The really hard part of horse ownership

When you take in a horse for recovery/rescue, you just never know what the outcome might be.

Will the horse crash from disfunctional organs? Will the horse recover but have serious medical conditions which will need treatment? Will the quiet, grateful old soul that is slurping up the mash turn out to be a thug with out of control behavior? Or will you be gifted with a sound, healthy horse with a decent future?

You just never know. Over the last couple of years, I have been involved in a couple of rescue type situations where it turned out that the most humane thing to do, was put them down. One was a chronic sinker/founder. One was old enough that the organs were shutting down. And so on and so forth. I have had a couple of the younger horses turn out to be surprisingly nice when fully recovered-Pepper and Wingnut and the yellow gelding spring to mind.

And that leads me to my own personal trial of spirit, compassion, and commitment. I found out yesterday afternoon that the wonderful horse lover who opened up her heart to Chubs for me, must have him gone by this coming Monday morning. In tears, I was told that the landlord insists on only three horses-not four. Chubs, of course, makes four.

Despite the fact that he's been there since green up, and the horses have panel enclosures-he has to go. No exceptions, no grace period, nothing. Gone or else. I cannot burden the caretaker with this, it's mine and mine alone to deal with.

He cannot come here. He picks fights and plows through fencing with other male horses. He can only either be by himelf, or in a place with mares. Since I have just purchased a mare for myself, I have no space for him anyway......not even another mare (such as one of the caretakers).

I called the vet straight away and when I got the return call last night, we discussed cost and logistics of euthanasia. As a practical matter due to road conditions, I prefer not to haul to that location.....I am a fair weather (dry!!!) road hauler as a rule. I had made up my mind some time back that I was not going to haul any more horses to be put down. It's hard, very very hard. This time of year it would be difficult to get a pit dug on short notice on my own property anyway.

My options are to haul him to the clinic, have him euthed in the horse trailer and dispose of him at the landfill myself. Cheapest, but the emotional cost will be very high. I just can't go there with the remains, I can't. Too many dead horses in my memory, you know?

The other option is to have the vet handle it completely, although I will need to be there to load of course. Sigh. I spoke with my husband and he is upset of course, he really likes old Chubs. But we knew we would have to face this some day-we just did not know it would be due to his behavior, and not because of failing organs or something.

The sad truth is that there is no special medical condition-he does not need a mash, he actually has his molars. He does have that terrible arthritis and the blown knees-but an entire summer with a lot of exercise has helped him immensely. He has a nice personality with good ground manners, but he's old. No one knows for sure how old-vet said between 25 and 30. And truthfully that doesn't matter, really. For him, this is the end of the road.

I don't see anyone stepping forward to offer stable space for a horse that has behavorial issues, even if he's relatively easy on the pocketbook to feed. I can't think of one local place that would have room and facilities for him, even if I was willing to spend the board money.

So this is the really hard part of horse ownership-when you have run out of options. No medical or disease or soundness issue (he is "pasture sound") he is just old, cantankerous towards other horses, and there is nowhere for him to go. Period.

Unless a miracle happens sometime today, poor old Chubs will leave this earth for the Rainbow Bridge tomorrow, mid day. The plight of these older horses never gets any easier for me.

Uncle Ted, I thought I knew you

Unless you have been living in a cave up here, you have heard a lot about Ted Stevens, Bill Allen, and the work done on the Girdwood cabin. You've heard about the invoices, the barbeque, the details about the long friendship between Allen and Stevens, and about Ted's wife who paid the bills.

I remain torn, I really do. Do I think Bill Allen through Ted under the bus? Of course. Do I think the prosecution was politically motivated? Naturally. Do I think think Ted did something wrong? Yes.

But mostly I fear what it means for Alaska. Until the verdict yesterday I thought Ted stood a fairly good chance at being re-elected, considering his Democrat opponent, Mark Begich. Now, I am sure he will go down in flames.......if he had not pushed for an expedited trial, the Governor would have had the opportunity to appoint a temporary until a special election was held. A special election would have meant another Republican in that scenario. With that chance gone, I do expect Uncle Ted to resign. It saddens me that he will leave Washington in disgrace-after 40 years of stellar service to Alaskans.

Uncle Ted, I thought I knew you. It feels like a betrayal.

Here we go

One very dark photo, taken at feeding time :) Please keep in mind she standing downhill a little bit, due to the stall surface.....When I have some help, I will get better pictures :)

This is Reba, and she is still settling in.

A cause for some concern

Just now, I had occasion to go poke around on Craigslist. This was a direct result of an earlier phone call where someone else complained about having their ad for a horse flagged off. And it occured to me that the statement made by that person was correct: The only remaining ads seem to be the ones under $1500 and for horses under a certain age. Very strange I thought, and as I scrolled through a few days' worth, it also dawned on me that some ads I had seen previously, were gone.

