Delaware All Horse Parade!

Hey Everyone!
We are heading up to the Delaware All Horse Parade tomorrow!  If you are into horses, be sure to check it out... it is definitely something worth reserving a few hours to go and see!  We will be riding in it for the first time ever, and will be taking horses that are available for adoption as well as horses that have already been adopted!  If you are interested in riding your LCC Alumni in it with us, PLEASE give us a call TODAY so we can work something out!  If not, show up with your friends and family and cheer our horses on!
Happy Trails!
Rachel
Last Chance Corral

Ponies, Ponies, Ponies!!!

Hey Everyone!!!

Whenever we have space and are financially able, we like to go to sales and pick up some horses and ponies with potential. We usually go to Sugarcreek, but our involvement with recent horse repos there caused us to be "unwelcome"... for the time being at least. We decided that it was best to let those emotions subside for a little while and go to another sale. On August 14th, we went to the Mount Hope horse sale. As luck would have it, we were able to save 6 ponies! We hauled home that night in the rain and put them up for the night, anxious to see what "treasures" we found the next day (after the bute wears off, haha). Luckily, all of the ponies that we have are sound of body and mind and are looking for new homes! Check out the ponies on our website to see what could be trotting around in your pasture! They vary from 5 years old and green broke to 10 years old and child safe. Check them out... if you know of someone who is looking for a medium-large pony... we have it!
Here is a breakdown of who we have right now...

Shiraz: 8 year old 13hh black and white paint mare
Pleasure: 10 year old 13.2hh Haflinger mare
Yoder: 5 year old 14.2hh Haflinger gelding
Dazzle (Rose): 9 year old 14hh red roan paint mare
Daisy: 9 year old 13 hh Haflinger mare
Molly: 7 year old 13.1hh bay Haflinger X mare

We also just got two new TBs in... Precision and Possum... so check them out online... if you are looking for that special event horse... these guys are super special and are looking for a career that will get them in the limelight!

For those of you who are into the "smooth rides", you should definitely check out Carlita!! She is a 5 year old Paso Fino... typical Paso, just a sweetheart! She is bay and beautiful, and is looking for her next home to come and swoop her up for a lifetime of trails and fun!

Glory has been here awhile, and not because there is anything bad about her, but just because we are looking for the perfect home for her. She is a 21 year old Westphalian mare that has been there and done that. For anyone looking for a great hunter pace horse, this girl looooves the trails! She will not be adopted out to a home that will use her for lessons, though, she has been retired from that life forever. Like most gray horses her age, she does have cancer, but she has had the same unchanging lump since she was still in the show ring, and it does not affect her soundness at all! Give this girl a chance and see if you think you might be the perfect someone for this extra noble mare!

On another note, we will be heading to Delaware County's All Horse Parade in September! Everyone up that way should come on out and see the awesome display of horses that are in the parade... it's quite a sight! We will be in the parade with some LCC horses that are up for adoption!Here is a picture of Pontiac a few days before he was adopted... in the kitchen!! This baby is a super special member of our family, and we are excited to see how he grows up! Congratulations to his new family... you really have a good one! Pontiac's video will stay up on YouTube to show people just how awesome a nurse mare foal can be!! Search "LCC Pontiac" to see it!

Happy Trails,
Rachel

Delaware Classic Results!

Hey There Everyone!
The Delaware Classic this year was one of the smallest ever. There were only about 1/5th of the horses that are usually there, the extreme heat and big bugs discouraging anyone who actually showed up from having TOO much fun in the heat. Surprisingly enough, we were still able to make $18,000 at this fundraiser... thanks to all of you who "rallied" for the horses yet again! Wander was adopted, and Pontiac is still looking for his forever home. It was quite a shocker that no on e wanted him, but then again, he IS a paint, and hunters aren't usually too fond of the "colorful" guys. Not to worry, he will find his forever home, no problem! With a personality like his, what's not to love?

