Berry Fine Chardonnay May 15,2013 - Oct. 30, 2013

My heart is breaking as I write this because yesterday we let little baby Berry go. She could no longer fight the fight. We tried everything we could think of, but it seemed nothing was going to work as she got older. Tuesday we did surgery to try and open her up a bit more so hopefully she could pass firmer stool on her own. However, I arrived at the barn yesterday morning to find that she was still unable to poop. That was it, it was our last chance. We all knew what had to be done. I called the vet and let my trainer know. Around 9am my partner got to the barn. We stood and cried with Berry in her stall. Loved on her and hugged her while she quietly munched on hay. Then her and Momma where turned out together in the outdoor arena and left alone for a while. At 11am when the vet was close, we took Char and Baby Berry to the upper pasture and let them eat hay while waiting for the vet. When the vet arrived my partner and I held her and talked to her while the vet injected her. it was only a few seconds later that she was gone. We laid her down on the ground next to where Momma was so she could say her goodbyes. Momma smelled her and nickered to her quietly. It was heartbreaking. We let Char stay in the pasture with her for a few minutes to try and understand that her baby was gone. Then we took Char inside to stay in a stall across from Jess to try and let her calm done. We all stood there in tears talking to Char.

Now we must focus on Char we want to as stress-free as possible move her in with the others, so for now we are just letting her and Jess bond. As my other mares can be a bit over whelming to a super passive horse, not mean, just in the face all the time.

I have let a lot of animals go in my life time, none as young as Baby Berry. I find it to be very difficult to comprehend. I knew it was coming and that it was a possibility from the day she arrived, but for the last 4 weeks we have poured our hearts and souls into trying to find a way to make it work to have her live. I have only known her for a short time, yet it hurts just as much as when I have lost an animal after owning them for their entire life. I am glad she is free of pain now, and I will forever have the memories of kissing her little nose as she smelled my face. That little foal made a bigger impact on our lives then she will ever know. Rest in Peace Baby Berry, I love you and will miss you forever.

Preparing for Goodbye

4 Weeks and 3 days ago a little baby and her momma came into our life when we least expected it. You guys know the story as I have been writing about them. The day they arrived I had no idea that they were coming, and little did I know how much the two of them would impact us. Baby Berry (as I always call her now) came to us untouched. It was the first chance we have had to work with a baby as young as her. She is now halter broke and loves attention!

 It is with tears in my eyes that I write this post because today we are preparing to say goodbye to Baby Berry. She is having more and more problems passing stool and is now plugging up daily. It is no longer fair to her to make her keep fighting. We are going to possibly attempt an emergency surgery today to make her opening bigger, but I am not sure she will be able to make it then. Her little soul has brought us so much joy, that we will do what is best for her even if that means letting her go. Everything happens for a reason so maybe we were only meant to have Baby Berry in our lives for a short time.

I do not know what today will bring. It may be extreme heartache. I do know that even if my time with Baby Berry was short, that little foal made me a better person and taught me so much about horses.  

Baby Berry making sure nothing was left in the bowl 10-2013

Baby Berry and Me.

It is kind of Official!

Well I had said something was in the works with Char and yesterday it became verbally official. She will remain with us! So whats our plan. Well I hope to put her under-saddle and get her trained for a pleasure horse. My hope is if all works out as planned that I can lease her out. That way I can remain in control of her out come, but she can be placed with someone who can devote all their time to her! I have time currently to devote to her for training, but once next spring rolls around and Navi goes under-saddle I will be pressed for time, so I hope to have a leasee by then. When I get the bill of sale (which is signed by the previous owner, but just sitting at the barn because no one knew who would take her in the end. )  I will officially transfer her papers over to my name :) This mare is too nice to get tossed around any longer.  She has spent 17 years being thrown away by people. Wish us luck in our new adventure.

Busy Feeding Critters!

So yesterday's schedule went like this:

4am- Wake up

4:20- Finally eat after feeding all my little creatures :) Then enjoy some coffee!
5am- Shower
5:15- Leave for Barn
5:30- Start feeding my 4 horses, Char and Berry, and 10 other horses at the barn.
6:10am- Leave Barn, head to work.
6:30- enjoy some quiet time at work before chaos begins
7am- Start the busy day at work.
11am- enjoy a quick 15 minute break/lunch before finishing my last half of the work day.
4:00pm-  Finish up on last dog of the day at work. Total of 7 dogs groomed. 3 Poodles, 1 Goldendoodle, 1 Pekinese, 1 Maltese mix, and 1 Shih-tzu.
4:15pm- Head to barn to feed the 16 horses! Thank goodness they all have automatic water :)
5:15pm- Head to parents house to feed 2 dogs, 2 cats, and fish. Make sure they are all taken care off until morning!
6:00pm- Finally head home after stopping to get milk, lol.
7:00pm- Sit down, eat dinner,  and enjoy quiet time for the evening! Which includes cuddling with my critters at home.
8:00pm- BED!

