The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
The Golden Carrot Newsletter
May 2014
First, let me apologize for the length of time which has passed since the last newsletter. I have been struggling with many things, and not everything is in my control.
The biggest news is our loss of dear Sara, our tiny lady donkey Latte, and just recently, the glorious Remy Martin. And then, the arrival of not one, but TWO new residents, Buttercup and Pistol.
Please remember Sara, and read her story. With so many older frailer horses,her end was a shock from which we're still reeling. Joyful has been clinging to Buck, and my heart breaks for her as I suspect Buck may be the next to leave us.
Buttercup
It so happened that shortly after Sara passed, I was contacted by a family about Buttercup. Butters is a Percheron-X, in some way a result of the Premarin industry (I'm not sure if she was a producing mare, or one of the foals considered a by-product by that soul-less industry). Animali Farms "rescued" her, only to place her with a stable owner who used her twice as a recipient mare. She came back to the stable after the second foal with what appeared to be "contracted tendons", and the stable owner was going to euthanize her.
In stepped Tracy and her family, who convinced the stable owner to give Butters to them. They spent 7 months trying to solve Butters lameness issues, without success, and asked TGC to take this relatively young mare (only 12). Our farriers and vet believe Butters has badly injured her right stifle, and that it may do much better here, with daily turnout and activity, as opposed to the steep hillside she lived on before.This is a very loving, very people-oriented mare, who is a tad intimidated by the herd and by larger horses. Although she's heavy boned, she's not real tall! So far, her favorites are the donkeys, and Ronan. She has a few part sponsors, but could use more!
Pistol ("HotterthanaPistol")
And I no sooner agreed to take Buttercup when Courtney at Under the Angels' Wings Rescue contacted me about an elderly OTTB in bad shape at the Kern County Animal Shelter. Knowing the likelihood of my losing one of my frailest oldsters anytime, I agreed to help this poor guy. It turns out, he is "HotterthanaPistol", a Florida bred gelding who ran in Charles Town 34 times, for a total earnings of $11,000 from 1998-2000. How he ended up in a central California animal shelter, almost 200 pounds underweight, with severe cellulitis in his right rear leg, will always be a mystery. But now, he's here.
Pistol has the obvious issues of having been starved, including sand in his gut, and of the cellulitis (infection) in his right hind leg, as well as lameness in the right fore (possible ringbone?) but he has the high courage characteristic of the Off Track Thoroughbred warrior. He's very new at this time, I had wanted him to heal a little more and gain a tad bit of weight before letting him into the herd, but I can tell you so far he can hardly wait! Pistol has been a very good boy for his shots, hydrotherapy, sweat wraps, and medications, and deserves our help. If anyone might consider sponsoring Pistol, we'd sure love to hear from you! He's gonna be a special needs guy for at least his first year here .... it takes time and extras to heal what he's been through.... I'm very grateful that After the Finish Line was willing to step up with some emergency funds to cover his vet visit, chiropractic, farrier, medications and six months of feed! While we didn't have room for Pistol for his first two months, and he lived in the round pen, I am so touched to report that he has befriended our Shelby, becoming his bodyguard and protector, and constant companion!
Then I was so distressed when Latte, the lady donkey we took in in June of last year, developed a severe intestinal twist and passed away, leaving her son Sancho, and husband Diablo, and myself, bereft. Please read about our little lady here. Goodbye to Latte
And this last weekend, our dear Remy died, I believe from complications of his neurological problems, and/or the cancer with which he was riddled. He deteriorated rapidly, and went down, unable to get up again. I'm still reeling from this unexpected loss, and his wife Daisy is deeply depressed as well. Please remember Remy, who leaves such a hole i
n our hearts. Goodbye to Remy
Our final news is interesting. Our new Board member, Katja, referred me to a friend of hers in Switzerland as Microsoft, who hosted our website, was requiring things of us that simply could not be accomplished! Rick came to a dead end with them, and then Katja's friend tried without success as well. Typical, eh? At any rate, our new Webmaster is now Urs, who has transferred our whole site over to a different host, and done a lot of work on it to clean it up, make it faster working and more efficient. I'm learning the new content managment system and so I need your help. Is there something I should have put up on the site - new sponsors, articles, information, resources - that I haven't done yet? Could you shoot me an email to remind me? Because NOW, I can do it! And many many thanks to Katja and Urs for their help, and patience with this technically-challenged nit-picker! It seems that somewhere along the way, a lot of photos were lost, and some text as well. If you find something "off", let me know? I'll try to get it going correctly asap.
I hope you can continue to support our efforts here, because we NEED you. I'm still here, working hard to keep all moving well and the horses cared for. Please let me know if there is something you think I should be doing - I can't think of everything, and all ideas and suggestions and assistance are greatly appreciated.