Good Monday Morning to All,
It has been a very busy weekend.
On Saturday we took in Blondie, who will be 25 yrs old on 1/28/09. She is a Quarter Horse. Blondie was no longer wanted. The former owner stated to me via telephone and face to face in front of Diane, Shannon and Rob if we did not take her she would be sent to auction. He also stated to us that she throws nice babies so if we wanted to breed her by all means do so. He was politely informed WE DO NOT BREED and we have a NO BREED CLAUSE in our adoption contract that was established in 2001. It was a matter of out with the old horse and in with the new horse. In their last act as owners, they rode Blondie to MHR, in fact they raced her over. The father drove the vehicle and the son rode Blondie. As she came through the gate she was drenched from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail. It took Shannon an hour of grooming to get her dried out, as it was getting later in the afternoon and when the sun drops it gets cold and the last thing we wanted was her to get sick. However, that is the least of our problems now, because she is very stoned bruised now on her soles. She will be placed on shoes and pads, but prior to this she will get her feet soaked in warm water with Epsom Salts. It has been our experience that this procedure has helped others who have come w/ sore feet.
Dr. Henesler was her vet, so I will be discussing her with him. She is a very nice mare. Sweet and quiet all in the same sentence. She will be at MHR for awhile till we get her feet squared away and do complete evaluation on her. She will be placed up for adoption but it will be to a special home only who will understand the limitations of an older horse. If anyone is interested in sponsoring Blondie while she is here she would be grateful.
Here is Sophie taken 1/19/09, she is being taken to her new stall. Sophie is being moved from her current stall to a smaller stall next to Acey. Sophie has gone completely blind. We have experience with horses who have gone blind, and we have been monitoring her. It has been our experience that they become depressed and of course frightened of this new world they have been thrust into. We are grateful that we had Sophie prior to her going completely blind as she is very comfortable with our voices and touch. I got up with her last night at midnight, and stood and talked to her. She was not nervous as we just stood together. I believe she was comforted with me there and I know that when I came back into the house I felt better as she was very relaxed. Again, we have been through this several times so we know what we have to do to help them through this transition period.
Here's a video of walk over to her new stall:
Thank you for your support!
Stephanie
