Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays

from all of us at the LCC....

It's freezing.

Seriously, it is really, really, REALLY cold. What is up with that??? I am back in the office and it is 32 degrees in here. Yup. Our house doesn't heat very evenly...

I am a huge idiot and I forgot to PROFUSELY thank Jessica Willis and her crew, who organized the donation of a huge trailer and truck load of hay, AND even helped unload it. Whohoo! That is going above and beyond. Jess answered our call for hay satellites and even went one further with the delivery and unloading. Thank you Jess!!!

Yesterday, for the first time in a few weeks, we were able to go for a little ride in the woods. I rode Dante bareback, and he was a gem. He is a little green and wiggly, and he likes to look at everything, but he wasn't spooky, and when I said go, he went. Leah took Isaac, who tried testing her for the first 15 minutes, but then settled down and was a quiet, lazy boy. Victoria rode Burly, who was of course perfect, and Karen took Otis, who loooved the ride!! Otis was too cute. It was a long ride and the horses were sweaty, but Otis still felt so good he was running around playing with everyone else when we got back. What a goober. It felt good to get out and run around... I feel like I haven't ridden in forever! With how early it gets dark, I just don't have time anymore.

Lacey is now up on the hill, having some time to unwind and be a horse. Triumph was really upset we took his buddy Isaac, and he was running around the field, while Lacey just sort of stood in the corner looking confused. ; ) They settled into each other's company today though.

I also forgot to mention that CC's adopters had him examined by their vet, and they discovered a kidney stone or tumor the size of a basketball. The adopters were having trouble coming up with the money for the expensive surgery, but the donors have graciously offered to help pay! So hopefully, everything will work out wonderfully for Mr. CC. Keep your fingers crossed for him.

Tonight, the LCC Staff is having their Christmas party... always a good time to be had by all. And interesting, of course. ; ) We are a funny crowd, I tell ya.

I am freezing my toes off back in this office, so I'm outta here!!

Never caught up.

It seems we can never quite get two steps ahead of things around here. We finally got some mass mailings done we needed to finish - but now my thank you notes have piled up on the desk!! Isn't that the way it goes..

Isaac has moved up on the hill, but only for a few days. I will be taking Asti to her temporary home at Gypsy Woods Farm, where she'll stay while I groom for them in Florida for a month or two. So, Asti had to go to Pete's to get a current Coggins, and Triumph couldn't be left alone. He was devastated to see her pull away, though. He ran the fence the whole time we pulled out of the driveway... Isaac wasn't much into consolation, he was far more interested in the grass!!

Tomorrow, Isaac will come home and Lacey will go up on the hill. We still haven't gotten a chance to ride her, but her brain is so addled from the training regimen, we're hoping some time off will help her relax. She is wound so tight! There isn't an ounce of fat on her little two year old butt, so 17 acres of grass and just "being a horse" should be a darn good thing for her. It should also be good for Alibi, who is glued to her hip like an appendage.

The rain has been absolutely endless here, so today was the first time all week that everyone got to go play together. It was the first time Bob's been turned out since his arrival. He is a beautiful mover. His trot is so floaty! I was surprised, I think he's a little plain to look at, but he sure can move. He is a total sweetheart and has a wonderful personality. Again, Bob can only go to a walk/trot home. He had a good roll and played with everyone else... Polar was prancing around like a little stud, showing off for the new horse!

A very kind samaritan near Hillsboro, Ohio has found four horses that need homes. All four are mares, and are very gentle. She says they are in good weight and their feet are trimmed, but she doesn't know their ages or if they are broke. Please email me at lastchancecorral@gmail.com for more info, and I'll put you in touch with the woman who has them. These horses were found wandering along the road, and despite many advertisements, no one has claimed them.

Tomorrow, we may all actually get a chance to go for a short ride! How exciting.... it has been weeks since I've been on a horse. Of course, there is no SNOW... what is up with that??

Today four very sweet young ladies came to give treats to the horses for the holidays. What a neat idea! The horses were all about it... ha, ha. They had new best friends..

We have many horses waiting to come in, and no interest in adoptions. If you are interested in any horse we have available, please don't hesitate to contact me or call the LCC for more information.

Tell me this is not the greatest Christmas card ever? From Charmer's adopter... the interior reads: Merry Christmas from me and my Bee Charmer!! What a happy adoption!!


Adios for tonight...