On another note, our next newsletter will hopefully be out by this Thanksgiving. This means that we should start... umm... LAST month. With all that there is to do around here, "that dang newsletter" always seems to get shoved back and postponed, until we are all here at the farm proofreading in between cleaning stalls and typing and editing until 2 in the morning. Procrastinators we are. Soooo, in an effort to have our stuff somewhat "together" by the time that our actual deadline rolls around, we are starting NOW. Well, we are trying to. This is where we need YOU. If you have adopted a horse or foal from us, PLEASE send us a picture of them doing something fun with you. If you want to write a short paragraph about your horse and what they mean to you, etc, that would be great too... and we will publish it in the newsletter!

Before and after pictures of our nurse mare foals are ALWAYS welcome... it's amazing how nice those cutie pies turn out! You would be surprised how many people come to the farm and say they don't want to adopt because they want to breed their {insert common breed here} mare this year for that "dream baby" they've always wanted. They don't want a "throw away" foal that doesn't have papers. We tell them "well, we can MAKE papers... if that's what you are really shopping for, haha". People don't understand that PAPERS do NOT make the horse. We have seen horses with papers that we wouldn't want to breed for ANYTHING, and have seen other grade horses that are just DROP DEAD gorgeous. We do try to convert these people, though, and with your help sometimes we do- and sometimes even find a home for a baby. I have brought out pictures countless times of YOUR babies all grown up to show these people that YES, these nurse mare foals ARE nice! If you have sent us an "after" picture, I have probably used your baby as an example!

So look at it this way, you are not only getting to show your baby off, but you are educating the public about nurse mare foals and how wonderful they CAN be, and in come cases, you might even be preventing another foal from being born.

Oh, and as a "horsie" public service announcement, it's HOT HOT HOT now and the BIG horse flies are out. If YOU wouldn't want to stand in the sun all day with big bugs attacking you, please don't make your horse do it. Make sure that your horse has shade during ALL hours of the day, and if your pasture is in the sun for a few hours, bring 'em in! I know that most horse sprays DON'T take care of the big bugs, but we found that Pyranha fly spray works for most of them. As you are filling your horse's water trough (with cool, clean water... even if it's clear, stick your hand in it to make sure that it is not too warm... that's just gross), spray your horses. Our horses mob us while we are filling the tubs here because they know they get a "cool down". Remember, they may be horses, but they like a cold shower as much as YOU do! I throw some ice cubes in their grain too... It gives them a cool quick treat to munch on as they are having breakfast or dinner.

OK, that's my preaching for the day, if you haven't been checking out our YouTube videos, it's something cute and lighthearted to do, and is well worth your time (yes, even if you have dial-up). So sit down and check them out!

PS. Someone is posting advertisements with tons of links that send you to Asian sites... DO NOT click on these links, because I do not know if there are viruses attached... so watch out. I have asked whoever it is to stop, and right now, I have just been deleting the comments. So please ignore them... Thanks, and sorry for the "blog clutter"!!!

Happy Trails!
Rachel
Last Chance Corral

2010 Delaware Classic

Hey Everyone!
Here is a blog to remind everyone that our Delaware Classic will be help this Saturday (July 24th) at the Delaware Fairgrounds! Come on out with your Last Chance horses and parade them in the arena while Victoria reads their story over a loudspeaker!

Show up and show off your baby!

Here are the links to our foal "Picks of the Year"! Wander and Pontiac are big strong boys now and are absolutely STUNNING!!! These pictures are NOTHING... wait until you see them! For now, though, you can check out their YouTube videos...

Here are pictures of the boys now... they are pretty amazing, huh?


Click their names to see their videos!

Wander

Pontiac

Also, we have been doing videos of horses and foals available for adoption.
If you click on LCC's YouTube Channel, it will take you to all of our current and past horses for adoption!

Happy trails!
Rachel
Last Chance Corral

Blogs are Rare These Days!

