"I love my horse because..."

"I love my horse because..." or
"I love horses because..." or
"I love (name of DoubleHP horse(s) because..."

Leave a comment here, follow the theme/topic choices above, ENTER A DRAWING FOR CHANCE TO WIN SOME OF THESE STAMPS.
The photo is DoubleHP Hiroki (Hero) and DoubleHP Jet, two of our rescued horses.

These are official U.S. Postage Stamps. We are trying them out, and we need some opinions.

So we want to give some away to see what people think of them.

If we like them, we will design more Postage Stamps with various photos of our rescued horses on them. I think we will like them. They are available for sale in our Zazzle Gallery. Many other items in there too. We are just building our Zazzle Gallery, so check back there often. But there are many great items in there already, all with photos of our rescued horses on them.

http://www.Zazzle.com/gentlereins*

Anyway,
ABOUT THE DRAWING FOR A CHANCE TO WIN SOME OF THESE EQUINE VALENTINE STAMPS:
There will be 2 different drawings. Names will be drawn on Feb. 13 and announced the next day, on Feb. 14. That's right! on Valentine's Day!

One drawing will take place right here on our blog. This drawing is for 10 of these stamps. All you have to do to enter is post a comment here, to this blog entry. In about 50 words or so, comment on "I love my horse because..." or "I love horses because..." or "I love (name of a DoubleHP rescued horse) because..."

then, check back here on Valentines Day, Feb. 14, to see who won the stamps.
you may check back sooner, of course, to see if we got any other comments & entries.

If you are the winner, just give us a call. (605) 359-0961. We'll send your stamps right out to you.

Or if you live near us, you can pick them up if you want to.

But you have to post a comment following the theme mentioned above, you have to check back on this blog to see if you are the winner, and you have to call us to let us know if you will pick up the stamps or if we should send them to you. And we would appreciate your letting us know if you like the stamps once you see them for real!

That's it! easy! No entry fee. No donation. No raffle tickets to buy. Just leave a comment here and check back to see if you are the winner.

THE SECOND DRAWING is for 20 of these stamps, and you enter through our doublehphorses.org website, along with making a donation in any amount, to help feed & care for our rescued horses.

Link to our website here http://www.doublehphorses.org/

The directions for entering the drawing for 20 of these stamps will be right there easy to find on our website home page.

thank you. just give us a call if you have any questions or suggestions (or comment here).
(605) 359-0961. DoubleHP Horse Shelter, Darci Hortness

Laura's Xmas Horse Quilt gift

Below is a slideshow of the quilt that my sister-in-law, Laura Hortness, made for me for Christmas. In our family, we draw names. And I am so lucky that Laura drew me! I'm sure everyone will be trying to pay Santa now to make sure Laura draws a certain name. It is already getting full of cat hair in my house, so I think I will display it as a wall hanging. It is so beautiful.
thanks Laura. And thanks Santa for making sure she drew my name for Xmas.

Oh, and this was my first attempt at making a slideshow to put on here. I think I will learn how to make them just a little smaller for my next one.

Lauras Xmas Horse Quilt

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.

Hey Lady, Have a Happy New Year!

Volunteer Tina Hillman and I love to visit the herd in the pasture.

Hero welcomed us on this day with open arms (mouth).

Butterscotch was very polite. And King just wanted to find some more hay.

Tina bought us a fantastic Christmas present. Fly Masks! Many of them! brand new! One of our favorite chores during the summer is to take the masks out to the pasture and put them on the horses. They pretty much come over to us one by one and put their heads down to get the masks on. Then they go back to eating and make room for the next horse in line to get masked. Ah summer. I am ready already.

CC the Christmas Cat

Two years ago when my sister came for Christmas, we met Saint Nick, the little horse that was left for dead in the road ditch.

his story is on our website http://www.doublehphorses.org/.

Last year, my sister didn't come for Christmas. But Eli the cat did. I think you can find him in here in a post from last December possibly.

This year, we met CC. Our new Christmas Cat. She just magically appeared in our barn. As friendly as can be. This is how most of my 10 barn cats came to live here. Just magically appeared in the barn one day. I usually wait for a few weeks to make sure they really like it here. Then I take them to the Vet. shots, dewormed, spayed/neutered. I have had the same cat herd here for years. We don't do the kitten thing any more. And other people who live on acreages shouldn't do the kitten thing any more either. It makes me mad when these cats show up here. They aren't my cats. I didn't cause them to be born. If you allow your farm cats to reproduce, do you think your neighbors like it when the cats show up at their houses? especially if your neighbors are responsible like I am and make sure their cats are altered. And if you have enough kittens, I know they get sick and most of them do not live. Why not just get the adults altered? They will stick around, they are fantastic mousers. Mine are anyway. And their food is not really very expensive. A couple of shots a year, deworming from time to time, pretty inexpensive mousers. And when I control their health and population this way, they are quite a healthy bunch.

I agree with Bob Barker. Please have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered! Just becuase we live in the country does not mean we have an excuse to be irresponsible about this.

And while it makes me mad when these animals show up here, I know it is not the animals' fault. I feel sorry for them. And so I will try to give them a home here. No sense burdening the other animal shelters with more unwanted pets.

This is one of my Christmas wishes. That more people who live in the country will come out of the dark ages on this topic and get their cats spayed and neutered! Thank you for listening.

Update on Star's tongue

Star's tongue situation seems to be all better. I gave her her medicine for a week just like the Doctor ordered. After 2 days Star seemed entirely back to normal. No drooling, no sliming, normal eating, no more moping. I have been instructed many many times by the Vet though, to continue the meds. for the entire prescribed time. They will fight off infection etc. I believe the day the Vet came out and flushed the hole in Star's tongue, she must have flushed out whatever was in there causing the problem. It was a bit of an unusual situation, but Dr. Jensen got it right again! Star's temp. was normal throughout this ordeal. She was pooping normal. She was not eating normal though. and the drool and slime certainly was not normal. None of us likes Vet bills. But it's important that we, as horse owners, notice what is Not Normal in our horses. Monitor the situation closely. It never hurts to call the Vet right away and tell them the symptoms. Learn to check temp. and other vitals. And know when the situation really does require a Vet appointment, like this one did. There was no way anyone could have found that hole on the underside of Star's tongue, without the Vet equipment to hold the mouth open and shine the light in there.

Anyway, Star seems back to normal with the herd.

These photos were taken yesterday. It was still plenty cold, but the sunshine warmed things up enough for a romp and sunbath. Before the below zero temps set in again. Then it was back to the barn for supper...and breakfast this morning. All 16 are still in the barn. But it's climbed slightly above zero now, at 11 a.m., so I think we'll do lunch outside. It's a sunny day again!

Below, Star in between Rocky (well, part of his hip anyway) and Hiroki (Hero), 2 rescued horses.