Sorry I've Been Slacking

Hi Guys,
Wow I can't believe it's been almsot a month since my last post. The time really does fly. Updates:
Many of the horses have been placed in their forever homes :) , but there are still ones that would love for the right home to take them and love them. Don't delay in getting your placement application in.

Many of the mares with foals at side, or in foal have headed to their new homes. I know Hannah has started a blog for the progress of her lovely mare Naimah (formerly white 91) you can visit that at naimahsstory.blogspot.com
It sounds like the Horse Showcase over the weekend was a sucess, I wish I could have attended, if anyone who was there would like to do a write up that would be awesome.

Just a reminder:
If you are applying for placement, placement forms must be mailed to the PO box listed on the Rescue 100 website, information sent in an e-mail will not be accepted.
Once you have been approved the placement committee will be in contact with you to arrange a time for you to come out and help select your Rescue 100 horse. Please try and avoid coming without pre-arrangements, Keno Hills is a private stable and if there is not a Rescue 100 volunteer or placement comittee member present, clients may not be able to assist you.

Desperate Horsewives this weekend, I unfortunately cannot attend due to my little brother graduating but I'll get Melissa and Caitlin to give me a detailed report of it, so I could post.
If anyone has stories of their favorite Rescue 100 horse, their new forever friend, or volunteers please feel free to share, you can e-mail them to me at silver_skittle@hotmail.com

UPDATE: Fundraisers, Babies, and more...

So I know it's been awhile since the last post, spring is always a crazy time. Show season is upon us, and everyone is busy prepping.

The horses continue to improve, and volunteers continue to donate their time to this amazing cause.
Slipperfoot (grey mare with the horribly overgrown feet) has latched onto her bud Sugarfoot (Mini-dude), everytime I drive by the field they are inseperable. As many of you I'm sure have seen on Facebook, she can now run and play like a normal horse.

We have had three rescue foals born so far, the last one we spoke about has been named Polly. A special request by a gentleman who wished her to be named after his wife. The other two I'm sure have been given nicknames already. Two of the mares and their babies were recently moved out of the barn and up into the outdoor arena, giving us room for the other mares who are I'm sure close to popping.

The stallions that had been kept in the stalls have now been moved to their own pens outside, the grey one spent almost half a day playing in his pen, glad I'm sure to be able to once again feel the sunshine.

There was as many of you in the area I'm sure experienced, a "lovely" storm on Tuesday evening. As the wind was blowing my car I slowed, as I always do, to take a look at the herd. Something looked odd, then I realized our large shelter was tipped over and the roof was being torn apart by the wind. I'm sure Kelvin was thrilled the next morning.

Thank you once again to all the wonderful volunteers and donors. The horses appreciate it so much more than they could ever say.

Also please make sure to check out:
Horse Showcase: Strathcona Olympiette Center May 25, 2008
Desperate Horsewives present Jo Hikk and Mark Lorenz in concert: May 31, 2008
Pete Knight Arena, Crossfields AB
Doors open at 7:00pm NO MINORS!!

For more information check out the fundraisers section on the Rescue 100 website.

Reminder: Placement applications are now being accepted, check out the Horse Placement page on the Rescue 100 website

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"- Mahatma Ghandi

Update

Just a quick update while I procrastinate on studying...

Mom and baby are doing quite well. There are pictures posted on the Facebook page, or you can check out the Global news story here

We can expect more babies along the way...

Applications for placement are now being accepted. Please go to the Rescue 100 website and view horse placement.
Remember we are looking for forever homes for these horses, they all deserve them.

The hearing for the two men accused of this attrocity is being held Monday morning in the Vegerville Provincial Courthouse.

Baby Time!!!

So we had our first rescue foal yesterday. She is an adorable little filly out of mare # 16. She is a chestnut but will definately grey out. I wasn't there to witness her birth but I was told she did have difficulties nursing at first. When I got out there she was relaxed lying in her stall, but did stand up when I came over, and started nursing.
More updates as they come....

UPDATE

The horses continue to do well, they are devouring the hay.Mini got his feet done today by our farrier, and now gets to enjoy the sunshine with his good friend. I'm sure its much better than the stall they were cooped up in for a while.
Most of the stud colts we found got gelded this past week and have recovered well. Some of the soon to be moms are really starting to show, it will be fun when there are babies on the ground.

