"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly. Who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievment, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly."
- Theodore Roosevelt
I woke up this morning and was sent this text. It immediately brough tears to my eyes. So many days I wake up and just plow through the day. Actually most days this is how it goes. Wake up, feed the dogs, feed Peaches, and then work until I fall asleep. My brain never stops. Never shuts down. Even when I sleep at night my dreams are of dogs, auctions, horses and on the rare occasion being surrounded by orcas. This is my life. This is my lifes passion that I believe whole heartedly in. I thrive on learning. On growing. On getting and being better -- the best at what I am doing, for THEM. THEY are all that matters in the smallest and the largest of pictures for me. I hope you can feel that.
August was a month of loss. It is hard for me to even sit down and write out about it because mentally I have already allowed myself to move forward and focus on the present. It is the best we, I, can do with pain.
We had some amazing adoptions this month such as Dixie, Maui, Buttons, Athena, Roslyn, Statler and Lucy. We have several more pending adoptions for Layla, (Ashley, Alex and Abi- family of donkeys), Clint and Sly, Hazel and Xander, Dash and Artax. Some months we ave a lot of adoptions based on who is ready, some months not as many. We take our horses serious, which is why we invest SO MUCH into training and rehab. The biggest thing I see are horses being misrepresented for who they are and what they are capable of doing. The last thing I would ever want is a person to get injured due to being misled, or the horse to lose its life because of being allowed to do physical activities it never should haev been doing. LONG TERM SUCCESS looks VERY different then short term success. Remember that when you are supporting rescues--- at least that is what I look for when supporting them.
Moving into September we are transitioning to bringing on two more riders/trainers into our fold. We spend THOUSANDS, think $20,000+ a month on training for our horses. I decided to bring in two additional in house trainers on salary which will bring our total expenses for training down by HALF. Another amazing piece of this is that we will be able to promote to our community, and to other rescues, that they can send their horses to us where we have trusted trainers who they can trust to do right by their horse. The way I invision this is that when the horse comes in it is assessed by our team and then paired up with the trainer that at that point, for that horse, will work best for the horse and what it needs. Just like we learned better with different teaching styles and connected better with different teachers growing up, and even into adulthood, so do the horses and it is important we acknowledge and act on that.
With that being said we desperately need donations to continue building our 14 acres across the street. As we grow as an organization so do our needs to be able to house the horses. We still need roughly $30,000 to complete the intiital build out of paddocks, shelters and stalls. It is a massive goal but I KNOW we can hit it if we all work together. Click here to donate towards the 14 acres.
Now the hard part - our losses. This month sucked, is the best way to word it. It was awful. Last Friday was completely gut wrenching. We had to lay to rest our beloved Gunther, JP and Comet. Gunther and JP have been staples with us and loved DEARLY. Gunthers hind end, due to genetics and EPM started to give out. We knew that the day would come so when we noticed him barely able to put weight down on his back leg, we knew it was time. JP also. JP was a senior gelding with us that we rescued in 2022. He has taught so many SO MUCH about the kindness of horses. Due to his age he was never adopted, but he was adopted by all of us here at the barn and loved immensely. JP's stifle ended up getting to a point where it wasnt fair to keep him alive to just keep him alive. He was in pain daily and was having issues walking even on the pain meds that are safe to give daily.
Comet, UGH, Comet. Comet was the grey gelding we rescued at the August auction that was following me around everywhere. He was the first to have his sweet face sticking over the fence begging for love. I couldnt understand, outside of his cancer on his tail bed and in his mouth (typical for greys) WHY he was there at the auction. It wasnt until we got him home to California that we realized the problem - he couldnt breathe. He had developed a mass in his throat that was getting to the point where anytime he exerted anything more than a walk he would start suffocating. We showered him with love and braids and treats and did what his previous owners should have done for him. It breaks my heart into a thousand pieces even having to type this out. Some horses just connect with us, and he was one that deserved a long happy life.
We also lost baby Liam. When Jen went out to check on the two boys who were now under the care of Tiffany, baby Liam had passed away during the night. There were no signs, he was not sick, there was no reason for it. We immediately called Dr Nick who was coming to the barn that day so that he could look over the body to see what he could find to give us an idea of what could have happened. He was nursing, pooping, peeing, literally no signs that there was anything wrong. Lord knows losing a foal to us is a massive deal and we take pride in what we are able to do on a large scale with these babies. Jen and her family give everything to them.The best the doctor could tell was that he already had something internal going on which is why the mom possibly abandoned him. It is hard to say but it was a hard hit to Jen and her family, to us. Baby Trevor is doing amazing and we epect him to continue to thrive! (see stories on IG today for his update).