Hey Guys... I'm soooooo soooooo sorry that we haven't been able to blog recently. It is NOT because there is nothing interesting here going on at the farm, actually, it is quite the opposite. Babies, babies, and more babies make it difficult for me to sit down and type on the computer... and when I do, there is always something that I could be doing instead with the babies, so the blog has kinda been put on the back burner. I will keep trying to do it, though, but keep your expectations pretty low. Thanks!
~Rachel

Dear Blogger Pals,
I'm sorry to say that we have been unable to blog a lot lately. Foal season has us up against a wall with work. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. Yesterday, I started at 7am and didn't finish until 1am. We are all weary and a little burned out- but cheerfully go about our business (well maybe not so cheerful about all of the diarrhea). Instead we will offer you a selection of short videos put together by Rachel. Our dear friend John Chun sent us a video camera and the program to make movies, as well of daily offers of encouragement to make these shorts. We dedicate these to John.
Always help the horses,
~Victoria

To get to our "YouTube Channel", copy and paste this link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LastChanceCorral#p/a

OR, click HERE!

Twice Out East

Here is our official statement on the Twice Out East situation. Because we were not the first one's to publish this, people assumed that we were not aware. We were actually aware before anyone else, and we showed up at the sale to try to save her. Here is Victoria's statement in blue.

I’m sure if you are a regular reader of this blog you are well aware of “Lexie’s Story”. After we exposed a horse person turned bad (Evildoer#1), we inadvertently put ourselves and the LCC animals in harm’s way. This incredibly unconscionable, cruel being set about to “take us down”. She conspired with a friend of hers to do so. She set the friend (Evildoer#2) up as an adopter, paying her to lie to us to take these horses. Her friend (Evildoer#2) met the criteria for adoption, and left with two horses, only to turn them over directly to Evildoer#1. In less than a week (we hadn’t even had time to check up with the horses) these horses were brought up to the Sugarcreek sale by Evildoer#1. In addition to conspiring to do not only this, she (premeditatedly) took a razor blade to one of the horse’s inner lip. This was done in an attempt to render the horse’s tattoo illegible. Rachel high-tailed it the 2.5 hours to the sale house to get our horses. We were able to secure the freedom of one of our horses for the price of $175. The killer buyer wanted more money than we had on hand to “purchase” our Thoroughbred mare, Twice Out East. Luckily, he had no intention of sending her to slaughter house. His routine was to hold Thoroughbreds hostage (threatening to send them to Canada/Mexico) until a rescue could afford to free them. In this case, freedom cost over a thousand dollars. This was a horse that we showed CLEAR TITLE to at the sale.
Twice Out East is now safe in the hands of Greener Pastures rescue. The LCC put $300 towards her purchase price, and would like to thank everyone else who has helped us save her. We will be working with the ASPCA to prosecute all parties involved in this conspiracy to maim and murder. Things will be forever changed here at the corral. Never again will an adopter be “innocent until proven guilty”. We will assume that everyone is capable of causing harm until otherwise shown to be legitimate. All of this comes on the tail of losing our beloved vet AND our attorney. If you have ANY legal expertise in this area that you would like to share in regard to this situation, please contact us. In the mean time, we will update you as to what transpires on this blog. Pictures are included of Twice Out East when she was here, and at the sale house. There are also pictures of her sliced lip.

Sincerely,
Victoria

BABIES!!!

Hey Everyone!

We have BABIES!!!!
Check our website later on today! They will be put up online with pictures and descriptions as soon as possible! Here are the really quick descriptions, though!

Sorry this post isn't longer, but we have a list a mile long to do!

1. bay colt (TB type)
2. black and white paint filly (QH type)
3. red and white paint filly (QH type)
4. dark bay/black filly (TB type)
5. chestnut filly (QH type)

If you are interested in adopting, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the requirements BEFORE you call. This will save you time, and save us time as well!

Thanks!
Rachel

TOOO MANY HORSES!