The horses are enjoying all the grooming that the volunteers are giving them. Kelvin, our trusty stable hand is in need of some help around the farm however. Caring for 94 extra horses is alot of work and all the help is wonderful. Deliveries come frequently and there is always need for help to unload.

Good news, a new website should be up and running soon. Everyone is quite busy with caring for the horses, as well finals are just around the corner for us college/university students. Show season is not far behind.

"Rodeo" Day

So the day started early, too early it felt.
I made sure to get there early to help Kelvin with the am chores. A group of us powered through barns while others got everything set up. Everyone started at approx. 9 am. The tilt chute arrived, and they got underway. Everything seemed very calm. People moved the horses into the bucking chutes where they were deloused. One by one they were put into the tilt chute, where the farriers worked quickly to trim their hooves, and they were dewormed, given numbered collars, and any of signifance were given halters (mares in foal, stud colts who are still too shy to be caught, which the total is now at [if I remember correctly, 29]).

Not sure if many of you know how the tilt chute works, but it is far better than it sounds. The horses are moved into the chute where they are secured, the sides of the chute are close enough to support the horse. The chute is then tilted sideways so that the horse is laid down. The farriers then quickly get to work trimming the hooves. Once it is all completed the chute is set up right and the horse is set free. In all it takes maximum 5 minutes.

With this we were able to sort the horses into the appropriate fields. For everyone wondering we did get the elf shoes off the pretty grey mare, although she was none too thrilled about it. She I believe was the only one who needed to be tranqued, and even still was quite wild when we brought her inside. She's now settled into her accommodations with the Mini, or as we have dubbed her Minnie Mouse.

After a long day, Melissa and I stayed the night to do field checks every few hours. Everyone looked alright, most were a little sore with their newly manicured feet, but will be thankful that they are how they should be.

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-globaledmonton-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=globaledmontonallvideo&maven_referralPlaylistId=3ab17c664819c2ddf69af47f86df012b608863fe&maven_referralObject=217e4dbf-9799-493f-bc04-6e72e61c9973

This is the link to the news story done on that day. Shows some of how everything was done.

UPDATE

I see people have been asking for updates. Apologies for being slow, school, work, and horses to take care of takes up alot of time. Although the majority of my time at the barn has been spent doing paperwork and answering e-mails and such.
There has been an amazing outpouring of donations. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. The horses seem to be doing well, and our volunteers are getting into the swing of things.
Please if you go down to volunteer, ensure you read all the instructions posted at the barn and have signed your waiver form. Unfortunately if a waiver has not been signed we cannot allow you into the field with the herd.

Monday is the big delousing, deworming, farrier day!!! Hopefully we'll get some pictures from the day, we are trying to keep it quite low key so PLEASE NO VOLUNTEERS! This will be quite a new experience for most of the horses and we are trying to keep it quiet.
I will be sure to post Monday evening if I can, otherwise I'll post Tuesday from work....

Sunday

As anyone who was out at the barn on Sunday knows, it was crazy. Even with everything that had happened during the week we still managed to pull off the Keno schooling show without a hitch (sans taking a spontaneous lunch break so that one individual who slept in could get her horse ready). Amongst the chaos that was the show, there was media and volunteers galore. Many former Keno kids came out to give the horses some much needed love.
It is very evident that some of the kids don't understand the scope of what is going on. One girl walked right into the stall of one of the Rescue studs to take the bucket out, and proceeded to go put it in her locker touching all her Keno horse stuff. When told by a staff member that she had to bleach her bucket and change her clothes, she questioned as to why. Thank goodness for the show so Susan could make it clear to everyone what the rules were.

Many people have been posting pictures on the Facebook page which is awesome. I know Nick and Lorraine are trying to get the new website up and running, but there is so much else going on.
Saturday night one of the studs managed to break the automatic waterer off of his wall. Was Kelvin ever thrilled to come in on Sunday (his day off) to fix it.

I've been at work all day and am very much looking forward to going out to see the horses...

