Tuesday, January 19, 2010

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!

Monday, January 18, 2010

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

Saturday, January 16, 2010

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

Monday, January 11, 2010

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