Hey There!

Congratulations to Lisa White of Vinton County on her adoption of Lethal Whiskey. She took him home today, and is looking forward to having the awesome guy take her two children in some horse shows this summer! Good luck Whiskey!!

While one horse got adopted this week, we still are sooo overstocked with horses. People just don't like to adopt in the winter... summer seems to remind everyone that they loooove horses and want one of their own. Though homes are few and far between for the horses this winter, they still need us and sometimes even demand our help. We acquired four more quite unexpectedly, and here is their story...

The other day, Victoria received a call from someone who had fallen on hard times (like everyone else in this present economy...). After the father lost his job, it became impossible for the family (with 7 children) to continue to provide suitable care for the horses. Victoria decided that this was a special case that definitely needed our help. These horses needed us, and they were immediately put high on our priority list. We headed out to look at the horses and see the situation that they were in. When we arrived, we were glad that they were NOT emaciated. They were a little underweight, but they were not starving. Luckily, these well meaning owners called us BEFORE their horses became skeletons. There are so many that aren't as lucky... you know the story...

But back to the horses. There were four of them, and they were in a barn/shed/overhangie-thingie, all fenced in. Their pasture was just a bunch of churned up mud, and needed at least a season of no-horses and reseeding before it should even have a goat on it, let alone four horses. Barbed wire attacked both Victoria and I as we went to "assess the situation", even though it was clear almost immediately that we HAD to get these horses out. About 45 minutes later, all four horses were loaded up and we were on our way home.

The horses were in pretty bad shape otherwise, though. Dan and Handy had about 3 extra inches of toe that were unnecessary, and all of them were in need of a farrier, a deworming, and a 'super-soaked' bath. For the next few days, Ali, Tracy, Victoria and I all worked on these horses- cutting endless mudballs off of them and trimming back their toes so they could break over in the front... our farrier isn't due to come out for a few weeks!
Now, though, the horses are happy and healthier, and now we know what they really are and how much they know (and don't know) about being ridden.

Here is a breakdown of the horses... they are also listed online. There are a bunch of photos on their web pages, but they are all muddy... it was the first day we got them. I will add some photos of us riding them and of them all squeaky clean as soon as the rain stops and the mud goes away... at least a little!

Here are the new boys!

Lieutenant Dan: 20 year old bay Quarter Horse gelding. A retired reining horse, Dan is safe for a beginner! Click HERE for more information on Dan the Man!

Handy: 15 year old black and white Paint gelding. He is a retired barrel horse, and would be great for the intermediate rider looking for a new trail partner-in-crime! Click HERE for more info on Handy!

Hootie: 6 year old black and white Paint gelding. Hootie is broke to ride and is quiet (though still green). He would make the perfect *insert your discipline here* horse ever! Haha! Click HERE for more information on Hootie!

Kipper: 12 year old chestnut Saddlebred/QH gelding. 14.2 hands tall. Kipper is mannerly and lovey-dovey on the ground, but when you try to ride him, he gets extremely nervous... almost like he has never been ridden. He needs to be "re-started", and he is free to a good home. Click HERE for more information on Kipper!

Updates and "Just-so-ya-knows"!

Hey There Everyone!

Everything has been running smoothly around the farm. The recent warm(er) weather has caused the ice to melt, and we all know what that means (poop-mud-muck) YAY! The horses have been kept in for the past few days to give the paddocks a chance to drain (made possible by Victoria's endless 'hoe-ing' so the water will flow out), so they are all ready to get outside and get some fresh air!

Anyway, we currently have 6 horses here and two partying at Leah's farm! Raffles (who just came back from his foster home) was quickly adopted by someone who loooves gaited ponies! See? There IS a lid for every pot, as Victoria always says! Amidst all of the drama circling our lovely Lexie, there is some silver lining. Lexie was adopted yesterday by a young girl that is especially talented training Thoroughbreds off of the track. She was actually interested in Lexie BEFORE her whole "nightmare adventure", but at the time, had too many horses in her barn. As soon as she heard that Lexie was back with us, she was determined to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to that beautiful mare again. I'm sure that we will be getting pictures of Lexie in her new home shortly (instead of in the kill pen!!), and congratulations to Katie on the adoption of this WONDERFUL mare!

