Week of December 28th

Monday December 28th

Not a whole lot to report mostly office work, stall cleaning and feeding of horses. I am trying to rearrange our website to make it more user friendly and easier on the eye- wish me luck!

A few calls were made and the euthanasia and rendering of Cash was scheduled for the owners. Apparently the lady who owns Cash has no knowledge of the three horses she owns, all where her husbands who just suffered a massive stroke. I will be at her place Tuesday morning to meet the vet and assist him with the proceedure.

Deb has been busy filtering calls about the lost dogs she found on Christmas Day; hopefully they will be back in their rightful home soon.

Tuesday December 29th

I was passing Cotton's Flying U Rodeo at 7 am this morning headed to Lincoln to assist Cash's owner with his euthanasia. I fed Cash his last meal and met the vet at 8 am. Everything went well and after Cash had passed I talked with the vet on his estimated age and he said no younger than 30 and he only had 3 back teeth left. I must say I was relieved that Cash was not longer in pain and subject to the cold weather we have had lately. It must have been hard to keep his body temperature up with the little body fat he had left. Thanks to the concerned donor who brought Cash to Sammie's Friends attention, without your help Cash might still be suffering. RIP Cash.

I plan to visit Cash's owners again next week to discuss the 2 other young horses they own. We will be talking about training and the possibility of rehoming them to someone with more experience. It is not a good idea to get young, untrained horses when you have little horse experience. I suggested an older well broke gelding for the family and hopefully my suggestion will be well received. Cash’s owner mentioned to me on my was out that there were two other horses worse shape than he was when they picked him up. I doubt they are still there but I will follow up and make sure there are no suffering horses left at that house.

 After leaving Cash’s I was off to pick up Raz, a 15-year-old Appaloosa gelding with moon blindness and arthritis. His owner sent him to BITS for our January euthanasia clinic, but after meeting Raz we believe he may have a chance to make it as a lead line horse or pasture pal. Dr. Tortosa will be out to evaluate him on Wednesday and talk about his current pain level, hopefully a little Bute is all he needs. Cross your fingers for this guy; he is just too sweet!

While picking Raz we also took in Bob a 5 year quarter horse gelding. The owner was being evicted and was trying to find him a home but ran out of time and asked that we find him a new home. She had contacted several rescues in the area, but was told she needed a $200 surrender fee before they would take him. Due to her current financial situation, she was unable to come up with the funds and was extremely grateful that were able to take him, no charge. Bob has a great disposition, he is trained to ride and he tied and trailered like a gentleman today.

Upon arrival back at the BITS headquarters, Bob and Raz were both de-wormed and placed in their stalls for the night. Raz is a little underweight so his blanket was on before night fall. Bob will be vaccinated tomorrow when Dr. Tortosa makes her appearance and hopefully if all goes well, Raz will too. Once Bob has been properly evaluated, he will be available for adoption. If you have any interest in him, please give us a call.

Wendsday December 30th

Not much excitement. A lot of phone calls to confirm our euthanasia clinic, which will be January 12th. The clinic will be offered for $100 a horse, which includes veterinarian administered euthanasia and professional pick up &rendering from Sacramento Rendering Co.

We have also confirmed that we have 9 available spots for the $50 gelding clinic. This clinic will be help February 13th and is available to all who qualify. For more information, please email us at info@backinthesaddleproject.com or click here

Thursday December 31st

Today BITS got the best call ever! A friend of a friend, is moving and has sold all of his horses. He has about 20-30 newer t-posts and electrical fencing materials that he is willing to donate to BITS, if we come and take it all down. It took me less than a second to say "give me the address; this is an answer to our prayers." With more fencing, we are able to take on a few more horses and able to cut down on feed costs.

Since Deb was at work, I recruited a few great friends and we set out with some amazing equipment to remove t-posts, electrical rope and insulators.

Notice the 4 paw worker on top!

Many hands make light work, and after a couple of hours were loaded up and ready to head back home. I cannot thank our friends enough for sacrificing their New Year's Eve to help out BITS. We had a great time watching the kids work together and play in the fresh MUD!

All and all we came home with 1 light table, 10 acres worth of electrical rope and dozens and dozens of insulators for both t-posts and wood posts. It was a great day.

Friday January 1st

Well today is the day to put some t-posts in and get these horses out of the barn and into the sunshine (what little there is today). BITS hopes you enjoyed the Tournament of Roses Parade, we watched it on HGTV and are so proud of our young FFA kids! Wish us luck today and Happy New Years.

This week we are in need of: 

de-wormer, vaccinations, used halters & leadropes

Can you help?