so the little kitty will feel better Amen

Today was Christina Antonsen's birthday party. Her birthday was several months ago, right after her family returned from Ann Arbor Michigan where her little brother Paul had not one but two open heart surgeries. He had already had two in previous years. Paul is 5. Christina's little sister Amanda actually had her birthday party in Michigan during Paul's surgeries. Christina wanted to have her party here, with the horses. So we waited until Mom Deb could get it all figured out for the whole family to be here and a cake and stuff.

So today was the day! We got out Prince and Flicka and the kids wanted Prince to be completely clean before we put the saddle on. I told them they better put up a tent with supplies. With this recent rain, well, the horses, have had wonderful mud rolling opportunities and took full advantage of it all. They did a nice job of brushing the horses out though. (okay, so Dad Randy helped a little). And around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around the arena we went. Today was the first day I can remember Gabe wanting to ride. He liked it too! The kids were all very interested in the new kitten Turtle. Turtle is getting stronger every day. She had a good day today. Before we had birthday cake, Paul suggested a prayer. And he delivered. The gist of it, which was entirely clear, was "we pray for the little kitty so it will feel better, Jesus, Amen"

Percherons in our yard

Last Wednesday while Deb and I were out in the front yard with Paul & Prince, our neighbor Mary Gibson drove in and said they were having a big event at their house Saturday. (last Saturday, just a couple of days ago.) One of their sons was getting married and they were going to give horse & wagon rides to the guests and could they use our turn-around driveway. Sure!

They hired McCrossan Boys Ranch. And the team selected was a beautiful pair of Percherons.

I didn't get their names, but I'll try to find out.

Back in the Saddle Again.

This is Paul and Prince. I wrote a little about them in the previous post. Paul has a Special Heart. And, well, I guess Prince does too.

Prince & Butterscotch back with herd

This is Prince & Butterscotch, with Spirit in the background.

Prince & Butterscotch are very happy to be back out with the herd, after their recent Vet trips and stall rest.

The evening we got back from our Minnesota / Wisconsin vacation, August 23, we had visitors. Deb & Randy Antonsen and their children Christina, Amanda, Paul & Gabe came to visit. Paul is a 5-year-old boy who has had 4 open heart surgeries and now has a mechanical valve (as of June 2009) and I believe his status is still "congestive heart failure." Their whole family spent over a month in Ann Arbor Michigan in June-July for Paul's most recent 2 surgeries. And then of course he was not allowed to ride for a while. So, finally, he can ride again! But the kids didn't ride on this day. "Their" horse, Prince, was very sore. He suffers from severe arthritis in his right hock. I took him and Butterscotch to the Vet the following Tuesday. Prince had a total of nine needle pokes, and he was not sedated at all. The theory was to block out certain nerve areas with an injection of some numbing product (sorry can't remember the name). and, if Prince were to trot off with less lameness or no lameness, we would have found the sore area. We had him injected a couple of weeks before we left for vacation, but it did not help. So I knew something else was going on. Xrays show more of the same, severe arthritis in all 4 joints. with some more changes going on. Prince is only 7 or 8 years old. But lived the first year and a half of his little life in a state of starvation. His bones and joints did not have a chance to develop as they should have. other than this hock thing he really does pretty well. Anyway, by the time the Vet was done with the "blocking," he was numb from the top of the hock all the way down into the foot. And he was still as lame as he was when we started. Along with the "blocking" the Vet had injected some other stuff into the joints, hoping to help him feel better somehow. Sadly, however, I took him home just as sore as he was at the start. The Vet gave me some kind of "experimental" pills to try. For dogs. Which I am more than willing to try. But I thought I would give all those injections a couple of days to kick in before I started the pills. And sure enough! In a couple of days, Prince was doing much better. And he still is. He is lame, but at least he is back to where he was a few months ago. He runs so fast I can't believe his leg just doesn't fall off. I have not tried the pills yet. But I will, if he gets more sore again.

The following 2 Wednesday evenings, the Antonsens came to visit Prince again. The first Wednesday Princie was still really sore, it was the day after the trip to the Vet. But the next Wednesday, just last Wednesday, Prince was ready to ride again. Deb and Paul came just the 2 of them that evening. And Paul rode for a long time, out in the front yard. Prince was such a Prince! What a fine pair they are. We have more info. about our Paul's Prince Project on our website http://www.doublehphorses.org/

During one of these visits we also picked apples. Christina and Paul are quite impressed with the holes that Scarlet has been digging.

And while Prince was sore, the kids got to ride Flicka. Deb rode too! Christina told me she felt like she was going to cry because she was so happy to get to be riding again. I told her that was perfectly okay, that's the way the horses make me feel too!

I love this picture. Amanda & Christina with Flicka.

Lucky Trailblazers 4H Club

Thank you to Lucky Trailblazers 4H Club from Vermillion South Dakota. They brought gifts for the horses today, filling up our grain room with bags of grain and salt blocks. I remember when Leader Karla first contacted me about this possibility. She said the kids don't have a huge budget but their hearts are in the right place. If you ask me, I'd say their hearts are huge and their budget was huge too! They brought a lot of bags of grain!

They learned about us at our booth at the SD Horse Fair in Sioux Falls last year. And decided they would like to help us. And we are so very appreciative.
And so are the horses, as you can tell from the slideshow above.

Visiting Trailblazers today were Karla Jake & Courtney, Kim Greg Dana & Blake, Jeanelle, Melissah Jason Zech Terrissah & Hannah.

This club is in to all things horsey, and they have a very special event coming up on March 7. It's a fundraiser and includes a dinner and an open roundtable type discussion featuring several horse professionals including an area Veterinarian. I will post the details on this event as soon as I get them. And I do hope I can attend. It sounds fun and educational.
Thanks again Trailblazers. Hope to see you on the Trail soon!

Holiday Visitors

We had a nice, pleasant variety of Holiday guests this year. Including Caitlyn in the light pink coat with her Dad Chad, and her friend Alyssa in the dark pink coat. They are all friends of Jamie Flinn, Photographer of JF Photos in Sioux Falls South Dakota (605) 254-3062. Jamie helped us with our Unbridled Beauties of DoubleHP 2009 Calendar, which you can see and purchase in our website http://www.doublehphorses.org/.
The palomino, Moonshine, is about 26 years young now. He has given rides to more people than we could possibly ever try to keep track of.
The chestnut mare is Flicka, just a teenager.

These are not rescued horses. I owned them before we started to do the rescue thing.