The weather was ok and it was a holiday .... and so I spontaneously grabbed my mobile at 2 pm and wrote the following message: "The horses need you & they need hugs: Today at 16h30, 1st 30'neighbourly therapygettogether...Good 4 u, good 4 the foals !I hope you all come.C u " and then sent it to my 3 neighbours ...
And at 16.30, the first neighbour Tony arrived... at first he still felt a little awkward among those big 4-legged friends.
And a bit later my neighbours Brenda and Michael arrived ... and the 4 of us went to work ...
A good therapy for all. The foals had a great time and the neighbours had a good experience.
Going to the market to get the greenstuff for the horses .... is not simply pick the greenstuff up and go home to give it to the foals .
As you could already read on the blog yesterday, I went to the market again...20 minutes driving down, over one hour looking, searching, picking up and shifting and then driving home again.
My car was full to the roof and that looks like this .
But then the work is not done yet
Back home everything is unloaded and placed in separate vegetable bins so everything can be washed. And you have to separate the bad from the good and also have to separate fruits from vegetables
Then you wash it all and then bring it down ...
At the end, this is what remains of the lot.
Overall, you are busy for 4-5 hours ...
And of course half an hour every day to clean and cut vegetables for their daily portions...
But the kids are super happy... and so that's why we do it ...for them ...
Opening your door and seeing horses in front of your house .... is a dream of many To hear a horse whinnying to you, saying you good morning (or rather "hey I'm hungry") ... is just fantastic
I fed the horses this morning, made some order in the feed room and at 10 am. I got prepared to go out to do some shopping because I was out of dogfood and I also had to look for some foal food.
And then it went wrong again ... I had to step over the threshold of the window and my left leg did not get high enough again so ..... ... straight forwards on the gravel again and landed right on the bad knee . This time I knew it felt really wrong ... and so I strumbled inside after a few minutes to get to my crutches.
I'm beginning to wonder whether the surgeon maybe has cut just one too many nerves during the last OP? It is clear that my brain thinks I've lifted my leg high enough when it's really not the case ... or is it the tiredness and am I careless
The other ranch owner has been so nice to go to the store for me and come back here with the dogfood and a few bottles of red wine
And this afternoon he has given the horses their lunch ... while I watched and gave instructions. . So he knows what the animals need if something suddenly had to happen to me ... like when I broke my back in October 2008 after a fall of my horse Chikiboy on a rock in the hills ... then all the work fell suddenly on him and the neighbours ... I do not want to think what would have happened if Paco and the neighbours had not been there for them ... I am eternally grateful to all of them.
Only difference ? Now we have 11 horses here instead of 2 and therefor much more work, especially with those who are still sick and need to have their injections ...and nobody else can do that for me .... so I must not get sick
And now they tell me that the market in El Campello will not take place tomorrow because it is a holiday .... the 3 kings ... the biggest partyday for children here in Spain ... and so the market is today ... The foals need fresh greens tomorrow ... so I have no other choice than to put myself together, get dressed again and to leave for Campello in half an hour on my crutch and with my metal backframe to collect the greens... Yes I know...that I am crazy ....
Psst: Don't tell Paco ... otherwise he might be a bit angry...first he comes over to help me .... and then I do go out.
Locked up... locked up .... yes I've locked myself up in the house .... then nothing can go wrong for the rest of today ... hopefully.
I don't dare to go out the way I look now .... a cap on my nose, a small cut of 2 cm on my jaw, blue legs and swollen knees, aching muscles in the arms (from the falls), scraped elbows and since tonight a slice-cap on my head .... others will propably say "clumsy mie"
So after I had given the horses their dinner and opened my head, I locked myself inside behind this computer to continue to work on the website about the foals ... it takes a lot of work because the mobile internet here in the hills is slow .... very slow and everything takes much longer to upload ... but then if you want to live surrounded by nature without a regular phone line, without a connection to public electricity or potable water, well .... they live a life that most people do not know anymore....and they can not imagine it .
No, really .... we have no official electricity supply, no gas supply, no central heating, no telephone, no TV-TDT connection ... we live surrounded by nature and we are autonomous: we have electricity thanks to the solar and wind installation that I installed, I have a mobile telephone and mobile internet, a satellite TV connection, and a wood stove for when it gets cold ...
YES REALLY this still exist anno 2010 and we are happy that we can do just a little bit to reduce spreading more gases that ruin our world
Pictures of the day:
Foals that snuggle up to sleep after their lunch while a rainbow comes out ...
It was actually pretty quiet today, although it started to rain again last night and the day was often a bit dark and heavely overcast. I went out with the other ranchowner to get more pallets this morning to put the food of the horses on, so the bottem can not get wet.