So here is a list of the horses that we currently have for adoption. Click on their names to go to their webpages!

~ Whiskey (AQHA)
~ Flower (Arab)
~ Burke (QH X Haflinger)
~ Pia (TB)
~ Teak (QH)

There are all on the website, so check them out and give us a call if you are interested in them!
www.lastchancecorral.org!

Here is an update on the whole Lexie thing ( seen on the last blog). Since it is MLK Jr Day, all of the offices that we need to contact are closed. In order to get the consignment slip that the "bad lady" used (and autographed) to sign Lexie up, we have to have "the big dogs"write a letter to the auction owner, then he will send us anything we need. This will all happen tomorrow, so hang tight for the names of the guilty. For now, we're just tiptoeing through the legal mumbo-jumbo at this point, but at least everyone is being cooperative! We'll see what comes of Victoria's research.

For some reason, I can't put pictures up of the horses online, so I am posting pictures of Whiskey on here. Here is a link to Whiskey's YouTube video (I'm warning you now... it's not a high quality one... the ground was hard, and it was cold, but you will get the general idea of how he moves and acts...)

Thanks for reading!

Happy Trails!
~Rachel

LCC Girls Gone REPO!!

Hey Everyone!

This blog was written by Victoria. Her story is in blue! Are you ready? This is a doozie! More information will be posted on this topic, but this is all that we can post for now (before these people are proven guilty in a court of law... ya know). But trust me, the names of the guilty WILL be made known.

Friday started out like any other day at the corral. Caring for horses, answering phones... but ended in a late night "repo-rescue". The events started to spin out of control with a phone call from a North Carolina rescue, informing us that one of our Thoroughbreds was at the Sugarcreek slaughter sale. "Lexie in Lingerie" was indeed a Last Chance Corral horse that had recently been adopted by someone that we assumed was trustworthy. I immediately called the person on the phone and was surprised to hear the auctioneer in the background. she WAS at the auction! At this juncture I have to step back in time by three hours... when this same person called me to see if I was going to "be around" that day. I said yes, and she said that maybe she would stop by. Was she making sure that we weren't going to be at the sale? In this conversation, she went further to say that she wasn't going to the sale herself, actually she was "driving the opposite direction that day". So now we have her AT the sale and denying any culpability. Meanwhile, calls are flooding into the LCC in regard to Lexie's presence at the sale. I then called the sale house and got in touch with the owner who was more than cooperative. He told me that he would guarantee that he would not let the horse go through the sale and would hold her for us until we could get there. Then, magically, Lexie could not be found! Neither could our "rogue" adopter! She was seen, however, seen loading Lexie back into her trailer then making a mad dash for home! At this point it would be our word against hers and things could get messy. Well, "things" were already "messy" and emotions were running high! There was, however, a blessing coming our way via the internet. One of our "detectives" at the sale house was not only able to ID Lexie by her tattoo but took several photos of her IN THE SALE HOUSE! At that time, thought, the photos had not yet made it to our computer when Rachel spearheaded a Repo Team and headed towards West Virginia to save this horse from becoming "further disappeared". I stayed behind to man the phone. Boy Howdy! Let me tell you that the phone lines were crackling with fire!! Back and forth, accusations, denials, directions, and the assorted nervous craziness that a situation like this can foster. While Stretch (Rachel), Tracy, and Roger drove through the dark towards god-knows-where in West-By-Gawd-Virginia, the photos came through! PROOF POSITIVE!! There was our Lexie- in the kill pen at Sugarcreek! Undeniable, irrefutable evidence! When the Repo Team got to this person's residence, Lexie was there, as was a police officer. She had actually called the police on herself seeking their aid. Long story short, Rachel ended up pulling the pictures up on the officer's computer, had the police officer look over our adoption contract, and he eventually agreed with us. (I am making this part sound ever so much more SMOOOOTH that it actually went down... suffice it to say that a certain part of Tracy's anatomy was threatened to be kicked). Lexie now stands safely back in our barn. Thank God that the horse world is small. We can't all be in all places at all times. So we watch each others' backs. Joan, Renee, Cathy, and Beverly helped Lexie in a profound way on Friday- they saved her life. I have learned a valuable lesson- ALWAYS have a camera! Take pictures, LOTS of pictures, and document the situation! Without the photos, we couldn't have proven so quickly that she was our horse. Thank you to all of the eyes and ears that watch over these creatures. NEVER underestimate the power of teamwork! ~Victoria

