A BUSY WEEK WITH LOTS OF NEW HOMES We had a busy week last week. In addition to the stress of Bertha going down, and moving 5 horses to pasture in Springport, we had eight placements last week, although two were previously adopted horses that returned to their owner who had experienced medical issues that required their return last winter. First, two of our newest residents found their home. The adorable little mini paint mare, Zoey, who is mostly blind, and her younger (and bigger) mini buddy Apollo found a wonderful home. There are other animals in adjoining pens, and they have a wonderful family to love them, but it’s also great that they get to stay together. Thank you Bonnie and family for opening your hearts and farms to Zoey and Apollo. Then Johnny and Jasper went back to their home. They are two older STB geldings who were adopted about 6 or 7 years ago. When their adopter had medical issues that caused physical limitations, they came back to overwinter with the geezer herd at the rescue. They were excited to get back to their home and the fresh grass on the field as I’m sure they thought the first cutting hay was getting a little stale. Thanks Penny for taking good care of your boys. One of the best placements in a long time was our beloved Buddha Baby. He is an older STB gelding who harness raced and had more earnings than any other racehorse on the farm besides Thumpem N. But he had a crash or an accident at some point before he ended up in a killpen that left significant lacerations on a hind leg and caused him to be somewhat off behind. He also requires a mash diet. But he is the best broke horse—and he has been wonderful to have at the rescue. In the winter he always got the crappy little pen with the tiny shelter down by the water pump because he was so well-behaved and we could trust him to not break out or mess with the already-damaged fence. He got a wonderful home with another older horse, beautiful pasture and experienced horse lovers who will give him the one-on-one attention he has always deserved, but is hard to get on a farm with 60 other horses. We’ll miss him a lot, but are so happy for him. Thank you Barbara and Bob for welcoming Buddha to your farm. Then little Leroy, the feisty 30ish pony somewhere between a mini and a Shetland size also found a wonderful home on the east side of the state where he is a companion to a senior donkey. He too got a lovely farm and an experienced and loving owner. Thank you Paula for giving Leroy a home. Finally, on Friday two of our beautiful mares in the back pen got to go home. Rin is an older STB mare who has an old hock injury that keeps her from being rideable. She has been here almost two years now and after her buddy Nacho got adopted she never really had a bestie at the rescue. But now she has a loving family and a senior friend like her. Thank you Kathy and Brad for welcoming Rin to your farm. Rin rode out with Esther, our beautiful older grey mare of unknown breed, who has been a wonderful companion twice before and was blessed to find another companion animal home on a beautiful farm with a wonderful lady who knew she wanted Esther even before she met her. Esther will even get to keep the same farrier. Thank you Tammy for giving Esther a home. Thanks also to everyone who supports our mission and helps provide second chances to horses who need a soft landing. Thank you for supporting your local horse rescues. (fb)

FIRST ON THE FIELD We had lots of help this morning. Thank you Jamye, Kevin, Nora, Penny and Philip. We were able to get the first four horses to pasture before noon, got feeding done and a half pallet of feed unloaded. Louie and TJ were first on the field, and Louie fully intends to be the herd leader. But when they got there, TJ just jumped right into grazing those spring grasses. Louie ran about checking the field and calling out "Where is my herd? Your leader is here." Or so it seemed if I were doing equine translation. In the very next load came Sports Investor and Speedy T who had finally, after about a week, just started to make peace with the TB mare boss of the pen we had moved them to, so that they were finally able to be granted access to the round bale. I am sure they will quickly realize that the pasture is better. They were there last year and did well also. Thirty three year old Punch will go next (he's the oldest horse we have who doesn't require a mash) and we are still trying to figure out who the last 1 or 2 on this field will be. But we are grateful the weather warmed up today and we were getting horses onto pasture. Along with the 7 horses who went to new homes this week (more on that in another post or two), this should start to make a dent in the overcrowding at the main rescue so we can work on cleaning pens and repairing fences and shelters. Thanks for supporting your local horse rescues (fb)