I also called the supplier of the foal chunk to say he doesn t have to come at the moment. The foals really do not like it and the 2 youngest do not even touch it So I will try a different brand first before buying a large amount.
Lunch tasted good though
This afternoon, my neighbour Michael stopped by again to hold Brownie while I gave him his injection ....
The state of Brownie worries me a bit because he did not eat enough yesterday and so I stayed with him tonight so he would eat enough grains and I will do the same tomorrow ...
And then Michael offered the foals some mints... I never saw that before but he told me that the British Queen gives them to all her horses. The foals found it weird and those who had touched it let it fall afterwards Our horse Negro loved them though....he ' s a left brain introvert and loves any kind of food And while I was mucking out the stables I saw Michael stroking the foals who liked it and it seemed the ideal time to go a bit further and .... so I took some brushes and we went to touch the horses with a brush as if it were our hands ... so they would get a positive experience and learn something at the same time And most of them could not get enough of it ....
Our Filly began to gibber, laugh ...
The gray and the eyeguy did not let me let go ...
Every day I am realising more and more that I have a wonderful group of animals that will become great horses, each with its own personality and character ... and that they will get the best start in 2010 with me
She wrote me yesterday saying that they have sent a box with 11x Equimax, Eraquell, Equiworm P, vitamin paste + 2 halters, 1 pony size, 1 full size and a rope. I told her I only saved 9 and that the others were here from before my rescue action:
Just crazy .... and just like that...without knowing me ... Strange really because I did not even ask ... and I would never ask for such help anyways... that is not "my character" or maybe I am too proud ?
In any case, it's not about me here, but about these foals and they can use everything.
I also received questions from others about how, what , when...about any help
In Holland there ispeterson51 & live.comwho collects everything and will send it over here at their cost. In Belgium the Cherry Tree ranch in Diest will collect anything .
To further clarify ... everything is nicely kept legally and will be declared as gifts ... everything is intended for those foals. Later, when the foals will go to their new families, I'll just try to cover my expenses (and therefore accounts are being kept) ... if anything is left over, which is doubtful given the high costs and care, it will go to another good "horses" target that you will decide or will be used to save other horses. Those who know me a bit, know that I'll do everything for my 4-legged friends .... sometimes even neglecting myself or others... but with just 1 goal...animal welfare ....
A morning without any problems ... The sun is shining and chases the morning chill away .... A bright blue sky with just a few white clouds ... A fence that's working ...
And 9 foals, who are eating their lunch outside ....
The message has been adapted to 12:14 because of additional information:
Is there someone who wants to come and house-dog-horse-sit for a few days, as I need to go Belgium for a few days
You have no expenses, as I 'll pay the ticket and there will be enough food and drinks in the house for those few days.
The co-owner of the ranch will come by every day to feed the animals and the neighbours are there if you need any help. It is more about having someone around and present so the dogs are not so long alone and to keep an eye on the foals. Requirements: an adult person, who knows how to deal with horses and dogs in a natural way, be free for several days.
Well it can only get better ... I hope the worst is over...
While eating breakfast somtehing was happening in the stables where the littlens are... it turned out that the "not so blind anymore" Filly has become so fit that she quickly eats her bowl of grains and then chases the 3 little ones away so she can eat it all. This was visible when the neighbour arrived ... (he came to help to hold little brownie so I could inject his antibiotics). Filly was really full of energy ... and even began to jump in the barn ...and thus we quickly let her outside with the big brothers ... and so at least the little ones could eat in peace. But that was not what she wanted and she now started to be silly and started to run in and out the other stable still hoping to get back to the kids.
Meanwhile I also had asked the help of my neighbour, who is an electrician: I had a pretty bad result with the shock fence for the horses, the foals were leaning against it and didn't sense that there was a machine on it so I got another machine, but that didn't change anything.There was no electrical reaction.
So I asked my neighbour to do some measurements.But such measurements are not possible on this kind of an electrical fence. But now I was still working on a change in the division of the paddocs and I had to put the wires differently and yes suddenly I felt the shockand not only me
The "eye"guy had his head meanwhile in between the 2 wires to get to a piece of grass on the hillside ... and suddenly the poor boy got a shock...backed up and lifted his head and took the upper ribbon along ... which scared him and so he ran away distroying nearly half of the ribbon holders of the paddock were he was staying ...
I almost sank into the ground Does it never end? Should something really happen every day? It was so quiet, calm and relaxed here before I saved the gang ... My courage sank into my shoes for a moment...
