Catching up - spring news

Upcoming Events



Coming up in July:


OPEN BARN - July 17th



What's that, you say?


Well, we're having an Open Barn event to thank all the people who helped us in so many ways to get on our feet again after the barn fire last December.



There will be music (possibly by Dog & Pony Sound, Ottawa's top karaoke company), a barbeque, and informative tables and demonstrations by local equine professionals. Some of the participating people include Saddle Ridge Stables, Dr. Jeff Sleeth, and Andrew Droppo will demonstrate his Hay Steamers.



We'll also have a silent auction to raise money for the horse rescue.



Watch for more information right here and on FaceBook.




Spooktacular Fun Show


Mark your calendars now! Our second annual Spooktacular Fun Show will be on Sunday, October 31. There will be leadline and mounted classes, games, a potluck lunch (Mom's making her chili again), and of course, a costume class.





News


Forever Green Stables held their first AERSO dressage show on June 12th. Porto and I did well, achieving scores of 65.65% and 65.36% in our two classes. We brought home first, second and reserve champion ribbons! Our next AERSO show is in St. Lazare on June 26th.




The rain stopped in time for the classes and it was nice and cool for showing.


We're still waiting for Donna and Daisy to foal. Donna looks like she'll foal sometime this week. It would be nice if it happened tonight as I'm off tomorrow.


Classy (Classy Bingo Bar) is sold. He's being picked up tomorrow from Forever Green Stables where Christine was trying to start him under saddle. He's just not interested in being a riding horse, so I felt it was best to find him a new home where he could just stand at stud. His new owner is pleased with her purchase and has agreed to allow us to breed Donna and perhaps Delilah to him next year, as well as honour the breeding contract for Little Girl, Lori's pony.


Shawn (Dreaming in Technicolour - Delilah's colt) and Spot (Spot My Dream) were gelded on Friday, June 11. Both are recovering well. That means that Spook (Cool Blue Dream) is now the only stallion on the property. He's only available for breeding by artificial insemination (AI) and lives in the paddock with the cows.


Aggie and Cooba are both expected to calve soon. We check their paddock regularly to see if there are any new additions.


Dreamscapes Delilah is now a Canadian Sport Horse approved mare!!! She took Second Premium with a score of 71%, with a score of 9.5 out of 10 on her trot. We are thrilled! Thank you very much to Julie and Elisha for arranging and hosting the inspection.




Delilah was exceptionally well behaved throughout the whole experience. She's quite a different horse now than she was a couple of years ago when we rescued her off the meat truck.

Doesn't she look good with her trimmed feet and beautiful red ribbon?
Pebbles (Beauty's colt) and Shawn are both growing well and getting bigger every day. Both colts are handled daily. Shawn will be registered as part Canadian Sport Horse now that Delilah is an approved CSH brood mare. Pebbles will be registered ISHR. They're both for sale, too.








Pebbles and Shawn play together every day. Pebbles is much faster, though, and very nimble. Shawn can't scoot under any of the mares' bellies anymore: he's too tall.



Perfekt Song, the Selle Francais mare that Elisha and Julie adopted, had a beautiful filly. Her name is Muzik. She's very sweet. We're very happy that Song has a great home with wonderful people.






EastWind Pony Club news

Miella participated in the D Rally at Kemptville College on the long weekend in May. She did her D level test and got excellent marks! Congratulations, Miella! Miella's team also placed first in the Stable Management competition. Great job, Miella and Kiana (United Counties Pony Club)! I'm glad to know Sneakers was in good hands all weekend.


We have raffle tickets for sale for the SLOV raffle. Tickets are $2 each, or 3 for $5. Pony Club parents have tickets to sell, or you can email our DC for some. The prize is a handmade tack trunk filled with all sorts of goodies, including brushes, bandages and a saddle bag. The draw is in October.



Two more potential members hope to come to our next meeting. If they join, that will push our membership up to six - the biggest number of members so far.

More September news

Busy, busy, busy! Lots of things happen every single day on the farm.

Yesterday, Mac and Levis headed off to Jenn. L.'s place. Mac is staying there for the winter so he can hang out with other thoroughbreds and enjoy "fat camp". He'll gain weight on Jenn's grain and extruded feed ration plan and have a stall and blankets and all the extras. Jenn's mom may ride Mac, too, if she feels comfortable on a 16 hh horse. Mac is very quiet and very good for everyone.

Levis will be back at Dreamscape Acres on Thursday after he has his feet looked at. He may just need his shoes pulled for the winter - but we'll let Jenn's farrier give his expert opinion on Levis' lameness.

We have a new horse on the farm: Roxy - a 2004 registered APHA mare - is here for the winter for training and to get a few miles on her. Her registered name is Strike Me Magnificent and she's a (very rare) blue roan and white overo Paint. Roxy belongs to Jenn L. She's lightly started under saddle, but needs some more work. She's for sale for $3000. Once we have some photos and a video or two, we'll post her for sale on Equistation.

Elmer picked Gypsy up today. The vet didn't make it out yesterday, so she didn't get her pregnancy check. It was great to see Elmer and he made a big fuss over Gypsy and gave us all the news about Queenie. Queenie is happy and healthy and ridden about three times a week on the trails on Elmer's 200 acre property. Although mom is sad that Gypsy was adopted, she's glad Gypsy has a good home.

The vet came today and checked Nikki. She's not pregnant. Darn! Oh well, we'll try again next spring.

Autumn got the once-over from the vet and he gave her a shot to relax her tendons a bit so that she can put her tiny hooves flat on the ground. He said that tight tendons are pretty normal for foals and that it is unlikely to affect her in the future. Abby J. is in love with her and may buy her before she's registered.

Mom will take more photos of Autumn on the weekend. She gets to go outside with Dreamer every day while the weather is nice. She delights in cantering around the paddock and leaping and bucking to burn off some energy while she's out. Dreamer gets a bit worried when Autumn gets too far away, so she's getting her exercise, too!

While Jeff (our vet from Dundas Veterinary Clinic) was at the farm, he took a look at Maggie's eye. Maggie has uveitis, as does Scrappy. Uveitis is sort of like glaucoma in humans - sometimes early medical intervention can stop the damage, but other times, the disease progresses very quickly and there's little you can do to stop it. Uveitis can be triggered by an injury, bacterial infection or allergies. No one knows what triggered Maggie's uveitis.

Unfortunately, it looks as though Maggie will lose her eye as the disease has progressed too far for drugs to help. Removing her eye sounds harsh, but she can't see out of it at all, and if the pressure continues to build, it could rupture and cause excrutiating pain. She's got some drops to help for now, but she'll have to have surgery soon.

Scrappy's uveitis means that she's blind and needs occasional steriod treatments, but it hasn't slowed her down much.

Horses with uveitis are often extremely light sensitive, so both Maggie and Scrappy wear their fly masks all year round - they can have them off at night and when it's raining or overcast. Bright light can make the iris go into spasm - and as you can imagine, that hurts. Their flymasks act sort of like sunglasses and cut down on the amount of light that gets to their eyes.

Natasha came out on Monday to see Autumn and she'll be back tonight to ride Dash. We like Natasha and enjoy her visits! She's doing really well in school this year - she knows that if she lets her homework slip, she won't be able to come out to visit as often.