Aeva - for sale by owner through this site

Aeva is a Paint-type mare (chestnut and white). Aeva is 2 years old, going onto 3 this year. She is not registered. You can see more pictures here.

She is just above 14.1hh and level from wither to croup. She has been dewormed and vaccinated against Influenza, rhino, EEWEE, tetanus and rabies. She was a rescue purchased through the United Pegasus Foundation, but the owner cannot afford to keep her. We want to see her go to her forever home now.

She can be microchipped at buyer's expense. Although the owner is asking $1200, her price is negotiable to the right home. It is not about the money. It is essential that she is matched with the right home or person.

The owner says "Aeva is really one of the smartest ponies I've ever met - I am currently taking her through level 1 of the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program. If you are familiar with horsenalities, she is innately a LBE and a RBI in learning situations. With Aeva, it's very much a balance between unconfidence and dominance. The biggest challenge has been to accurately read which one presents itself and respond appropriately. I believe that she would be suitable as a games pony, trail horse, etc. with the right amount of training, but not a child at this moment."

If you purchase Aeva through us, we will receive a small donation to help with our horse rescue. If you are looking for a horse, check out this mare. To make arrangements to see her, please call or email and we'll forward the owner's contact information.

March 17, 2009 - We have a new arrival

Serenity arrived on Friday night.

She's a 6 month old filly, an owner surrender, with contracted tendons and severe rain rot (skin infection caused by wet fur). Her owner realized that she couldn't cope with the care that Serenity needed when the person who'd volunteered to do the twice daily wrapping had reneged on their deal. The owner did the right thing and called me to come and pick her up.



She's a sweet little girl - an unregistered palomino Quarter Horse.

The contracted tendons mean that she can't straighten her legs properly and that her pasterns are much too upright. That affects her joints and even how her blood moves through her body as the frog of her foot doesn't sit on the ground the right way. Pressure on the frog moves blood back out of a horse's lower limbs and recirculates it back to the heart.

Heather, one of the vets at Dundas, came out to see Serenity yesterday. She says that Serenity may need surgery to correct her tendon problems - and that'll be expensive. Jeff is coming out on Thursday to do xrays and help us prepare a treatment plan.

Mom searched the internet yesterday and found a possible noninvasive treatment: Dynasplints for horses. We've sent an email off to the company to see if they're available in Canada - if they are, splints would be less expensive than surgery (still pricey, though: $450 per splint - and she'll need four).

Saturday was a glorious day at the farm. The warm sunny weather means that the snow is melting away - and as long as it doesn't rain, the ground is drying up. Hurray!

We will need rain eventually - grass and other plants need moisture to grow - but right now, we're happy to have warm, sunny weather rather than torrential rains and overflowing ditches!




Mom groomed Beauty from head to tail on Saturday - she loved it. Mom says she was ankle-deep in shedded winter fur when she was done; and that Beauty really liked having her tummy scratched with the curry comb. It must be tough for Beauty to scratch now that she's so pregnant - only a month left before we find out what sort of Star baby Beauty is carrying!

Natalie came out and brushed Nikki, too, but Nikki doesn't have as much of a winter coat, so there wasn't as much fur on the floor to sweep up.



Neala and Gwen had people come out and look at them last week. Neala needs to be adopted or fostered off the property to be weaned. Neala and Gwen are improving every day!

Gwen had her feet trimmed for the first time ever on Thursday. Yvan Roy, our farrier, trimmed about 2" off her toes and reshaped the rest of her feet. Gwen thought her feet felt a bit strange without the ski toes, but soon got used to it.

Neala and Gwen are in the round pen for now - Neala learned quickly how to get out of the riding ring by crawling under the electric wires, and even adding a row of board fence didn't stop her. Gwen would panic when Neala wandered out of sight (she was visiting with all the other horses on the farm) and broke out of the ring, too. We've done a lot of fence repairs lately...




