's working...whooohooo! All other barrels had to be completely scrubbed, I just had to dump and rinse and add fresh water and toss it back in. The key is having a clean barrel to start with but it kept it from turning green. What a little gem these Barley Bags are, I highly recommend them.

Today, Theresa and I are going to be doing some videoing and picture taking for your viewing pleasure. So stay tuned later in the day.

My parents will be coming over today for our Sunday family dinner plus our Fathers' Day get together.

We will be celebrating Amelia's 1st Birthday on the 19th of June, though an Apple Foal would be be something on her birthday, I do not believe she is going to hold out that long. I do hope that it will be a day time baby.....we need to SLEEP!!!!!! Argghhhhhhh!

I do wish all of you a wonderful day and an even better week!!! Don't forget to hug and tell someone you love (LUB) them and give a smile to a stranger!!!!

Stephanie

Thursday evening update

Apple has been on the move all afternoon. It is obvious she is very very uncomfortable this evening. Will we see another BBB soon. Let us help bring Apple's final baby into this world with prayers and love.

This little one's mother and Auntie Jerri will never have to endure the PMU line nor will his/her cousin..Nellie's Hope.

Stephanie

Apple by Cathy

One of MHR's good friends, Cathy Potter, took this great picture of Apple.

Cell phone skins

Wanted all of you to see the latest in Cell Phone Skins ordered. Make your phone unique with your picture or ours. Your purchase of the phone skins helps to provide to the needs of the horses. Only $35.00 which includes set-up, postage and handling.



Order at Cloud's Country Store.

Thank You All for your support!!!

Thursday morning

Good Morning Everyone!!

All is well here at the ranch this morning. Honey returned to the ranch yesterday afternoon. I saw her four months ago and she looked wonderful and had looked good during her four years with her family. However, I wish her family had told us they were enduring a tough time before now. Honey is underweight and now we must build her up slowly. We started her on our special feeding program last night so with time and patience we will get her back to her optimum weight. Her teeth are in good condition. She was welcomed home by all the horses at the ranch and she responded back. Her track name was Dancing Suzie but she is Honey to us. You can see her pedigree here. Honey is seeking a Fly Mask Sponsor which can be purchased via Shadow Mountain Feed or however you want to do it, she would appreciate it.

I hope that you will consider guessing on Apple's foaling date and time. I also hope that you will consider participating in the MHR June Hay Drive. The cost for hay in So. Nevada is continuing to rise. If you wish to make a donation of Hay to MHR and would like to go directly through the feed store you can call Ron or Patti Cross (owners) at Shadow Mountain Feed (775) 727-5527 and they would be happy to assist you.

We are also seeking a sponsor for QuikBayte (fly deterrent) it cost $49.95 and can be purchased through Shadow Mountain Feed. We are making our own fly spray from a recipe found on ABR, it is working and is very cost effective.

We appreciate everything that everyone is doing for the horses and I can assure you that it makes no difference the size of a donation; it all makes a difference in their lives.

Le Petite Stinkbug is doing great, so is Jerri. I will post video and pictures later today along with an update on our Apple's current condition.

Thank you to everyone and have a wonderful wonderful day!!!!

Stephanie

A family member comes home

Four years ago we adopted out a beautiful OTTB named Honey. She was 24 yrs old at the time.

Today at 3pm PDT, Honey will be returning to MHR.

Due to the rising feed costs and other circumstances within her family's life they must return her as they are no longer able to care for her.

Honey is now 28 yrs old and will live out the remainder of her life at MHR.

Stephanie

Le Petite Stinkbug

Apple photos

Taken this morning 6/11/08...what do you think?? I will not make a guess.