What I do on my day off, when I can!

Posted April 5th, 2010 by Nealia

Today was my day off and I got to do my favorite day-off thing……………. go to the sale and get Saddlebreds.  As I said earlier, we (North Wind Stables) needed to buy a new horse trailer and today was the day to pick it up.  Since we are also getting ready for the show season, I wanted to visit the vendors at the horse sale.  Pat rode shotgun with me today and we had an important list of three tasks to do.  First, I needed to finish purchasing my shopping list for the horse shows, I needed 50 buckets.  I did get the buckets, and for a great price I might add, but the down side was I had to get them in different colors, which included 2 shades of blue, purple, hot pink and neon green. Normally I only get navy or black but the price was so good that I just had to act outside the box.  I found a silver western bit for $30 and also got some trailer ties.  After we got the “stuff” we went into the sale hunted up our buyer, looked at the horses that he had for us, and had their Coggins drawn.  While we were waiting for the results of the Coggins test, we went to a nearby town and picked up the new trailer.  I must say the dealer had everything ready, right down to the wiring, which is different on the North Wind trucks than what is usually done.  Other than the check that had to be written out of my North Wind account (ouch), the whole process was painless. With the new trailer in tow, we were off again and heading back to the sale. Pat went to get the paperwork and I parked the trailer and opened it up.  All the horses we got today were mares ( a little odd), but what the heck, a horse is a horse in my book, one of the horses even had papers.

When we got home we turned the “newbies” out in our quarantine area and boy were they happy to run around.  The youngest one played and explored and definitely acted her age of 3 or 4.  It is hard to watch a young horse run around and celebrate life with a slaughter sticker on her backside.  We were surprised today by our buyer as he had one more horse than he told us yesterday.  By the sticker on this horse’s rump, I would say he had a change of heart and sent her to us rather than shipping her to Canada where she would have been slaughtered.  It is funny how things work out.  I hope we can find out more on this mare as she has had her tail in a tail set, and not too long ago by the looks of her tail.

The sad part of today is me wondering how many horses went to slaughter because we are full and need to get more horses placed.  I hope everyone will help us place horses so we can go every week and get more Saddlebreds and Morgans.  I know times are hard, but that should make everyone realize horses are being shipped to their deaths just because of the hard times and not because they are bad thinkers or used up.  The horses we got today are lucky, as we are full here at Saddlebred Rescue, but it is so hard to say no when you KNOW the outcome if you do say no!  Pat, Mark and I decided we would take a chance and hope we will be placing some horses soon.

I am sorry if I am coming off needy tonight, but the sale is a reality check for me for how many horses are being shipped to their deaths just because times are hard.  Every time we use Johnny (a rescue I adopted) and I see how good he is at his job of teaching people to ride, I remember what he looked like standing in a pen with a bunch of other horses with slaughter tags on their hips.  I did not go to get Johnny that day as we were picking up a totally different horse, but when I saw him I KNEW he could not be left behind.  Now he is a star in our lesson program and in the show ring as an academy horse.  I do not know what Anne would do without him.  I hope more people will realize what these horses can do with a little TLC and time.  If anyone has doubts, just go to www.saddlebredrescue.com, then go to the discussion forum, find the American Saddlebred Rescue Tails and look up Power Ranger.  This horse has video from when we first got him and then a recent video after Anne has been working him and teaching on him.  Power Range should be our poster child of how these horses can and will  change.  Stepping down now.

I wish we could get homes for more of the rescues we have.

I wish I could do more.

I wish I knew how and what to do to get more horses placed.

I am THANKFUL that we were able to get the horses we did today.