Volunteer Orientation

Wow, volunteer orientation was a success....
Thank you to everyone who came out and took the time to get to know the place. All the horses seemed quite happy to be getting all this attention.

Day 4

So this morning as I was leaving the barn to head off to work I drove past the pastures slowly to take a look at the horses. Something looked odd to me. The horses looked larger than they had the evening before, and for some reason there were less of them in the first field. Sure enough the gate was open. I know for sure I had locked it with the carabeener. I walked over and took a look, sure enough they had broke through the gate during the night. Stinkers... well wish I could stay and help today. Hope Lorraine and Jen have fun sorting them out. Maybe I'll get them to write about their adventure.

Rescue 100

Day 3

Two of us spent the night on observation. One mare was in pretty rough shape, so she was our main concern. Sweetest little grey mare, it was so sad to see her in that condition. Morning came earlier than expected, chores needed to be done and there are "several" more mouths to go out and feed.
We need to change our foot wear and clothes anytime we are going between the rescue horses and our own. My horse looks so sad with his cage up, he always gives me the "Please let me out mom".
As the day went on the activity grew. The mares condition was deteriorating and so the vet felt it best to put her down. I'm glad she's in a better place but it's sad that it had to end up this way.
Susan had a press conference in the afternoon, and much of the afternoon for myself was spent replying to e-mails. Since Tuesday evening there had been 212.

Lorraine was quite busy, they spent the afternoon delousing the stallions that were inside, and sanitizing equpiment and stalls. If anyone has spare pitchforks and shovels they would be appreciated so that we can have separate tools for the Rescue 100 horses that are in stalls.

Another surprise, we had originally been told there were 4-5 studs in the herd. Upon arrival they found 10, and then yesterday there were 4 more found mixed in with the herd.
Two managed to be round up, one won't let us near him. The other Melissa and I found on our night walk through and made note of it.
Well I'm back to regular work tomorrow, but Saturday is volunteer orientation day!

Rescue 100

Day 2

The horses began arriving at Keno Hills around 12:30 on March 12. Our welcoming committee helped the poor horses off the trailer and into a small holding area where they started to halter, delouse and number horses. A total of 97 horses had arrived by 5:30 that evening and by the end of the day only 27 of the horses were caught, the others too mistrustful to catch at this time. The horses were fed hay and left to relax and calm down after their stressful trailer ride. The horses had ongoing supervision throughout the night to ensure that everyone was doing okay. We are going to need a lot of volunteers to help us rehabilitate these animals.

Rescue 100

Day 1: A Decision Is Made

The whirlwind day began early for Susan. Although there was much talk at the previous nights lesson, decisions had to be made.

8 am came quite quickly and at that very moment Susan made her first phone call of the day. She had spoken with the SPCA the evening before and preperations had to be done for their arrival at the barn for the inspection.As the word got out, the phone was ringing off the hook. Lorraine sat answering the e-mails all day after having spent the morning hurriedly cleaning barns. Rescue 100 was taking shape.

Around noon, I got the word via e-mail that Keno had been approved as a temporary caretaking facility to rehabilitate the horses until they were healthy enough to be placed.A quick news interview and Susan was back up at her house answering phones. Calls were pouring in from across not only the country but the continent, people wanting to donate money, time, and supplies. At one point I called Sue and throughout the whole conversation could hear the other line clicking.

Down at the barn there was a feeling of anxiousness. Some people knew what was about to happen, while others simply walked around in wonder. All the barn kids kept asking questions "When are the horses going to get here, who gets to work with them...". They're world is going to be turned upside down when they actually see the horses first hand.

Organization is going to be key at this time, and we have so many people who are involved it is wonderful. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out so far. The bank account should be up and running Wednesday morning thanks to Susan and Barb Prowse. Information with regards to donations can be found on the website Rescue 100 Everything is set up for tomorrow, tons of horse experienced people, along with the veterinarians to help assess the horses. We need to be realistic at this time and know that not all of the ones coming are going to make it, they are in pretty rough shape.

Susan's last phone call was at approximately 10:30pm, while Erika and I sat there having tea and hot chocolate with her, discussing the events of the day.
Day 2 is going to be a big day...