LCC Graduate in need of a new home

Granite, the bay paint purchased at Sugarcreek this summer, is in need of a new home. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, her adopter needs to sell her as soon as possible. Granite is an 8-9 year old Paint mare, bay and white, about 15.1 hands. Her adopter has had her in training at Findley for a semester, and the students say she is so easy to work around! She is very quiet, they have taught her showmanship, and she has a consistent walk/trot/lope. She loads, bathes, clips, stands for the farrier... all the goodies. Her adoption fee is $1500, but her adopter would be willing to negotiate to the right home.

Please contact me if interested, I can give you her owner's contact info.

These are old pics - her owner says she is a different horse now, she is filled out and her color is absolutely beautiful. Her owner will deliver within 100 miles.




(Note: I won't typically post ads like this, but the owner is in a desperate situation and we're full...)

Bob is so cute!

This new boy is SO darling! He will be available for adoption as a walk/trot horse only, no jumping. He is quiet as they come, and sweet as sugar! Hopefully we can find the perfect home for this boy.. He is a special soul.

Another road trip

There is another little horse at the LieWay Hunt Club in Toledo that will be coming to the LCC tomorrow. Robert Wayner and the Hunt Club have been very big supporters and donors of the LCC, and we are happy to be able to help them out. More about the horse when he arrives - he is a small TB, extremely quiet, but will be a walk/trot horse only.

So far, the girls have settled in very well. Allie is very attached to Lacey, we can't decide yet if Lacey returns the sentiment! Lacey is a ball of wild energy - she is fit as a fiddle, there isn't an ounce of fat on her, and she is looooving being turned out with someone else. She is as quick and agile as they come - a superb reining prospect. Allie is a cute mover and she is a very nice size. I look forward to getting on them both and seeing how they go under saddle.

The boys have finally gotten to go back out in their big paddock! No more saving the footing for parking. They were SO EXCITED to be back out where they have room to run and harrass each other to no end. Whoohoo for them!! They were playing the halter game like nobody's business. Otis is so cute, he was in yesterday and after a day in his stall, that old Thoroughbred is the rowdiest of them all. He will run around and back up to everyone, trying to get them to chase him. Plus he LOOOOVES the mud. What goobers!!!!

Isaac came back to us yesterday. Isaac was purchased at Sugarcreek for $10 last December. We didn't exactly realize he was a stud when we purchased him, but man, he has been the million dollar horse! He is in his late teens, and quiet as a kitten. He was a school horse for a few months, but he got too lazy for that, so he was returned a month or two ago. Our vet's wife adopted him as a trail horse, but they have two very old, frail horses and they were concerned that he was pushing them around too much. So he's back! And we're happy to welcome him. He would be SUCH a cute little Christmas gift for a kid. When we purchased him, he was very skinny. Seeing him now, it is hard to believe that he was ever skinny - and even harder to imagine what the heck people must have done to him to MAKE him so skinny! He is TUBBY, and he hasn't even been getting any grain. Time for an exercise program... ha, ha. He is 14.3, built like a little tank, and has the kyoot-est face ever....

Tracy's wedding was absolutely beautiful. Much more relaxed for us LCC folks than the Xmas party last week! It was a very casual affair, Leah and Stacy's boyfriend Tucker played guitar and banjo, and sang. The altar was our lit foal gate. Victoria wrote a beautiful sermon, best friends offered toasts, and there was delicious food everywhere you looked! And I decorated my first cake EVER, and it looked pretty darn respectable, if I may say so myself. ; ) We had a ball, and Tracy and Roger were a wonderful, happy couple. Laura Woolf even came to photograph - pics to come soon!

Photos of Allie and Lacey

Miss Cute-can-be Lacey:

Feelin' good!


The girls are synchronized!!! Awesome.
Alibi

New girls

Well, two of the aforementioned horses we were supposed to pick up didn't pan out! When we were on our way there, the guy called and said he had already given them away. Oh well. The two we brought home are Lacey, an absolutely too freakin' cute registered QH, and Alibi, a beautiful little Thoroughbred. Lacey is 2 and a half and Allie is 13. Pics to follow - I just knew ya'll would be on the edge of your seats waiting to see what we got! :)

off to get more horses..

Tracy and I are on our way to the Newark area to pick up four horses. There is a little 3 year old QH mare, a 13 yo TB mare, and two TBs straight off the track - sound but too slow! They sound like nice horses. It is always exciting getting in a few new horses. Stacy is also coming down today, so I'll finally have someone to ride with!

We have been keeping the horses out of the big paddock so it didn't get mauled before we needed to park in it. Just a few more days of not being able to ride - we have to have parking for Tracy's wedding this weekend! With it being hunting season, I am very nervous about riding in ANY woods nearby. People get so gun-happy. That would be just my luck!