Life has been super busy due to my Barn Manager getting hurt, my Mother being out of town and then her husband going into the hospital. Needless to say yesterdays schedule was just a repeat of Thursdays. Today I don't have to work- Thank goodness!! But I will still be super busy with spending time with my critters. I want to get some much needed time in with Navi and Pixie. Thursday and Friday left no time for playing with them. So today I will be riding and having some down time with each of my girls!

I am so thankful that I have my partner to help me keep up. Yesterday my Partner took care of all my critters at the house and then played with Char and baby Berry. They have to get out everyday to run in the outdoor arena since we moved them into a paddock at the barn.

Needless to say life is a little crazy right now.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about having to care for my critters. I could do less if I choose too, but I will not. It was my choice to take on my animals and I will provide them with the best that I am able. That is just how it will always be, their needs will always come before mine. Even animals that do not technically belong to me will be provided with the best care I can give if they are relying on me to do so. Take Char and Berry. I do not own either of them, but currently I am paying for all their feed and care. Some people would ask why I would do that...well because some one has too. Berry has to be attended to daily to make sure she isn't plugged up with poop. She has to receive oil daily and be manually unplugged some days. Yes, that involves stinking fingers up her anus to help pull out poop. On a side note, there might be another surgery in Berry's future to help open up her anus. There is some trade off such as my puppies got their rabies shots for free :) The bittersweet side to taking on Berry's care is that it will be a very sad day when she is re-homed. As far as Char is concerned...Lets just say something is in the works! 

To be honest...(Let me get on my soap box for a minute) The situation with Char and Berry makes me mad. It makes me mad because of all the worthless people that owned Char before. She is 17 and been passed around from home to home once she was no longer needed for more babies. She was (in my opinion) neglected. She hasn't ever had her feet trimmed or teeth floated. Currently she is a 3.5 on the body scale out of 9. (She came to us at this weight) Berry was born with a defect so the answer that the breeders came up with was to give her and mom away. They chose to breed Char, but once it became an issue they wanted someone else to deal with it. So they were given away. It all comes down to money, and I understand that people aren't made of money, but lets not make your problem my problem. I choose not to breed because I know that I would have to be responsible for whatever living creature I brought into this world. In a perfect world you could find loving homes willing to buy them for whatever you are selling them for,but it doesn't always work that way. Financially breeding is expensive especially when things go wrong and the babies come out like Berry- unsellable.   Okay off soap box :)

I am off to spend the day with my ponies/puppies/ and kitties :) Oh did I mention in that I am currently caring for 2 five month old puppies, 1 five month old foal, and 1 five month old kitten. Good thing babies are so much fun and cute...it makes up for all the hard work!

Berry Found a Home!

I don't have much time this morning to update, but Thursday in meeting with the vet we learned that Berry will be going to her new home in a month. Some family members of my vet will be taking her :) She said she would keep us up to date on how she is doing. So while it was sad to hear the news I was happy that Berry will have a good family hopefully for a long long time! I sure will miss the little squirt, but now it will give us the time needed to focus on getting Char back to a good weight and start her training.

Now off for day 2 of the NILE :)

Fall = The NILE

Enjoying a good ride with Willow on a beautiful fall day!

The NILE has finally arrived which means I have a week of vacation :) Love my fall vacations!

I always take the week of the NILE off, but this year I will be helping my trainer. She is doing an hour demo both Friday and Saturday and we will be assisting in that. Plus we will be hanging out at the booth talking to people. We look forward to seeing all the different events! Hopefully I will get lots of pictures and have some fun updates come Saturday evening. And Friday night we are going to the rodeo :)

Momma and baby are still kinda in limbo as far as where they belong. We have named baby...Berry, as in Strawberry. They have both become our projects. We are meeting with my vet today to come up with a game plan. Not sure what the outcome will be. In all my research on Berry's issue it doesn't seem likely that she will out grow it :( Atresia Ani is the clinical name for what she has wrong. We hope to help her live a long good life, but right now that just isn't a for sure thing. Mom is doing pretty well...We wormed her on Tuesday with hopes it will help her put on some weight. Currently she still belongs to my trainer, but again that won't be her finally home. We have taken on the task of training mom. With any hope she can become a nice saddle horse for someone to just trail ride with. Our training is limited with baby at side because she gets worried if baby is too far, so for now we are just getting her used to the barn, arena, and other areas she will be working in. Berry is doing well, we haven't done any feet work yet as we are still working on touching her belly and back end. It is proving to be challenging with them up the road so we have kept them down at the barn more while on vacation to get some more handling in.