Crazy story, huh? I thought so. I included pictures of Lexie at the sale (sent in by our many helpers) and pictures that we took of Lexie today... for your comparison! What do you think? It is her? That's what we call EVIDENCE!!!

These are the pics that were taken AT Sugarcreek... thanks to Lexie's guardian angels!

Here is the winning body shot of Lexie in the kill pen!

Here is a head shot of Lexie at the sale.
Tattoo, Anyone? How much more proof can you get?
These are the photos that we took today of Lexie for your comparison.

Here is a head shot that you can compare to the picture taken at the sale.

Check out this side shot... Doesn't this horse look like the one that was in the kill pen?

Doesn't this LH sock look IDENTICAL to the one in the body shot taken at Sugarcreek?

This tail shot shows the hair that was clipped from the sale tag that she "supposedly" never had!
Happy Trails,
~Rachel

We're Waiting... and waiting...

Hey Everyone!

Lots of new and exciting things have been happening here at the farm in the past few weeks! Horses have been coming and going, and I can proudly say that EVERY horse that we currently have up for adoption is on the website. if a horse is on our website, it is available for adoption!

Here is what has been happening around the farm:
We have the foal barn ready! The nurse mare farms have given us a "heads up", so we are expecting the "come and get 'em" phone call ANY DAY NOW!!! Even after you have been here awhile, the anticipation is still there, and those cute little babies are ALWAYS going to be cute, no matter how many we see! This is a picture of the foal barn as is right now... this is probably the last time you will see it empty until next summer!

We still try to go on occasional trail rides... Victoria LOVES to ride in the snow- but the rest of us prefer our core body temperature to be above zero, so it doesn't happen much. This obviously limits the amount of training that we can do, as well as sale videos and stuff like that. Farm projects are officially put on hold during baby season anyway, but the recent snowstorms jump started that for us this year!

Currently, we only have FOUR horses at the farm! This is only going to last a few hours, though, because Tracy and Victoria just delivered some to their new homes, Burke and Cruiser (who is not currently up for adoption) are partying at Leah's farm, and Victoria and Tracy are bringing a couple home with them tonight. So actually, we aren't down in horses, but for a few hours anyway, I can feel like we "have room" for the billions of horses that are trying to get here.

We have a special mare named Pia right now that needs a very special home. She is a 18 year old TB mare, and she came to us as a starvation case. She is BEAUTIFUL, and she has a kind eye. The problem with her is... are you ready? She is too old to be a baby maker anymore. That's it! She is sound and ridable (no beginners, please), and her ground manners are exquisite! Check her out on our website... Click HERE to go to her page!

I think that that's all for now, folks, but I'm sure that I will have plenty of computeratin' to do as soon as the girls get back with the new horses! As for right now, I'm off to organize all of those "hard to find" items in the milk and medicine room. It's never fun to have a baby that needs care NOW waiting a few extra seconds while you are tearing the room apart looking for that darned whatever-it-is that's hiding from you, ya know?

Happy Trails,
Rachel