Speaking of Tracy's wedding, we are also stopping at Rod's in Columbus to check out her wedding dress... how exciting! COWGIRL wedding dress, that is...

The four TBs in Circleville didn't work out - the starving ones. There are some issues with the paperwork, but hopefully they should be here after the first of the year. One of the TBs, a long yearling, is in foster care with Dede Cole, who does our equine massage. She has made a ton of progress with him in the two weeks since she's taken him in! He will be available for adoption after the new year.

Cool has been making it a point to get out of his stall as often as possible, little turd. He doesn't run away or anything, he doesn't even get into the grain! He just stands by his buddy Burly's staff and eats the whole bale of alfalfa. He has figured out how to open his stall even WITH his halter clipped on it... so now he has to have a bull snap clipped on it. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until he figures that one out too! Bugger.

I love Polar. I am liking him more and more. Chuck trimmed him the other day, and because of the chronic neglect, his feet are now a bit sore from the changes, so I haven't been able to ride him much. I am hoping we can get a set of shoes on him soon. He is a very smart, kind, wonderful horse. He just needs to handled by someone who understands that you can't push him around. He may be the sweetest, most affectionate horse we have. I adore him, can you tell? If I hadn't needed to sell my own farm, I'd keep him until the day he died. I like him that much.

The Columbus Dispatch called! They want to do a Christmas day story. My query for you loyal blog readers is, do you know a hard-working, horse-loving kid in the Columbus area that deserves their own horse, and has the means to care for it? If you do, PLEASE send me a line... lastchancecorral@gmail.com.

The Christmas party was a huge success. Whopping. The weather was unfortunately not very cooperative, and the roads we rather treacherous, but we still had a decent turnout, including some folks who drove quite a long way! All in all, we made over $7500, including an INCREDIBLY generous donation by Stephanie LeVeque. (Thank you Stephanie!) The musician was fantastic and donated his time... he played until almost 2 am. It was an incredibly festive time, and we really enjoyed everyone's company.

Triumph and Asti came back from the hill for the party. They were so glad for the attention! I had one of the most frightening experiences of my LIFE trying to bring them back down. The farm is up a good big hill, and it had started to snow just a little bit. Well, the truck tires were bald. (We replaced them yesterday, thank goodness!) As we started down the hill, everything was fine, but when we came to the biggest down slope, we slid. A lot. My friend Andy was driving, and thankfully, he's a better driver than I am, and we survived!! I won't lie, I'm a big wuss, I was so freaked out I cried a little bit. Ha, ha. It was scary!!! But anyway, Asti and Triumph enjoyed a few days at the big farm... now they are back on the hill.

For those of you looking to adopt horses, I am creating a main database in the computer to keep track of what people want. Victoria keeps them in her book, but I'm thinking something 'searchable' would be awesome. Please don't contact me until you're really seriously ready to adopt - not if you just think that you MIGHT adopt if the 'perfect' horse came along. ; ) Maybe this will be another way to help more horses. If we don't have room to accept a horse, maybe someone on our 'list' will be looking for just the horse that needs to come in, and we can hook people up outside of the LCC. It would be win-win for everyone!

We finally found some decent hay the other day, but we are still in need of more... everyone keep their eyes peeled...

Have a good Thursday! I'll update you on the new horses as soon as possible..

LCC Holiday Party Reminder!

OK, I know, I am behind again on the blog. Things are absolutely insane here trying to get everything ready for the party.

SO, quickly, I just wanted to remind everyone that the party is TOMORROW night, December 6th, starting at 7 pm!! It is shaping up to be QUITE the holiday bash, and we hope everyone will be able to attend.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email! lastchancecorral@gmail.com.

A delayed update

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I heard the horses here at the farm enjoyed a day with no interruptions or visitors... just turn out. ; )

First the horse updates:

Dante is settling in nicely. For some SILLY reason, I can't get his pictures to load on the website!! So here are some photos for you. His knee as a weanling: (these photos are courtesy of David Antholz, a very talented photographer.)
Hard to believe any little horse could survive that, huh? But he is sound and literally, there is barely a scar. I didn't get a close up 'after' photo of that knee, but you won't believe how small the scar is! That is some serious rehab time his mom put into him. Anyway, I still haven't had time to take Dante out for a decent ride, but the other day, I figured I better at least climb on his back and see what a good boy he is. I rode him up and down the back driveway, bareback, in a halter with lead ropes. He is quiet as can be. He rides like a little go cart - easy to steer, easy to stop, easy to go!! ; ) He is a forward horse with lots of energy and interest in what comes next, and would be a fantastic partner for anyone to do anything!!Polar went to Pete's on Wednesday of last week. Polar came to us with pretty severe diarrhea. It was obvious he had it for a long time, as his legs were crusty and sore. It has not cleared up as quickly as we hoped, nor was he putting on weight very well. There are days now when it is fairly solid, but others are bad. Anyway, a quick trip to Pete's had both good and bad results. The good news is, there is no cancer or other big issues, as we had feared. Polar had a broken tooth. Who knows how long the tooth has been like that - it could have been several years - perhaps this will cure his nervousness about the bit in his mouth? We hope. The bad news (sort of) is that Polar is actually in his early to mid-20's. He is putting on weight very well now and is a healthy horse besides his little tooth issue, which Pete took care of. I still have high hopes for him to find a wonderful home with someone. He is a good boy and deserves a buddy. He doesn't act his age, except for his wise demeanor!

C.C. was adopted yesterday! Hooray for him. The family who adopted him is very knowledgeable and they have already established a working relationship with their vet to combat his incontinence issues. We couldn't be more pleased.

Triumph has been deemed healthy enough by the almighty Victoria that he was moved to the in town farm today. Asti is still up there, but since C.C. and Yuri were adopted, she was all alone. She seems pleased to have a boy up there! Triumph will hopefully start to build some muscle and learn to use those legs, running up and down hills. I swear he's grown a hand since he came. We will have some update pics in a few days.

Tomorrow or Wednesday, four starving Thoroughbreds will arrive. I have seen them, and all four are very nice, BIG, quiet, sound horses. There are three geldings and a mare. They are all four VERY SKINNY. They will need some serious rehab, but all four are young and seem to be great prospects for someone looking for a project. They are all tatooed, so they were at least track-broke at one point! I can't wait to play with them. There is a fifth, a two year old, who is in foster care.

The foal barn is coming along nicely. Here is a pic from Wednesday afternoon:What do you think? Quite lovely, no?

A big, huge, whopping thank you to Jess W, who not only has stepped up to be a 'hay satellite,' but also got her friends to donate 75 bales, which she is delivering next week, along with many more bales we are purchasing from her local farmer. Whoohoo! We are low, low, low on hay, and we are getting a little nervous about the winter. If you know of good quality grass hay for sale, PLEASE let us know.

Surprisingly, we haven't had a lot in the way of donations for our silent auction. We have high hopes that things will arrive in the mail this week. If you were one of our generous item donors, thank you so much! If not, what are you waiting for? ; )

I am back to the grindstone working on our mailing list. If you would like to be on our mailing list and aren't yet, you can always email me at lastchancecorral@gmail.com. Once you're on it, you will get our newsletters. They are always entertaining... ha, ha.

A tree trimming!

While I was home in Columbus the other day, our dear friends Tammy and Cindy came over to help with... decorating our monstrous tree! This incredibly gigantic tree was donated by a former employee of the LCC. How lovely it looks in the foal barn. We usually put the tree right in the gosh darn middle, but it was so HUGE, we had to move it to the side.

Tammy is a logger by profession. This is not her thing. Can you tell?

Here you can start to see the dazzling array of lights that will lend a beautiful ambiance to the foal barn for the festivities...

The incredible tree with all its trimmings!!

I can't remember if I mentioned it on the blog or not, but Tracy, our full time weekday employee, is getting married here at the LCC the weekend after the holiday party. She is truly going to be the holiday bride - and we are milking it! Here she stands trimmed in garland, before the beautiful holiday altar that Victoria constructed for her...

I delivered Mack yesterday and picked up Dante from north of Columbus. Mack was so funny. I left him loose in the whole trailer so he could move around. He hopped on and walked right to where the front slant would be, and didn't move the whole ride. Even when I went to unload him, he waited until I walked to his head and clipped the lead rope on before he moved a muscle. What a silly man.

Dante is tooo adorable! He is 14.2 exactly (we measured him today). The most darling little buckskin. Dante was a nurse mare foal who stayed at the nurse mare farm until he was a few months old. At that time, some kids were chasing him on a four wheeler. It was unclear whether he was run into a round pen panel or barbed wire, but his knee was completely gone. It was just a huge, open wound. I have pics, but I am going to wait to post them next to the 'now' pics! Thanks to his adopter's diligent care, Dante is now 6 years old with barely a scar. He is sound as can be. I can't wait to ride him and see what he's like.