Maggie followed mom around trying to get her picture taken. She still had her blanket on on Saturday, but I'm sure that all blankets will be off soon - temperatures are rising steadily!



You can really see how big Beauty's belly is in this picture!




Hey You looks pretty good - and enjoyed the warm sunshine on her body as she nibbled leftover hay.


Firecracker thought it was a perfect day for a nap in the sunshine.



Tira is starting to lose a bit of her excess weight and enjoyed the sunshine, too.

Sneakers stood watch over Soul as she napped in the hay. At one point on Saturday afternoon, there were 11 horses lying down in the two "mare" paddocks (Sneakers is the only gelding in either paddock) - we're always amazed at how secure and happy the horses and ponies are here.

Cinder is starting to look a bit more pregnant now - she loves to be handled and stands nicely on the lead for photos. She's due to foal in July - the sire is a complete mystery, although he's supposed to be 16 hh, so like Delilah last year, we're looking forward to a mystery foal.

Happy Birthday, Eleanor!

Don't forget the Spring Fling on Sunday - we'll be celebrating St. Patrick's day a bit late as well as Elly's birthday. Come for noon and bring something green to decorate a pony - or wear green yourself.

Pony Club News

We have two members signed up now and we're looking for more. If you plan to join, please bring your membership form with you on Sunday.

If you're interested in more information about Pony Club, check out the Canadian Pony Club website and the one for our region, St. Lawrence-Ottawa Valley (SLOV) Region.

You can find copies of the membership forms on the Canadian Pony Club site under Downloads.

Random thoughts - and photos - from the weekend

It's been three years since we moved in. It may be hard to believe, but when we moved here, there were no fences, no fields; just the barn and the swimming pool and a small area cleared where the winter paddocks are. Everything else was bush and scrub trees.

In the last three years, we've cleared fields for paddocks, cleared trails in the bush, put up miles and miles of fences and fence posts, and rescued and put up for adoption many horses.

Happy third anniversary, Dreamscape! We hope we have many more happy anniversaries here and make still more progress this year. Maybe we'll finally find the money tree and be able to build an arena, new barn, and put up more post and rail fences... No sense in keeping dreams small - we might as well dream big and hope we can do even more.

Laura and her Mom came out to see Neala and Gwen on Saturday - and fed them Apple Snax. Both Neala and Gwen really like Apple Snax - really, really like them. Laura brought Neala a new blue halter, too. It's not on in this picture, but it was before Laura left. Both Neala and Gwen are learning a lot - Neala is an escape artist and if she's outside with her mom, she gets out of the electric fence and goes exploring. We're adding boards to the riding ring (where we have them quarantined for now) to keep her in. No one likes to go out and catch horses at 3-4 am in the dark!

Roo has most of his feathers back now. He is very happy in the coop with the hens and happily strutted around in the pen yesterday in the mild weather.

All the hens lay eggs now, but not every hen lays an egg every day. Some are still pretty tiny, but they're getting bigger.

Chubby Cheeks, the rabbit, was renamed Einstein. He has wild hair much like the photos of the scientist, Albert Einstein, especially when it's a bit static-y from being brushed. Einstein is very patiently having his mats removed - he likes to be brushed, but some of his mats are thick enough that we have to cut them out.

He's a big fuzzy rabbit - and he's not afraid of the cat (Stripe is afraid of him, but curious) - or even Jasper.

Jasper was shocked when Einstein hopped up on his back when he was snoozing in the living room! Jasper was very good, though, and didn't hurt Einstein even though he couldn't figure out how to play with him. It was very funny to watch Einstein crawl all over Jasper and even under him. Mom and I giggled for about 20 minutes as Jasper tried to figure out what to do about the rabbit.

Thank you!

Thank you to Laplante Chevrolet in Casselman - they donated shredded paper for bedding last week. I traded in my Neon on a newer used car there, too!

March onwards ...