The rest of the crew is the same :) Perfect! We have enjoyed some great fall rides these last two days. And enjoying a great ride is the plan today! There are days when sometimes I question why I spend so much money to have my horses, but then I realize I couldn't live without them. Every time I look at Pixie, Jess, Willow and Navi I fall in love with them a little bit more. They bring me so much more joy then money does! And while sometimes its stressful, its always worth it in the end! Speaking of them I better wrap this up so I can go turn out and feed. Everyone came in to the barn last night cause it was supposed to be windy and raining. So they are probably more than ready to be turned back out to their pasture.

Before I go some pedigree info on Char :)

Go Man Go Quarter horse Stallion is on her papers on her Dam's side. Her Dam is speed bred!

Snipper Music Quarter horse stallion. Char's Sire. He is out of Music Mount's line. 

All in all she has some good blood lines! And Berry's sire is out of Smart Chic Olena who is out of Smart Little Lena who in turn goes back to Doc Bar.

So if any one is interested in them??? :)

Momma and Baby...

Boy  does it get busy busy when you have a baby to watch over at the barn! Life has been crazy. Work has been steady which means a solid 40 hours, no overtime, but no extra hours at home either. Momma and baby have been at the barn for two weeks now! Can't believe how fast time goes. Baby (who still remains nameless) is doing well. We had a little incident on Saturday and Sunday where she was a bit plugged up, but we got it all taken care of. It was scary Saturday morning to find her in pain and unsure of what to do. We now have the know how to take care of her if she gets plugged up again :) Our vet came out and gave us directions and left stuff with us! The good news is she seems to be getting better so she may still outgrow this and be a normal horse. I certainly hope so...I am getting attached to the little one. Speaking of getting attached here is the game plan for her. My vet wants us to start working with her on feet handling so she can trim her no later than weaning. Halter breaking is already happening, She is getting better at leading. In two months she will be weaned and will stay in the pasture across from the barn. She will be staying there so my trainer and I can work with her to get her ready to be sold. So baby will stay around all winter probably and will hopefully find a good home come spring. This of course is all contingent on if she can grow up and poop on her own without needing a special diet. Only time will tell. On to Momma. Momma does have a name, she is called Char. As stated before she is 16 and has been a brood mare her entire life. She is halter broke, but that is it. Char is now the barn horse. Her future was not with my vet as that was never the plan so my vet gave her to my trainer. My trainer told us she is the community horse as of now. Her future is still not certain. Maybe the people across the road where she is staying now will keep her as a buddy horse for theirs, maybe she will stay at my barn, maybe she will be given to someone else....Again only time will tell. Until then she will be a fun winter project. I haven't had the chance to work with a older horse that knows a very limited amount. Having the chance to work with all these different horses at different ages and very different stages of training will make me a much better horse person :)

Baby taking a  nap inside during our first very cold rain of the winter

Momma and baby

Char saying hello during dinner.

Baby the her first day in her new pasture

In other news...My herd is still doing wonderful! They are keeping me busy. I am trying to ride a min of 3 times a week with both Pixie and Jess. Then Navi gets lots of ground work also. Navi is still growing like a weed. She is getting huge! I still haven't done much more other than ground work because her joints are still growing and there is no reason to rush. I have plenty to do on the ground with her and plenty of under-saddle work to do with Pixie. Navi is turning into such a little ham, she meets me at the gate everyday and loves to come inside and get attention! I do not even use treats any more for our training with Navi, while she loves them, she loves attention and petting almost as much and will work for that as the reward. Pixie on the other hand will work okay for praise, but will offer me so much more if I up the reward to treats, lol. So she works for food :)

I cannot express how happy I am that summer is over! I have been loving the cooler temps. I get so much more done with the ponies!! However, fall and winter do bring some good winter storms that make me worry about the horses. This year I have the option of stalling mine when it gets really nasty out so that makes it easier.  In fact Jess now has a permanent stall inside for the winter nights. The girls will stay out most of the time with their blankets. I also brought Jess's extra blanket to the barn for Char. She is still under weight and might have a hard time maintaining weight this winter without  help. So we have a heavy weight blanket for her and we have been graining her daily. 

Hopefully I will have more pics and updates by weeks end!