I took a long breath and my neighbour Michael already started to take the broken holders off and replacing them with others... and so you keep going. We've put the ribbons back and suddenly there was a very good contact
The littlens have now their own separate play area and hopefully have no need anymore to go to their neighbours, "the big boys" ...
And now I will leave you because I have a lot of work tomorrow morning .... making a different distribution format in the stables so I can seperate Filly during meals so that she leaves the kids alone .... and putting an extra ribbon on the paddock of the littlens...enough work you see ... Pictures of the day:
The Black Stallion and the gray are napping after breakfast ... while I m behind them, to work out the new distribution and am putting ribbons on to test it (therefore they are touching the ground) )
The 3 little ones evaluating their new paddock.
The harvest of the market day today ... lettuce, cabbage and lettuce leaves, a cauliflower and broccoli ...
View of the new distribution of the paddocs for the horses: each group comes from his stable now directly in their own paddock.
It already started yesterday evening .... storm with windspeeds...you don t want to be out in those ...
So, we all went to sleep at 23h15...
But this morning it still blew violently sometimes, even so hard that I was not able to work outside and I could not let the littlens outside... they are still recovering from a cold and cough ... The older foals did lay to rest in the wind ... fortunately the sun was shining.
Meanwhile, my Border Collie became unwell and the juices flew out ... he could not stop it ... and so I quickly put the torch on him and treated the necessary acupuncture points ... he soon became quiet, relaxed and fell asleep.
In the afternoon the wind laid down so I decided to let the littlens out .... but the door was not open yet or a strong wind blew past us and 1 of the new wooden barn doors flew into chunks.
After feeding the horses I wanted to stop by by my neighbour to help her with the torch treatment ...so I got a large lamp in one hand and the torch and a box of homemade cherry jam in the other hand (which my neighbour likes a lot) and left...
...just to get stuck with my left foot behind one of those vegetablesbaskets of the horses and to be catapulted forward ... to fall on my elbows (to safe the torch and lamp that I was holding in my hands) and full body in the gravel and I m not saying about what I've done to my thigh ... my whitish vest was covered in red spots of the jam and I was just laying there... ...The dogs had fun though.... eating the cherries and cleaning the mess up ...
The last day of the year ... it appears to be harder than expected.
This morning I was so happy with my new ideas how to divide the horses up in the stables and how to adjust the paddocs ... well that dream shattered a few hours later...
After feeding breakfast to the kids I went out to get everything that we would need for this long WE.
I went to the pelletsstore: "Ow, I just wanted to come to your place with the 30 bags" ...yeahyeah. ... I bought 2 bags and said he could come on Monday with his bags. And then I went to the horseshop for additional white ribbon of 40 mm ... there was only 1 role ... Now I have to wait for another 2 weeks for the other one...Also purchased a device on solar energy to connect on the cable that I can move if needed ... After getting home, I began changing the format of the paddocks and I put up the extra ribbon ... I let everyone out and everything went like I wanted .... untill I had to see about 2 hours later that the littlens were actually in the picador where Chikiboy and Negro should have been ... I can only guess that Negro has pushed the ribbons to go and get to the food of the little ones ... It was a terrible sight ... the kids were a little wild and Chikiboy wanted to lead them.... hell broke loose & ribbons got broken, a pole with concrete has been pulled out and Chiki & Negro ran off into the field .... Fortunately Negro is foodcrazy so he stopped when he found some fresh grass .... but he did not make it easy for me to catch him and take him back to the paddock ...
Meanwhile, the truck also came with the hay ... definitely not the quality we are used but in this time of year, there is nothing else he said .... the 20 bales of oats is just enough for a week and the 40 of hay .... well I ll mix it with the alfalfa ... They did assure me that it is good material ...
And now I go back to the gang ....
Lunch snacks in addition to bale of alfalfa: sliced banana, carrot, orange, melon, cucumber, turnips, lettuce, cabbage leaves, cauliflower, apples, ...
Just at the very end of 2009, the "eyeguy with the white stripe " gave me a beautiful gift: .. you know ... one of those 2 horses who started all this ... The baby whose eyes stayed with me at night, the one I felt watching me ... whose eyes never left me alone ... who constantly calledme to come back and save them
Some of you know that I, after I broke my back in 2008, I finally followed my heart and I have renounced all forms of coercion (on myself by the traditionals) but on the contrary I m now looking and listening to the body of the horse, his character, his will & wants & needs... and we go further as a unity.
As I was lying in my bed I got to know about Parelli Natural Horsemanship through the internet thanks to a topic on Bokt ( "Parelli or Monty Roberts?"). And soon I became a member of the Savvy Club to get more knowledge & info's.