It has rained ALL DAY here. This morning, everything was ice. The driveway was a solid sheet of ice. Before I got back from Columbus with Dante, Victoria called to tell me not to try to come up it! Tomorrow will be just as nasty, if not more so - it will rain more tonight, and the temperature is supposed to continue to drop.

I'm turning in early - I think I'm getting the 'sick' that everyone else has had but ME! Here is a cool photo I found. This is a candlebra that Victoria made a few years ago out of surgical clamps. How cool is that?

A slow Saturday.

It was unusually quiet around here today. Hope I didn't just jinx tomorrow...

Leah didn't feel well this morning, so she took the day off. Boots was here to help me clean. We busted out the stalls and paddocks, then someone arrived to have a look at Henry. He was a gem, of course! The wanted to ride him, and I was like, "Um, well, OK. He has only been ridden once before..." No worries, should have known it wouldn't be an issue for him! The girl hopped right on and rode him right around. What a good boy! They adopted him on the spot. They even ran straight home to get their trailer!

Tomorrow I am going to go pick up Dante and drop off Mack to his new home. How exciting. There may be another new horse or two coming in tomorrow, also... not sure yet...

I rode Otis this evening! The swelling is gone in his leg, and it is cool to the touch. His feet really need trimmed and a set of front shoes, with the frozen pock marked arena, he was ouchy. He is, however, VERY quiet and VERY sweet. He neck reins, has a nice comfy jog. Victoria aged him closer to 20-22, rather than the teens we thought he was. I took him across the road and he didn't mind the water, mud, or banks. He's a nice little horse for someone.

Here are some pics from Leah and I's birthday ride... it was so beautiful, I just had to share them. (BTW, Polar, who wouldn't load when we picked him up, hopped write on the trailer this time. He's a smart boy.) The most unflattering picture of Polar ever, but I had to show you his pretty holiday bell wreath:Mack was so excited, he let Leah bridle him like this. (She is still mastering the tacking up!)
Happy Cowgirl Leah and her Mighty Steed!
OMG It was so beautiful!!
; ) Last pic together...

I also have some awesome pics of the foal barn and the decorating process... but they are on the other computer!! I will try to post them for you tomorrow.

This is how nice Victoria is to me when I'm doing computer work and attempting to organize the office:

You know you wish you worked here. ; ) Actually, I DO deserve a cookie, because organizing this office is like a big fat JOKE. Over the years, there have been so many 'office managers' and 'computer people' that stuff just accumulates, and accumulates, and accumulates.... and now there are PILES of stuff that make no logical sense what-so-ever. For example, I found a box of CDs. They are all sorted and rubber banded into little stacks. How nice! Except for one problem: Every stack has a big label on it that says 'I have no idea what this is, needs sorted and labelled.' Oh, right. Well thanks for stacking them, you know. Ahh! ; )

So, if you've been wondering, "Where the heck are all the posts?" That's where. My brain is drowning in pointless organization. (Seeing as another 'office manager/computer person' is going to come after me, and inevitably destroy all the hard earned organization that makes sense to ME!)

Happy weekend!

You've never met our dogs!

Here Victoria and I are sitting around the living room, admiring our beautiful pack, and we realized we've never even introduced them properly on the blog. What goobers we are. The only dogs which Victoria and the Last Chance Corral considers offering refuge to at this time are wolf hybrids. This is because of their special emotional and mental needs. Our experience gives us an inner look at their world. Victoria feels that we can possibly offer them more than what an inexperienced dog owner could. They simply are not dogs. For those of you who don't know what 'previous experience' I speak of, Victoria and Don (an ex-employee of the LCC) have lived with wolves for the last 20 years. The most recent wolf passed away last year. In his memory:

I never saw Wolf in his prime, but even when I knew him and he was too frail to move around much, he was intimidating. It just isn't the same as a dog...

So, in our household now, there are SIX dogs. Four of them are Victoria's. Of those four, two are wolf hybrids. Rex and Rory are littermates. Two are German Shepherds, Gerda and Valkry. And two are my mutts.

Rory is a three year old wolf hybrid female. Also known as: ROY, Royfield, Roya and NOOOOO!!! She's really a good little girl. Her dad was a collie but she truly embodies the "WOLF" spirit and mind. She and Rex are kept under close tabs. Rory's biggest thing in life is sleeping with Victoria - she cuddles up with her mistress all night every night.

