Please go to our new blog. We will keep this old one published, for those of you who want to read about us in 2007 through 2009. But for our new happenings, go to our new blog, link below. thanks.

www.newhopehorseshelter.blogspot.com

Happy New Year from Flicka

remember to click on the pix to enlarge them.
I guess all the horses want their feature blog. here's one for Flicka. Flicka is not a rescue horse. I have had her since she was a yearling. She is about 15 now. Today while we (me & the horses) were waiting (patiently) for Greg to plow out the horse yard (I couldn't put them out for supper until he was done), Flicka and I went for a little ride in the snow. we went out and checked the pasture fence. It's all up, but boy are there some big drifts. I think I can let them go out there and run tomorrow though. Flicka was a perfect ride today. all by herself. out in the scary tundra. She is as close to a perfect horse as you can get. I have vowed that I am going to do less stuff with other people's horses and more stuff with the horses who live here at DoubleHP Horse Shelter. So the ride in the snow today is part of that. I smiled the whole time. I used to ride in the snow a lot. It was really beautiful. These photos don't have anything to do with my ride today. These photos are from last weekend. But they are of Flicka. My friend Flicka.

questions or comments,

email Shelter Manager Darci at doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

Lily December 2009

This is for all of you who have emailed me to tell me how much you enjoyed Prince's snow pictures. And it's especially for Pat who helped sponsor Lily for several months in 2009. And for Jennifer & Virgina Meadows and Rolling Meadows Farm of Lore City, Ohio, who helped sponsor Lily this month. Jennifer purchased a sponsorship through our ebay sales. She says "God cares for all of his creation and gives us dominion over it. Thank you for caring for the animals that otherwise would not have a chance. Merry Chirstmas and God Bless!!!"

I will post more snow photos for you over the next few days etc.. Everyone seems to enjoy them. And I guess now we will have snow for a long long time. I can't let the horses out in the pasture right now because there are some drifts that are covering up the fence line. So they just have to play in the horse yard and barn for now.

questions or comments, email me here. Darci, Shelter Manager doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

p.s. forgot to mention that I am unable to update our website doublehphorses.org until I can have a computer guy help me with it next week. I think we have to do some stuff to my new laptop to get it to work right.

Happy New Year

this is Butterscotch, a couple of weeks ago. the horses were playing in the first big snow.

click on photo to enlarge it. (and her tongue)

oh boy, sounds like we have lots of new snow coming this week.

DoubleHP annual meeting

Our annual meeting is scheduled for Saturday Jan. 16 at 11:30 a.m. at Big Ern's in Crooks. There will be a lunch menu. everyone on their own for food & beverage orders & bills. If you would like to attend, please let me know so we know how many tables to push together. We are not doing a big invite.
mostly we will name 2010 Directors & Officers
do a little treasurers report
the main issue will be brainstorming about what direction doublehp should take, in addition to continuing to care for and train the rescued horses that live here at our shelter.

Personally, what I think needs to happen around where we live are 2 things mainly:
1. horse owners need to quit breeding low-value horses if they are not going to keep them for themselves, and they need to quit breeding altogether if they cannot afford to feed, deworm, shelter, vaccinate, provide hoof and dental care, and train the horses they already have.
2. everyone involved in the horse industry needs to work toward decreasing the cases of inhumane treatment, toward ending the cycle of neglect, toward ending the irresponsible reproduction of these already-neglected horses. Emaciated horses standing around with no vet care is not acceptable. Period. These horses need to be helped. Their help needs to come sooner and it needs to be more aggressive; and these horses need to be treated like victims, like living beings who feel pain when they are not cared for properly, not as piles of dirt or bags of garbage. And their irresponsible owners, who need to be held accountable, need to know that treating horses like this is no longer acceptable. That inhumane treatment is a serious crime. Everyone needs to know that. Inhumane treatment to animals is a serious crime. And once it is treated that way, the number of cases will decrease. It's the only way that will happen.

So, anyway, how can DoubleHP in some small way address these issues?

or should we give up on the big picture, and just do some fun things that don't involve neglect, legal issues, any of that? maybe we should just be a horse lovers group who does fun things with the horses we have promised to care for.  what should DoubleHP do? if you have ideas or want to help us brainstorm and decide and then carry out those ideas, let me know.

thanks, Darci, email doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

computer crash

my computer finally died. we kept it going for about a year and a half once it became sick. I did have a back up hard drive and so I am really hoping the computer guys can get all my stuff off of there.
If you have been to the doublehphorses.org website lately you will notice no updates for a little while. it's because I have it saved on the dead computer. I do have a new little laptop that I am using right now. I am seriously considering doing away with the website. It's one that I do on my computer and upload it to the host. so it's not quite as easy as this blogspot. I may redo this blogspot to serve as our website.

Celebrate the Beauty

tonight, they say, will be 12 below, without figuring in wind chill. yes the horses are all in their stalls for the night. Saturday was a nicer day though. and I took advantage of it with my camera. I took 160 some photos until the battery died. here are some of my faves of Prince. Prince is the one with severe arthritis in his back right hock. as you can see, though, he enjoys life immensely. He is only 7 years old. he may make a trip to Iowa State next spring, where they have more advanced equipment, just to see if there is anything else that can be done for his hock. besides the injections that don't work as well as they used to. and some experimental type pills that I have not experimented with yet. anyway, as you can see, he is not moping around yet. He limps but I don't think he knows there is anything wrong with him. questions or comments, email Darci, Shelter Manager, doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

make sure you click on the pictures to see them bigger!