New faces....

We have had an influx of new arrivals here at the LCC since we have had a few horses head out to their new homes. Sunni goes home tomorrow, that will be one more off the farm. Tonight we have 14, tomorrow we will have 13. At least for a day or two! I remember several years ago when I first started volunteering here. Back then, ten was a full farm! We rarely went over 11... at least as far as I can remember. (I have a very poor memory, by the way.) These days, we keep the paddocks and the barns full, so we are usually closer to the 12-14 mark. We currently have no horses at the in-town farm. We have been debating for weeks who to take up there, but right now, it is hard to find the staff to drive up there and feed twice a day. So for now, all stay here.

Yesterday morning, Victoria and I loaded up the pony Pocahontas to take her over to Stone Gate Farm. She was here less than two days! Good for her. She is going to be a pony for the OU Equestrian team. Stone Gate Farm and the OU equestrian team are big donors and adopters for us. Pokey pony was turned out in the big field that she is staring at longingly in this pic:


What a nice place to live, huh? We then picked up Otis from Stone Gate. Otis is a teenaged TB gelding. He is a very good boy! We haven't ridden him yet to see where he's at right now, but he looks great. He does have some swelling and heat in his right front, so we'll keep an eye on that before we ride him.


After leaving Stone Gate, we headed out another direction to pick up a QH.

This QH was supposed to be a big, super quiet boy. His owner was a little short, and has had trouble bridling him. Once he started having issues being bridled, she wasn't able to ride him anymore, so he has been living the good life the last five years. She called him King. His registered name is King's Polar Bar, so we are calling him Polar. Polar was a little bit of a turd to catch and load, but after spending a little time with him here, I really like him. I think he's been bullied a bit. A little bit of lovin's from Traci and I and he was a different horse! He had a lot of old scabby poop runs on his back legs and all in his tail, so I took some time getting rid of all of that, which he appreciated. Even though he's a little homely, he's a decent mover, and got along super with everyone in the field. I think he has quite the cute face, what do you think? I haven't ridden him yet - we'll conquer that tomorrow. If he is as easy to ride as his owner claimed he is, he should make a really nice horse for someone. Sound and sane, he is 17 year old, and maybe 15.2, if I had to guess... I will stick him tomorrow.





One horse rolled and they all had to go at it... Mack was so cute, had to share his pic too:

Yesterday afternoon, I made a trip to Columbus to pick up some hay and even MORE horses. A big thank you to Stephanie Leveque, who obtained 20 of the heaviest, most beautiful bales of alfalfa EVER to help Triumph and King with their weight gain. It is some WONDERFUL hay! After I swung by their house on the east side, I headed over to Richwood to pick up a pony from a friend of mine. Henry is a four year old pony, about 13.3 hands. My friend started him longing, and he does so impressively! This evening we longed him over fences to see how he jumped - TOO CUTE - and I swung my big butt up on him for a minute to see what he'd think. (I don't think he thought anything - no big deal for Mr. Henry.) This pony has a lot of potential and could really light up some child's life!






A big thank you to Heidi, who was kind enough to let me overnight Henry and my truck and trailer in her barn. This morning I packed up and brought Henry and another horse, C.C., back to Athens. C.C. is a very well bred, tall, correct medicene hat Paint gelding. He is 17, and has one small problem: he has incontinence issues. His donors had been working diligently with OSU to understand and possibly correct his problem, but they wanted to be sure that above all, they were doing what was best for C.C. Dr. Pete Smith, our deal vet here at the LCC, has agreed to see what he thinks of C.C. and to try a procedure himself. We hope it works out! Before C.C. developed these issues, he did dressage, hunters, eventing, hunt seat, and western events. He's truly an all-around boy. Traci and I spent an hour giving him some attention today. We washed his back legs, and brushed his mane and tail. He enjoys the attention! Unfortunately, none of my pics of him came out - I will ride him tomorrow and get some more for ya'll.

DeDe Cole is kind enough to donate her massage services to us, and today she worked on C.C., Triumph, and King. They certainly do appreciate it.

Today has been crazy because we have decided on a date for our holiday ball and fundraiser - December 6th. That means it's crunch time for us, in a big way!! I made up some invitation today and we took them to be printed at Kinko's. The labels are ready to smack on the front and they should be in the mail by this weekend. If you don't get yours by next week, email me and I'll send you one! Our holiday back will begin at 7pm in the foal barn on that Saturday, and for those who have attended these events in the past, it is one to remember. If you have an exceptional item you'd like to donate to raise money for the foals, let me know and we can pick it up, or feel free to mail it to us. Another thing we could really use is any unused, working Christmas lights. The Christmas lights really make the farm feel festive for the holidays! Big Lots, here we come.... ha, ha.

Guess what I did today? Ran our first successful tattoo search query with the Jockey Club. We found out that Lilly's real name is Hangin by a Tread. How about that? Her birthday is February 20th, 1999. She was born in Kentucky and raced until 2007! She won over $21,000. Now you really want to adopt her, don't you? ; )

TGIF!!!