Thank you, it's never too late to help

A while back I mentioned that when I go for a long time without blogging it doesn't mean there's nothing going on. It means the opposite. We've been very busy with a new group of rescued horses, which I'm still not allowed to talk about or show pictures of. This makes it difficult to get donations. How do people know we really are caring for these horses or that these horses exist? Anyway, thank you to those of you who have been able to help or donate. DoubleHP and my dad Wally Hortness donated the first 50 bags of stall bedding for these horses. And others have followed with an additional 40 bags through our program at TSC. Some of you I know, some of you I don't know yet. But when our program at TSC ends on Sunday and we do our raffle, I'll get the info. from TSC and I hope it will include your names and addresses so I can thank you all properly.  In addition, we have received some cash donations from some of our loyal friends who help every single time we (the horses) need it. and also from a couple of new friends. I am hoping we will be able to reimburse the very generous person who opened up her stable, hay, and chore help resources for these horses during their first 2-3 weeks of rescue. This is a lot of extra work and hay and manure for one facility. And we don't have any room left here at DoubleHP. So we rely on other horse facilities to step forward and help out during the first 2-3 weeks of quarantine & Vet evaluation, before we can move the horses into more family-type foster homes.
Thanks also to those of you who have volunteered to help with chores for the new horses and for the shelter horses here at DoubleHP. The regulars are back to work now so things are getting back to normal whatever that is. And we also got about 20 sm sq bales of alfalfa donated. It's from a hay provider we buy from, so it's excellent hay! And the Vet had us start the horses on some alfalfa last week. Still mostly grass hay, but now a little bit of alfalfa too.
I wish I could say more, but frankly I have no idea what is going on as far as the legal part of it. I am not involved in that part of it. I can tell you that these horses needed our help and all we can do for now is keep helping them. I guess.
Thanks.

thanks for the poem

oh, look what someone gave to me in a comment from previous post.
thank you whoever you are.







The Heart of a Horse


When your day seems out of balance
And so many things go wrong
When people fight around you
And the clock drags on so long…

When most folks act like children
And fill you with remorse
Go out into your pasture
Wrap your arms around your horse.

His gentle breath enfolds you
As he watches with those eyes
He may not have a PhD
But he is, oh, so wise!
His head rests on your shoulder
You embrace him good and tight;
He puts your world in balance
And makes it seem all right.

Your tears will soon stop flowing
Then tension will be eased.
The nonsense has been lifted
You are quiet and at peace.

So when you need some balance
From the stresses in your day,
The best therapy you can seek
Is out there eating hay!

Author unknown

TSC has made it easy for you to help

this photo is Prince & Princess, about a year and a half old, rescued. They "lived" their first year and a half in a state of starvation. see their ribs? their backbones? this is a body condition score of 2-3. A 2 is emaciated. This was about 5 years ago.
But recently we have taken on the responsibility of helping with some new rescues. We do not have permission yet to say anything about them. But I can tell you that they needed our help very very much.
TSC on North Cliff Avenue in Sioux Falls has set up a stall bedding program for the rescued horses we are helping with. Buy & donate one or more bags of bedding at TSC, they will set it aside for us, we will pick it up and take it to the horses, who will appreciate it very much.

Also, there is a raffle box at TSC. For each bag of bedding you buy & donate, you may enter the raffle. We don't have raffle details yet but there will be several prizes.

theequinest.com is wonderful, beautiful, fun, informative

Paige from The Equinenest posted a super great story about our Unbridled Beauties Calendar.

Here's the link.http://www.theequinest.com/unbridled-beauties-calendar//

This website it really fun, and I highly recommend that you check it out.

Paige is from California but she travels a lot.

This picture is Paige's Facebook photo.

Today I spent all day with the horses here at DoubleHP Horse Shelter. I fed them inside. It rained all dang day long. But it finally quit this evening, so they got to have supper outside. Got some of the stalls cleaned but not all of them. And the riding arena is a mess because that's their main shelter. This was my second full day with no chore help. Our morning person is in California for 2 weeks. Our Tues-Thurs afterschooler is gone this week too.
Heidi usually comes on Wednesday nights, but she has been going at night to take care of the new rescues at one of our other foster homes.
I was so glad it quit raining though. I made it in the house just in time for the start of the baseball game. The Dodgers have a lot of work to do. They are down 3-2 right now.
I have not taken a bath yet today. I ran my water this morning. And then I got involved in something so I shut it off (I thought). And then when I went back in to finish running the water, I could not believe that I hadn't actually shut it off. You should have seen how full it was. And of course ice cold.
I have done things similar to that before. never ran it over but I'm afraid it will happen some day.
Dodgers behind 4-2 now. Their pitchers have been having some probs.
I'm having a new volunteer come tomorrow afternoon. someone emailed someone who emailed her. Nice to know our communication is still working.
Heidi hasn't called me yet about the new rescues. so that must mean all is well there. I am trying to keep my distance from them because I fall in love with them all and just want to bring them all home and I just don't have time for anymore here.

Unbridled Beauties calendar promotion in Mitchell on Friday Oct. 23

The Unbridled Beauties will be in Mitchell this Friday, October 23, promoting our Calendar Project which raises money to help feed and care for our rescued horses.
in the morning at 9:45 a.m., Miss January and Miss December will be on air on Mitchell Radio KQRN 107.3 FM.
That evening starting at 6 p.m. they will host a Calendar Signing Party at Big Dummy's Bar & Casino in Mitchell. It's located at 112 N. Main. Owner Jason Bates is a sponsor of our 2010 Calendar. The phone number there is 605 990-3869.
The Unbridled Beauties will be there to sell and sign Calendars.