Last week we also had to take Harvey into the vet. We already knew he had EPM super bad, he almost fell on top of me when we were just simply walking him to the trailer after the auction - thats how bad his control over his hind end was. That is what absolutely sucks about horses who get EPM and the owners dont jump on it with meds immediately. It is a parasite that eats their nervous system until they lose complete control of it. Keep in mind the meds are $1000 a month and horses typically need 2-3 months straight of the medicine. So the empathy is there on why a lot of people cannot afford it. It just SUCKS. I just wish they wouldnt dump their horses because of it. DO RIGHT BY YOUR HORSE even if that becomes an incredibly hard decision. Reach out to a rescue for help. Offer a match for donations towards the medicine. Where there is a will--- there is a way. Always.
We started Harvey on the EPM meds knowing that at best we could give him time and maybe a little of the control would come back. After two weeks we noticed that it was only getting worse. He was peeing on himself constantly to the point that his skin was burning off. It wasnt fair to him to live like that. Peyton trailered him to Outlaw vet hospital and we made the hard decision to do the right thing by Harvey.
Another hard loss was Jefferson. This was the bay thoroughbred we fundraised for at the auction who went through the loose sale. He was SO KIND. I hate it. You always see these horses and have visions of what they are going to become and do and then you see the reality of WHY they were sent to the auction. After about a week we noticed Jefferson went from slightly 'off' to barely able to step out on his front leg. This tends to happen as the horses start to decompress and gain weight. We immediately added him to our vet board for the next day to see what the problem was praying it was an absess. Deep down I knew it was going to be something more. When you see as many horses as I do, as we do, you start to see thr subtle differences in body language that they display with certain pains. His xrays came back that he had fractured a pretty large chunk off of his leg, the length of my thumb. THIS is why he was thrown away. The pain of that is unimmeangiable. This was something that couldnt be healed with time, with surgery or even rectified with paint managemet and supplements. It is maddening. People throw them away LITERALLY because they dont want to do right by the horses. They put it on MY/OUR shoulders to have to make the tough calls. It isnt right and it isnt fair but if I dont see them and try, then they end up in Mexico at a slaughterhouse which is the last place ANY of them ever deserve to be. It makes me sick.
It has been a hard couple of weeks to say the least. It always is. You have loses and you have wins. The unfortunate reality, which I say quite often, is if people would do right by their horses we wouldnt be in this position to have to pick up the pieces. To make the decision that THEY should have made. Until that day comes, I will continue to do it. Il continue to advocate for them. Bear the weight. Educate the public. Intake the horses and donkeys. Spread awareness and do the best that I can to continue running and growing this organization into what I believe it is going to be.
A question that isnt common but that I do get, and maybe even a few of you have, is what happens to the funds raised, like Jefferson, when they have to be put down or pass away? It is a fair question. Those funds go towards all the hundreds of other horses and donkeys in our care. One thing you wont see, are fundraisers for feed. Fundraisiers for medical. Fundraisers for things that we should already have the funds for IF we are going to continue to intake horses (let that sink in). If a horse, and I am using Jackson as an example, ends up having to be let go, those funds go 100% directly towards all the other horses in our care whose funds have dried up like the Honey Bees who have been with us for 3 years and the Stevies, and the Malcolms, the Travelers, Adiras, Troopers, Mustangs, Lincolns and the list goes on.
Thank you for taking the time to read this over -- like I said, I am going to continue to try to do this at the end of every month to touch base on things that I didnt get to update you all on. With 800 moving parts and things going on at all times, it gets hard to always be constantly throwing information out without causing information overload. This, along with the blog post auction, Instagram, Facebook, Meta, Youtube, TikTok, the Newsletter (which Augusts will be emailed tomorrow morning), etc all are ways that I am really trying to step up to be transparent with you all so that you only continue to hightenen YOUR expectations of the recues and sanctuaries YOU donate and follow, but also so that you continue to believe in ME and what I am trying to build and do for these horses and donkeys.
Love - Tahlia
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