End of January

Time flies when you're busy!



Butterscotch



Kathy and Donna



We have a new pony: Butterscotch. She arrived on Friday. She's a half Arab, about 26 years old. She needs her teeth floated and her feet done, and lots of loving. Kathy D. has offered to sponsor her as well as Donna - thank you very much!


Peanut (Rock My Dreams) is sold. He's leaving today. He's moving to the farm behind us to be a friend for a 3 year old boy. They're looking for a companion for Peanut, too. Pebbles (Dreaming of Chocolate) is going there for a few days to help Peanut settle in. Peanut and Pebbles went to Peanut's new home in the back of the mini van. Talk about riding in style!

The girls came out to ride this week - they're done their exams for now. Back to school again on Monday, but we really enjoyed their company (and all the work that they do) this week!

We had great news about Silver. The woman who owns him has confirmed that she believes the horse in our photos is her stallion and is willing to sell us his papers. All we're waiting for now is confirmation from the DNA registry that he is CW's Totally Silver, and then we'll be able to market him as a purebred Morgan stud. He's such a sweet stallion! I hope to get him ready to do Training level dressage this summer.

Delilah is being considered for a breeding lease. She's a Canadian Sport Horse approved broodmare, and we found someone who would like to lease her to get a nice Sport Horse foal. If things work out, she'll go live at their farm to be bred and only come back after her foal is weaned next year.

Serge is making great progress on the tack room. Soon, we'll have an enclosed room for tack storage. We used Air Miles to get Rona gift certificates to pay for a lot of the materials. If you don't already collect Air Miles and would like to collect them to help us purchase more materials for the farm, please let us know. Mom can order more cards with the same number so that they all accumulate in one account. If you have Air Miles that you would like to redeem for certificates to donate, we'd love that, too. 375 Air Miles can be redeemed for a $50 Rona gift certificate - and that can buy a lot of fence wire, isolators, or wood for stalls and the tack room.

Thank you to all Mom's friends who keep donating shredded paper! It saves us a lot of money on shavings, and composts really well in the manure pile.

The vet will be out for "teeth day" on Thursday. Several horses need their teeth checked or floated, and Beauty (Beautiful Dreamer) needs two extracted. Pebbles and Peanut may also be gelded that day - the vet will let us know if it's the right time.
The farrier was out last week to trim hooves. He did about half of the herd and will be back next month to do the rest.


EastWind Pony Club news

We're up to 5 members this year: Miella, Emma M., Kaitlyn, Christina and Daphne. We have a couple more people considering joining, and Emma H. and Dawn C. are still considering renewing. Four of our members have signed up for Winter Camp in March already.

We're practicing for Quiz now. Quiz is in April, and all of our members will compete at the "entry" level this year. Mom found some old Quiz tests and we'll work through them in our meetings, as well as practice possible games. We're also practicing parts of the bridle and saddle and Pony Club grooming.

January news

Serge rode Donna for the first time since she came to the farm!



We know Donna was broke sometime in the past, but she'd only been a broodmare for years before Sue B. bought her at the Galetta auction. Now that Candy has been weaned (and sold to Christine Allard), it's time to get Donna back into shape.

You can see by Serge's huge grin that he's thrilled to be on Reba's granddaughter, Donna.

The vet will be out sometime this month to do teeth. Silver, Beauty, and several others need regular dental work to deal with hooks and other issues. Regular dental check ups and care ensure that the horses and ponies can get all the nutrition out of their food that they can.

Our Pony Club, EastWind, has five members so far this year. We encourage all members to spread the word and see if we can add even more members. Dawn and Emma H. have not yet renewed their memberships, but we hope they decide to come back, too.

Winter Camp is coming up soon, and if you'd like to attend, you need to be a fully-paid up member (Pony Club and OEF).

Sad way to start the new year

We lost our dear little blue puppy, Jesse, on New Year's Day. He was out with us when we put out the horses, but for some reason, he ran to the road and was stuck by a passing vehicle.

We didn't see him get hit, and the driver didn't stop. We don't know why he ran on the road as Jasper stayed in the back with us. Serge found him on the side of the road, unconcious.

We rushed him to the Alta Vista Emergency Clinic on Bank St., but although they did their best to save him, his internal injuries were too severe for him to survive. He never regained conciousness, so we hope he never felt any pain.



I hope there are plenty of places to explore, chickens to herd. and cewy squeaky toys for you on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. You weren't with us for long, but you'll be in our hearts forever.