Rex is a three year old fixed male wolf hybrid. He is the farm's class clown. Definitely not "wolfish" in his day to day life. He is a festival of fun. This guy knows no form of SHY! (Rex on right, Gerda on left.)

Gerda is a 14 year old black German Shepherd. The farm matron and the final word in all matters canine. She is VERY strict and elderly - when she says "no play"...... she means NO PLAY!

Valkry is a 5 year old long haired German Shepherd. She is Victoria's pride and joy. Valkry literally runs the entire farm and controls all proceedings with a quiet, gentle, yet efficient manner. (Val with her kitty, Kittyfood.)

Joe is a 4 year old lab mix (??) mutt. He is my first dog and so holds that special place in my heart. He is super smart, and super deranged. It evens out, I suppose. He has an endless play drive and has taught Victoria's dogs how to entertain themselves... constantly... ; ) He is from the humane society in Columbus. He has made my life very, very difficult since I got him as a 4 month old crazy dog....

Imogen in a two year old Great Dane. She is the super model of the farm. Her job in life is to pose, look cute, greet, and be petted upon. Oh, and to get all the food down from the high spots so the other dogs can eat it. She is a rescue from Carroll County Pound, where she was left in a drop box, skinny and scared. When something isn't just perfect (like her dog bed), she stands and stares at it forlornly for as long as it takes for someone to notice and rearrange it to her liking. Spoiled brat. ; )

So there you are! Now when you come visit, you know which dog is knocking you over and barking at you. Ha, ha!

Good things come in threes!

After King was adopted Saturday, we thought the best part of the weekend was over. Wrong! Sunday morning brought Lilly's new owners to pick her up. Lilly was a little ancy since she hadn't been out much lately, but she seems to know who her new owner, Lacey, is. She is very patient with Lacey and pays attention to what she wants. Lilly loaded on the trailer without a hitch. Lacey emailed me to let me know that Lilly settled in nicely and even gave her 7 year old brother a pony ride! How perfect.
After all his endless waiting, Yuri is finally going to a home of his own. And with a loyal blog reader, to boot! Macphd came to visit him Sunday and decided he has a place in her heart and barn. How exciting! He heads to his new home in Crawford County on Friday. And his poor adopter had to wait forever to go see him at the in town farm, and suffer through our vehicle catastrophes, and our generally unnecessarily chaotic Sunday. Ha, ha.

Another of our long time residents will be travelling to his new home in Columbus this week. Mack has been adopted by a wonderful woman who says he is exactly what she's looking for, imperfections and all. How cute is that? And he was a HANDFUL when she came to see him, haha - the no turn out for a few days made him full of vinegar. His adopter is bringing back her 6 year old that she adopted as a weanling. He is super beautiful and super quiet - too quiet for her. ; ) He has the potential to be doing more and she wants him to live up to it, which I think is commendable. (I have been in that situation myself, for sure.)

Leah's heart is broken! I feel her pain, who hasn't been there? But Mack is her first love, bless her heart. Yesterday was Leah's birthday, so she and I hauled up to Stroud's Lake today for a goodbye/Happy Birthday ride. Mack was a gem and Leah had a blast. A good way to end a great relationship.

I took Polar up to the lake today, and he did fantastic! He did spend a brief moment wandering loose around the campground... yeah, Lauren's an idiot. ; ) He did wonderfully. Water, logs, hills, ain't no thing! When he is tired, he does his backing trick. Two or three tries at that and he figured out that I don't fall for that stuff. Continued on like a gentleman. He would lead or follow without a problem. Really his only issue is the backing. He isn't a frantic backer, but he knows how to get his way. We argued a few times, but basically, if he starts backing unnecessarily, a quick, tight circle stops him. Ask him to move off again and he does, or else he gets another quick little circle. He figured out how that works really quickly, and he was perfect. I love him. ; )

Tammy came over to help with the floor in the foal barn today. Tammy is one HECK of a worker!!!! She and Tracy made a TON of progress levelling the floor. Leah and I were so impressed! This foal barn will be ship shape in no time.

More pics to follow!

We need hay!

We are in desperate need of good quality grass hay. Because every calorie on this farm is fed (no pasture), we have no use for poor quality hay. Soft, palatable, green grass hay is what we need, and we need a lot of it. We can buy it, we just can't find it - but if you can donate it - even better! Here is Victoria's idea for hay (written by her):

Hay Satellites

No, not hay bales lazily looping around some distant moon! Real hay, and right here on Earth. Here's my idea: If somebody were to contact their local farms and get everybody to donate 5-10 bales of hay, it wouldn't take long (nor a huge commitment on any one farm's hay budget) to have a load of hay together. You can be that hay satellite on behalf of all the horses that so desperately need that hay. When you have gatehred a truck or trailer full call us to pick it up, or bring it by and visit the horses that you are helping! If this sounds like something that you would like to do, please call Victoria at 740-594-4336. Another option is email us at lastchancecorral@gmail.com, we can post your contact info and your location, so other blog readers can contact you directly to bring their hay to their local satellite farm!