How dare you, and What Kind of an Organization are you

today I got one of those calls: "are you that horse rescue place?" "Can you take my horse?"
Why in the world would I want to "take" your horse? is what I always want to say.
I didn't say that of course. I just let her talk.
Her horse needs a surgery and even the surgery will keep the horse as a "pasture pal" and she can't afford the surgery.
often I will ask some questions. like, do you have other horses? what vet? how long has he been sore? things like that.
But, with the recent starvation rescues we have done, and because I was out doing chores for 16 horses here at DoubleHP Horse Shelter (my morning chore person is in California for 2 weeks, my after schooler is gone this week, and the other one is going after a full day of  "real" work to where the new rescues are, to clean their stalls and see how they are doing), well, I didn't feel like chit chatting or even trying to convince her to figure out a way to take care of her horse.
I just did my generic thing: "We don't do that, what we do is assist law enforcement with horse cases of starvation. And we think that your horse is your responsibility, and if you can't afford it then you just shouldn't have horses. I'm sorry." but of course she hung up before I was done.
As I was pushing the wheelbarrow around etc. I got some more incomings from this same number. I didn't answer. I figured she could leave a message. She did not. But, then, an incoming from a different number. I answered. "did you just talk to my daughter? how dare you tell a young girl..." blah blah blah. I don't remember those first words. but I do remember this "what kind of an organization are you?" And so I began to tell her, my generic thing: "We assist law enforcement with horse cases of starvation..." but she didn't hear a word because at the same time she was saying, "you called her a piece of shit" and "this is a young girl who is trying to do the right thing and you would rather have her starve her horse?" somewhere in there I said "I'm trying to tell you what kind of an organization we are, because you asked" and "no I most certainly did not call anyone a piece of shit" and "of course I did not tell her to starve her horse" and "I'm going to hang up now. Goodbye."

but what I really wanted to say is, "why in the world won't you pay for the horse's surgery for your daugther?"

I did know, before it even happened, that she would begin to blame us "do-gooders" for her horse problems. Like, why can't we take her horse? isn't that what we are supposed to do?
Sorry lady, volunteers get to choose what mission they want to follow. and our mission is "to assist law enforcement in horse cases of starvation."
It's pretty loud and clear on our website.
The only thing I regret is that I didn't ask her where she got our number. If someone told her to call us, that person needs to know this isn't what we do. We do not bail out horse owners. We have plenty horses of our own to care for.
Doesn't this person know how many thousands of unwanted horses there are? Is this person in some deep deep sleep with absolutely no awareness of what is going on in the horse industry?
We have trouble finding good homes for the horses we get trained. Why in the world would we want her horse too? I do of course feel sorry for the horse. Sorry because its owner won't take care of it and keep it, no matter what.
That's what we do. Once we rescue a horse, it's forever. No matter what.
But the horses that already have homes, they have to be able to depend on their homes to care for them.
We are here for the horses without homes.We figure if there is no food and water there is no home. Those are the horses we help. Sorry, but like I said, volunteers get to choose who they want to help.

help if you can, and thank you if you already are.

URGENT:

I know things are tough all over, and If you are already giving all you can, to whatever mission you choose, thank you thank you thank you.
maybe we'll catch up with you next year.
But, if you are feeling somewhat fortunate and have been thinking about "giving" to a good cause, this would be a good time now.
DoubleHP recently has assisted Law Enforcement in the rescue, transportation, Vet appts., deworming, and providing foster homes and stall bedding for 10 horses. Several different cases.

One pinto colt, Rocket, and one pony, TooLoo, are available for adoption but the others are all in "legal limbo" right now.
They all have some legal stuff going on so we don't have much for details for you right now.
the 2 available for adoption can be seen on our website. http://www.doublehphorses.org/

the others are in a warm, safe off-site foster home with shelter, water, and lots of good food. We may need to move some of those in the next week though. It's a lot of extra horses for one family.
plus we do have 6 long-time foster horses here at DoubleHP horse shelter that we continue to care for.
That's 16 in foster care right now!
We desparately need bags of stall bedding.
If you have any extras or could afford to buy a few, please let me know.

Or, if you can provide excellent foster care, preferably for 2 horses but possibly just 1. They are all pretty young. this would include 24-hour access to shelter preferably to be able to get in a building, 24-hour access to water that does not freeze, you know, just all of the normal things we do for our horsey friends. except that these are not normal horses. they need some extra help getting through this winter.
money donations are good too. (I know I don't have to tell you that, I just feel bad asking the same people for help over and over again.)

also, 3 of our part-time chore helpers are all going to be gone the next couple of weeks but all at the same time! This will make it somewhat difficult for me to be here and at the other foster locations all at the same time.
anyone got any free time to clean some stalls? (volunteer opportunities only I'm afraid)

If you can help in any of these ways, please just let me know.
DoubleHP (Horse Help Providers, Inc) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization operating totally through volunteers and donations.
thanks you so much.
Darci, www.doublehphorses.org
605 359-0961.
25337 470 Ave, Crooks SD 57020