We have a new resident - Chubby Cheeks, an Angora-type rabbit, donated by Jennifer N.

He's very friendly and is turning into a big puffball as we brush him. Pictures will be posted this weekend.

Jeff Sleeth of Dundas Veterinary was out on Tuesday to give some of the horses their shots. He gave Neala and Gwen a thorough check up, too. Jeff will be back later in the month to do the rest of the horses.

Mom came out to lend a hand herding Neala into the barn while I led Gwen. Neala appears to be learning that leading isn't all bad. Yay!

All of the horses in Soul and Reba's paddock got their shots, as did Spook, Neala, Gwen, and most of the boys in the bachelor paddock.

Last night was the third session at Kemptville College for the free OVLAC seminars. This one was on parasites and pasture management.

Melanie Barnam, DVM, recommended that horse owners use the different types of dewormers in rotation, something we do already, to ensure that parasites don't become immune to the wormers. She warned against using daily wormers (currently only available in the US) as they may produce more resistant parasites.

If you suspect a horse may have a heavy parasite load (some of our rescues have not been dewormed regularly or properly), Melanie recommended a fecal test where the number of eggs and larvae can be counted. Once you know how bad the infestation is, you can work with your vet to plan a safe procedure for reducing the load.

She also recommended that paddocks be dragged to break up the manure and spread it out so that the sun can kill off any larvae and eggs. Pasture rotation helps, too, as do our cold winters.

We drag and bush hog pastures regularly in the summer to keep weeds under control and to control parasites and rotate the horses out of the "winter paddocks" once the ground starts to dry up. That helps reduce the reinfection rate, too.

As part of the clinic, we had an opportunity to have a free "float" fecal test done, so Mom took in a piece of Sneakers' manure and Tash and I took in one from Gwen. Since it's still wintery, neither showed much in the way of parasite eggs. Gwen and Neala will get a full test done in April before we deworm them, just to be sure.

You can read more about parasites and their lifecycle in horses here: http://www.myhorse.com/assets/Health/Natural-Holistic/asset_upload_file589_11959.pdf

Caution: Graphic images of worms - not for the squeamish!

You can find lots of interesting articles on horses and horse health here: http://www.thehorse.com/. You'll have to sign up for a free account to read some of the articles. Many of them are written by vets, and verified by other vets.

Dreamscape Acres is starting a herd health program for worming that will be administered by our vet. Deworming costs will not increase because of this - but it will ensure that we give the right wormers at the best possible time to get rid of parasites.

Pictures of Maggie

Added April 9 - photos of Maggie as a foal and under saddle provided by Jennifer N.

Maggie as a foal





Maggie under saddle - Fall 2008.

Maggie's face.

Peppy is Maggie's dam. Photo taken in 2003.





Maggie - the day she arrived at Dreamscape Acres (September 2008 - photos by S. Lorden)

Maggie playing in the field in January 2009.

Maggie playing in the field in October 2008 - showing off for the geldings in the paddock across the driveway.

Maggie is for sale

Sadly, Jennifer N. must sell her gorgeous APHA mare.

Dusty Doll Bonanza is near 14 hh bay and white broken overo mare. "Broken" means that she has a frame pattern broken by white crossing the back.

3 great gaits (WTC), well started under saddle.

'Maggie' had unlimited potential. She has shown cow sense, and loves attention, has been ridden by kids (under supervision), and adults. She is good for the vet and farrier, cross ties and ties.

Maggie would be ideal for a school, show home or as a family horse.

She is not for a beginner family, would suit an intermediate rider or perhaps a strong beginner with coach supervision. Super easy keeper, in or out, hay and water. Gets along well with other horses.

Maggie has learned a great deal in a few short months, and is eager to keep learning. Her beautiful movement, good looks and cheerful personallity are sure to win your heart.

$3500 very neg. to good home. Winter blanket also available.

Contact me if you're interested, and I'll give you Jennifer N.'s contact info.