Good things are happening at the LCC

Today was a really great day.

Leah and I had volunteers this morning. Always fun! These were very helpful kids from OU, and they made short work of the barns. It was waaay too sloppy for turnout, but we put a few of the boys out for a minute or two to get the stalls clean. Of course, they came in plastered in mud. Thanks boys!

Then it was time for more work on the foal barn. I forgot to get a picture today. Bad Lauren. All the dingy green curtains to the stalls have been torn down. A few of the industrious girls set about painting the rest of the metal wall, so that is now done. (And it looks beautiful.) The stalls have been dusted and scrubbed to perfection, even the windows, which are terribly hard to clean. New crushed limestone has been laid and packed in all the stalls. The big doors have been scrubbed and putty-knifed to absolute spotlessness. The place is really coming together, I tell you. With luck, the floors will be re-leveled in the next day or two... then we clean and squeegee the floor... and then the fun part, decorating! Yahoo.

I spoke with a potential adopter for Yuri today. It was beginning to look like he would be stuck here forever, but maybe not! Time will tell. As Victoria always says, there is a lid for every pot. Yuri must just be waiting for his to come along.

Then the really good news started coming in. The folks that came to look at King the other night? They wanted to adopt him! Hooray! Leah and I hitched up the trailer and delivered him ASAP. King now has the most loving, beautiful, wonderful, amazing, roomy, grassy, hilly home ever. They plan to maybe drive him someday. ; ) Mostly they just love him. To pieces. He has a 17 acre field by himself until he gets used to the other horses. He looks happy and overwhelmed.



Leah and I then headed up to feed at the in town farm. A family called to meet me on the hill because they wanted to have a look at C.C.! These are also really fantastic folks, they are very knowledgeable about horses and all of their horses have some special needs. The woman has a few young horses she is bringing along and is looking for a horse that "knows the ropes." They seemed to like him, but no one can ride at the in town farm because of liability issues, so I will have to bring him here for a day or two if they want to try him. They are supposed to call tomorrow.

Also, a SUPER nice woman in Columbus is coming to look at Mack and Polar tomorrow. Leah is going to show her Mack. I think she is bummed. I told her she should be proud that Victoria and I both think she is ready to show him to a potential adopter all by herself!

The constant rain was exhausting today. Tomorrow: snow! I'll leave you with this:

Oh Henry!

The holidays are coming...

Alright, I know, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet! But we can't help but be in the holiday spirit around here, with all the decorating going on.

We are steadily making progress on the foal barn. There is so much to do! Today we strung many of the lights to make it look holiday-riffic. Victoria wants me to post progressive photos as we clean, so hear are yesterday's: (I know, scary, huh?)

I didn't get any photos today, so you will be blown away by tomorrow's pics. ; )

We have a ritual that is officially the start of the holiday season here at the Last Chance. If you have visited in the evening lately, you may have noticed that we have a pathetic spattering of lights on one corner of the gate. No longer is that the case! After an hour or so's death-defying work, the result is a sight to behold. The problem with decorating and undecorating the gate is that a ladder doesn't do the trick. So we use the tractor.

Yes, I mean we ride in the bucket of the tractor to put the lights up. I know - what the heck? What can I say, the folks at the Last Chance Corral have lost their minds.

Despite the fact that Victoria was absolutely shaking in terror, she wanted to go up first. (It's her only roller coaster ride of the year.) She pulled down the old lights and readied the new icicle set to go along the top. When she headed to do the corner, she had me go up with her. Our fearless tractor driver, Tracy, is already so nervous her legs are shaking as she holds the brake with all her might.

Bad idea, Victoria and Lauren! We almost broke the bucket riding up together. YIKES. After that, she let me do the rest by myself. Riding in a tractor bucket at full extension is scary. That's what I learned. And of course, there are no photos of me because everyone else refuses to bother with the camera! The best part was, we got the whole darn thing up, plug it in.... and the top is blinking. We don't do blinky. These brilliantly designed lights required that I remove four separate red-tipped bulbs and replace them with clear bulbs. More scary lifting in the tractor bucket and moving around. But the result was so worth our strife!