Finally I found a world where I got confirmation of what I felt and thought and wanted to do with horses and during the last year I have also gained much knowledge about how and what and why. I ve seen all the DVD-packages so many times, so much info
... just before dinner I went down to the "visionaryguy", with whom the intuitive touch goes super well, to introduce him to the Parellihalter of my Chikiboy ... I just let him smell it, I showed it to him, I caressed him with it ... and when I felt that everything was ok for him I just put the halter on in peace and tranquility ... he trusted me completely ... it was sublime! I instantly forgot all my misery
It is how it should be ... to grow together in confidence and ensure that no other human ever betray their trust again ! They have already suffered enough in their young life.
It's really not my day I had not taken any medication for more than 10 weeks ... no nothing.... no pills, no creams, no drops .... I could settle everything with the torch for the pain, fever, headache or a stuffy nose, my fibro, ME or whatever ...
But my body has had too much to cope with over the last 2 weeks and I didn't take care of myself, I did not treat myself often enough and then my legs and knees had to cope with stamps, pounding strokes and had to block 150 kg (fall over of that heavy trolly last week) ...
My knee is full of water and is extremely thick ... so with regret in the heart I just swallowed something to help to get the inflammation down more quickly ... I can treat the pain with the torch and the inflammatory medication is actually an excuse, as I do not have the time right now to rest, the foals need me And what was my latest stupid action?
Now that the land is finally drying up ...I forget to close off the water ... so .... it s a bit wet ...AGAIN
Indeed .... cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, getting those worms cleaned up...hygene is important ... I do not want our horses to get infected nor one of my other four legged kids ...
And so we trained our little arms even more than on other days, but the group of 4 that are more inside than the others get a complete new strawbed every day anyways
My horse Chikiboy was certainly not thrilled with the odors that came from the barn ... and he also showed that:
The truc with the avena has not been and neither has the man who would deliver the 30 bags with the food for the foals.... Typical Spain ... mañana, mañana ..
And today there were traces of it all ... some do actually have worms. But I won't post those pictures ...
All in all it was a pretty mild day and all the foals have been able to spend some time in the sun. By the end of the afternoon however, it was time to go back inside because the wind was rising and it can get quite nastly here sometimes The truck with the Avena still has not arrived ...that man makes me crazy
And normally tomorrow 25 bags of 25 kg of foal chunk will be delivered. Vandaag maakten ze kennis met veulenbrok....maar dat lieten ze toch even staan. Today they had foalbrocs for the first time .... but they left it lying around: They prefer the mixed feed my horses get, they found it tastier apparently...
So the horsevet would be coming at 17h. And he came indeed around 17u20.
While looking from above ... he was surprised that the horses were in such bad shape, namely that they were so thin ...
And of course, when we went down and when he looked at them from closer by, that situation certainly did not improve.
He did not expect that I would have taken home such poor souls, given all the work and care that it involves.
I then showed him the pictures from 2 weeks back, so he could see how much changed and improved they were after just 2 weeks of good and a healthy diet and appropriate care.
And yes, the difference is big ... even after just 2 weeks.
He also checked the eyes of our Filly and could see some alteration to the iris and that something is sitting between the iris and the top layer. I should continue the daily treatment with antibiotic drops in the eyes for at least another month at a rate of minimum 3 treatments per day.
Our little Brownie with the cough was also checked, lungs are clean, no fever, but still has a cough, and should continue to be treated with antibiotics. First he advised to separate Brownie from the others, but when I told him that the others had already been sick first... isolation would no longer be so needed.
The Black Stallion was viewed from a distance ... there was no other solution for that... and he still needs to get someanti-inflammatory drugs for his problem.
Then we discussed about what had to be done in the near future. In January they should all get a passport, chip and so on will be checked. They must also be dewormed again with a half dose of Equimax.
In February deworming again but with full dose of Equimax.
And then in March they will get their vaccinations ... at this time they were just too weak ... and would do them more harm than good ...
I suppose that one month after their first vaccination the big ones will be on their way to their new family.7 stallions together may just be too much of a good thing: Because these animals are getting stronger and stronger every day thanks to good food and good care.
I could then apply for their pedigree for those who would like a thoroughbred with all the papers. Then the vet showed me a new product for Spain, Equimax in tablets ... and he gave us a gift tube with 8 tabs!I immediately gave him a kiss
And when I asked for the bill for his house call, he said "Nothing" WAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW .... I gave him 2 more kisses .... hahahaha That's what we need, a little bit of help now and then ... that gives us inner strength again
... otherwise he might be a bit angry...first he comes over to help me .... and then I do go out.
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