So I got to snooping around the help and flag forums, and stumbled across another poor soul who has been flagged off for reasons unknown. Actually there are several someones, but the most disturbing thing I read was a statement made by a very nice local guy-quoted here:

"(We have been told by the animal control in this area that there are a group of ladies who gang up and try to make trouble for people in the horse business...even if there is absolutely no grounds for it...)"

Um, what?

Now, this opens up a whole messy can of worms, doesn't it? This makes the third or fourth time I have heard something similar-this time, it's in print. Now of course, it could have been taken out of context, but still............

First, which people at animal control are talking like this to people in our tiny community? There are only three officers that have regular contact on horse matters, as a rule. Darla, whose last name I can never recall-nice gal and a genuinely great advocate for horses. Matthew Hardwig, whom I have met several times on MSBACR business, and the other guy whose name also escapes me at the moment. On my end, I can say that I don't always care for how well they respond to complaints, but I have found them to be compassionate and mostly professional.

Talking out of turn by suggesting that other members of the community "gang up" on others for no reason.....well, that is a big deal. It just proves how little control the manager there has, over the daily interactions they have with the public they serve. Statements like that do nothing but serve to splinter the community even further, and can do great harm. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that undermining some members does not help the whole, does it?

Which leads to the $64 question: Which people are being identified as being part of this "gang"? The statement I read does not include names, of course.

A cause for some concern, indeed!

No pictures :(

This time, it had nothing to whatever with technical difficulties-nope, I completely forgot!

Saturday we did a Costco run and it was fairly dark and cloudy when we got home. Sunday, was a beautiful day but I ended up spending the day in the kitchen, processing more vegetables. Sigh.

Since it was a brisk 7 degrees this morning and we are supposed to be sunny all day today, I will hope to get some photos this evening when I get home from work. It was reassuring to see that the stock tank heaters are working perfectly-and that the chicken water was steaming too. Still getting eggs, and two of the hens are using the boxes (yay!) and the other has made herself a very deep nest in a large pile of hay I have in there for them. She can't fit in the boxes because her tail feathers are way too long-something I did not think about when I got them (they are Yokohama's) but they seem to be just fine.

On Saturday evening I saw a post on CL about a free mare that needed special care (stall, nursing) and I stepped forward to offer my help. After a few hours of investigation, I discovered that the mare was to be euthanized that night. In hindsight, that was the best outcome, but it sure leaves a bitter taste in my mouth-about the entire situation. Too miserable a story to go into detail here, but suffice to say, some people are not humane enough to own horses :(

A new chapter begins for me.

A new chapter in my life with horses has begun :)

As some readers may have geussed from previous entries, I had been idly looking for another horse....I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but had totally written off Appaloosas completely some months ago. Nice Appaloosa mares are about as common as hen's teeth here, and rarely come up for sale. There have been quite a number of QH mares on the market this summer but only three that piqued my interest enough to attempt a contact (and of course we all know how one of those turned out, right? lol)

Two of those local QH mares had health issues I was more than willing to accomodate, and the other was just too tall for my personal tastes. I even dabbled around on the internet and heaven knows there are 1000s of quality mares available down south. But as usual, the logistics of long distance purchase, plus arranging pre purchase exam and exrays, then temporary stabling, then hauling-just more than I was willing to gamble on a horse I could not see in person. Yes, I have some great, knowledgeable friends who could help me out-but still, despite having two previous long distance purchases go perfectly, I just couldn't bring myself to actually do it.

So a couple months back, a hay customer of mine mentioned to me she had a mare for sale. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, until a later contact mentioned she was an Appaloosa. A few weeks later, a mutual acquaintance asked if I had seen the mare yet-and I confessed I hadn't. This acquaintance chided me a bit, and then I heard the same from a couple other people. Eventually I was able to work out a time to see the mare-a bit difficult with work schedules. So I went....and I looked. I didn't even handle the mare....just watched her move, play, approach me, and spoke with the owner at length.

Then I had to think about it. And boy did I have a hard time with this. I have already turned down six free horses so far this fall, early winter. I know I will be offered others, who might be in great need due to health or care issues. What if I tied up a stall that might be needed? Should I do this with the economy on the skids? Should I make this investment in the first place? Would she fit in with my plans? I went back and forth and waffled and see sawed and just could not make up my mind....until one evening I was talking with my husband. He pointed out a few things, and I made the call to the owner :)

And then of course it was again a scheduling and hauling conflict, trying to get her out here. I am pretty firm about new arrivals showing up on a weekend so that I can keep a close eye on them. And I really wanted my hub to be in town, just in case something went awry during the work day when I was not available. (Yeah, I know, I am a worry wart!) Due to issues with the four wheel drive on our truck, we weren't safe to haul-so they delivered her late last Saturday afternoon. We turned her loose in the small arena and let her blast around-and man oh man can that girl move!