Some folks came by to have a look at King last night. They seemed fairly interested, but haven't heard back yet today. He is a really good boy. Tracy and I think that maybe he had a fever that broke this morning - he was kind of sweaty and clammy, but looked happy as could be. He seems more alert and interested in things today - I think he may have been fighting an infection, and 2 days in a stall just gave him enough rest to beat it! He looks great this evening!

The paddocks have been slop here with the bit of rain we got, so everyone has been in for two days. We let them out today since more rain is on the way, and oh my gosh, you should have seen them. Mack was hotter than a pepper. He was cracking me up! He ran around, harassing all the other horses, for most of the day. Too funny. Unfortunately, everyone will probably be stuck in stalls for a few days now. With such limited turn out and poor drainage, we just can't afford to let them tear up the paddocks. Victoria is out there after every rain, digging trenches to help the water flow out.... but it still takes forever for it all to drain. ; /

With Tracy's help, I got the tack room in the upper barn all cleaned out. It needed it DESPERATELY! I can't believe how much crap I took out of there... probably at least 40 saddle pads... 20 blankets... and this is a 10 x 10 room! Now she and I have room to walk around and feed. We are switching some of our feeds over thanks to the education I received at the seminar at OSU, so we wanted to get stuff cleaned out and organized before we order in the new feed on Monday. Whohoo! Tracy was then motivated enough to go clean the bottom barn tack area too - go Tracy! Now everything is beautiful and organized. I LOVE organization...

I am very behind on office work, but oh my, what can you do. ; ) I will catch up soon. Our goal is to have a new newsletter out before the first of the year, so if anyone would like to write articles about their adopted horses/foals (or anything else for that matter!), please let me know!

No one work too hard tomorrow - it's the weekend! (Speaking of rain..... it just started.... I can hear it quite well on my roof!)

Cleaning the foal barn..

This morning didn't start out so well - I drove up to the in town farm to feed and my car overheated several times. ; / That is no good..

The horses on the hill look great though! They look so happy. This is probably crazy for C.C., as his previous home was quite flat. Being on hills is always a change. I walked out to feed and called Asti, who immediately came running. C.C. followed close behind. They were almost to the barn and suddenly Yuri looked up and let loose the most frantic, pathetic neigh I've ever heard in my LIFE! Too funny. He galloped about halfway up before having to stop and catch his breath... that is one out of shape foal! I can see the big belly coming off him, though, as he runs around up there...
We left all the horses in last night thinking it was supposed to rain, but alas, no rain. Back out they all went and Traci and I had 10 stalls to clean. No big deal, with the two of us, that's a piece of cake. Those boys are too funny, all turned out in the paddock... it's like they have to have someone to pick on, so they keep switching around, pretending one of them is the "mare." Gotta keep things interesting, I guess..

Laura Woolf joined us to take some more photos today. She is a lot of fun to have around! She fits in perfectly in this twisted group of folks - she has the same absolutely silly sense of humor we have.

We worked some more on the foal barn today. It has taken so much work to get it where it is - and it's no where near ready for the holiday party! We organized almost all of the medical supplies for the milk room - I just have to label everything in the milk room and it will be ready for foal season. Victoria has repainted all the trim in the barn, and we have decided to paint all the metal walls, also. They are old enough now that they have some rust along the bottom. The grey paint really makes them look snazzy! We still need to pull up the mats in the foal barn and fill a lot of the sunken floor before the party, or you will all be tripping over the ruts!

I rode Polar again this evening. I like this horse very much, but I do feel that he will be for someone who knows their stuff. He has a very sensitive mouth, and he has obviously been cowboy'd a LOT. I'm trying to figure out if it's just a ring work thing - he seemed to really enjoy going on a little walk across the road. He is very tense and anxious in the ring. We did a lot of walking and trotting to try to reeelaaax a little bit. He tries. It is hard for him. Every time we whoa, he turns his head just a little bit to watch me, and tenses up, like he's waiting for me to smack him or something. He is soooo affectionate though, he loves being petted and kissed. For someone who knows their stuff and knows how to handle an anxious horse, he would be soo nice. I wouldn't mind riding him every day, not at all. He is fun! I just hope his brain continues to unwind a bit in the coming days and he starts to enjoy being ridden, and not worry so darn much.

It was dark by the time I fed dinner at the in town farm. I'm not gonna lie to ya'll, sometimes I'm a wuss about the dark. Luckily the horses were near the barn, so I had a little emotional support... ha, ha.

Have a happy Thursday....