She's ten. About 15.1. ApHC, and ApHCC registered. Born a chestnut, but looks like a liver chestnut with flakes right now. Built like a tank, and very well broke-even if she hasn't been ridden in a couple years. She has been hunting-packed and ponied. Lots of trail miles, not too much arena time. Safe for adults-compliant under saddle, although I am pretty sure she isn't a performance machine. And pretty pretty pretty. Nice personality, if a little rattled about being in a new place. Our first challenge-fix her hooves which are a mess. Nothing I am not prepared to take on, and she has already had her first trim (thanks, Gisela!) and is a on a four week schedule to correct some issues.

I do have a couple photos, but they are pretty lousy, so this weekend I will get better ones and put them up here.....feel free to critique-I already know her faults!

The CL flag wars continue

A recent topic on a local group, the constant flagging that is taking place on our local Craigslist was discussed at length. Having been a CL poster, I have learned what gets your ads flagged down:

Any website or even a partial website
Any kind of business name
More than one horse (sometimes)
Posting more often than the "flag nazis'" think you should
Anything else the nazi's think violates the TOU

In other areas, CL ads just stay up unless they are really long, nasty, or are big time spammers. We have a couple spammers here too, notably the people posting the tractors for sale-I mean, come on, everyone knows you cannot purchase a year or two old medium sized tractor here for under six grand, lol That's the only thing I flag on CL, in the hopes they will try to peddle whatever it is they are really selling, some other place.

A CL ad also makes you a target for anyone who doesn't like you. Or, you can become a target and be presumed guilty of flagging, even if you haven't! It's a no win situation here, even if you have hay that people are needing. I really feel for all the local farmers and hay dealers-as soon as an ad gets posted, it's flagged-sometimes in just a few minutes. I highly doubt the flagging down hay ads is coming from a local hay grower...just think about it: Who would have the time? And this year, who has hay they can't sell??

This same mentality is proven as horse for sale ads get flagged down at lightspeed. It doesn't seem to matter who the seller is, it can be down in just a few minutes. Most of these are obviously the result of someone who doesn't like the seller....or, folks think they are spamming by reposting their ad over and over again. Which of course they do because they get flagegd down so quickly, lol!

Actually, it's all very overblown. I have a hunch some of the nazi's are feeling pretty secure in their ability to get rid of ads-people whose ads are from competitors, ads from people they have an axe to grind with, people who are adversaries. And then of course a lot of ads get caught up in the crossfire, entirely by accident. The anonymity that CL provides might give the flagger a little thrill....a "see there, take that!" giggle as they click the upper right hand link(s) for flagging. Never thinking through the consequences of their actions.

Of course, the whole CL phenomena (the self regulated, free ads) is a wonderful tool for Alaskans. I know I have found some deals on CL, and sold a few items I didn't need myself. But I learned in a hurry-don't bother posting an ad for hay for sale. It doesn't matter how it is phrased, it will be flagged off in a hurry. And any discussion on there, is rightly flagged as those belong in either the forums, or R&R. But truthfully, R&R is a cesspool, the forums have their nazi's too, but it surely makes it to Farm and Garden pretty regular. Here's a typical snipe:

WANTED TO BUY HAY - $1 (MAT-SU)
Reply to: sale-882313096@craigslist.org [?]Date: 2008-10-16, 7:05PM AKDT
AFTER WATCHING ALL THE HAY FOR SALE ADS FLAGGED, AND ALL THE ADS SAYING ALASKA HAY IS INFERIOR, MAYBE..... THE PERSONS TRYING SO HARD TO DISCREDIT ALASKA HAY IS SOMEONE WHO HAS OUTSIDE HAY ARRIVING NEXT WEEK AT $545 OR MORE PER TON???????? THINK ABOUT IT...... LOCAL GROWER COME ON GIRLS KNOCK IT OFF, GO TAKE YOUR PMS PILLS,.....FLAG, FLAG, FLAG
Location: MAT-SU
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interestsPostingID: 882313096

Now the above is a fairly typical little rant. I don't even need to explain the obvious I would hope, most of the readers here are locals who do visit the Craigslist F&G, and already know what happens there. Nope, I have no idea who is "trying so hard to discredit Alaska hay" because it surely isn't me. Most of these folks have no clue what I have in my barn, but it does include hay from three local, Alaska sources. I have no idea who has hay arriving next week...and all imported is going to be over $545 a ton, that's a fact based on freight rates and the going price down south.

But what I do see, is a pattern here. The assumption of guilt that comes from these flaggers. The assumption that a particular ad is from a specific person-without proof. The assumption that any one person, or group of people, is responsible for the rampant flagging.

If it takes more than one person to flag down an ad, then it's impossible for one person to be at fault for all this, period.

It's a shame that CL is being abused this way, it's a shame that people can't sell their horses, it's a shame that people can't buy hay. It's a shame that people can't sell hay too. On the other hand, they could pony up the bucks and place an ad with the Alaska Horse Journal, the Frontiersman, the Anchorage Daily News. They could make up flyers and schlep them around to the local feed stores-where they will again be taken down by those who feel they are righteous in their actions.

It's a no win situation, for everyone, and it's small and petty at that. Grow up and get a life is what I would tell these flag nazi's.