Forgot to mention in yesterdays posts, we've a horse in for a week that belongs to a client. Very nice, well built Paint Gelding. He is 15 HH, 10 years old. Very good trail horse. He's been with them since this past August- they want to find a large gaited horse instead. This is a 'husband safe' horse. Asking $1200.

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Good day! Lots of horses worked- even with the heat. Lori came for a visit- got to see her Tappy work. Stayed to see several others go as well. She happily departed with her new round pen!

Scratchy continues to do well. Erin gave him a 'butt bath' this afternoon- just to help keep him clean- this last bout of the scours got him a little messy. In a few minutes Robbie will be heading down to the barn to give him his evening batch of mare milk formula. He is eating and drinking well- so with luck he will continue to thrive.

Luck- that is the wrong word. I was told ( again- as I've been told this several times before ) yesterday that I was lucky to have what I have here- lucky to have done so well in the horse industry, lucky to have stayed busy and productive in this down economy. I will admit that I have been very fortunate in all of this- but it isn't due to luck. Hard work ( a.k.a. many wet saddle blankets- literally and figuratively ) is the key to the success at RO-NO. Luck insinuates that it wasn't earned- that it just happened. We all work hard here, we try our best to make sure our horses are properly cared for, properly trained. I go out of my way to help my clients, and to try to find new ones. It isn't luck- it's persistence and hard, hard work. And having a wonderful crew here sure doesn't hurt! :)

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Busy weekend!! Kerry and I both had competitions to prepare for on Friday- along with all the regular work. Kerry had a good show- first time out on her Zip and she placed well- I'll have to get some photos to post.

Cardillo, Touche, Robbie, Nicole and I hit the road early on Sat. morning for our Mounted Shooting Competition in Conn. All went well ( other than a bit of construction in Conn. ) Cardillo

took everything in stride and improved as the day went on. People at the match were very friendly and helpful- and they all thought he did quite well for his first time at a competition. We certainly didn't win any prizes- but I was very pleased with his performance.

Scratchy continues to do well, though he does have the scours again. Yesterday Erin and I got him, London and Charlie out onto the grass in a good paddock and let them run for awhile. Boy did the babies have fun!! It was great seeing them out there stretching their legs.

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Just a quick post his morning. All continues to be well on the baby front. Carbi and her little black colt ( Royal Flush Lightning Bolt aka Lightning ) continue to thrive. They will get to venture outside this morning. Wish I could be there to see the little guy run.

Scratchy continues to do very well also. Still eating like a champ. Erin and I hope to get him out of his stall for a bit today- not quite sure how we are going to manage it- but we will figure something out. Want to let London and Charlie out to run also-we'll see how it goes.

I've been letting Scratchy stay in London/Charlies stall a bit longer every feeding. Trying to get him playing with Charlie, and getting the mare more used to having him bouncing around her. Still hoping that I can get her to accept him as her own.

Cardillo did well with our shooting practice last night. Robbie rode Touche too, and did some dry firing from his back. Touche does well with the gunfire, but we have yet to shoot from his back- maybe later today. I'm planing on bringing both of them to the shoot in Conn. on Saturday.

Touch will return from New Bolton tomorrow. Rhonda took him there to have a growth on his eye treated. It did turn out to be cancerous- but they say that it is very treatable and the prognosis is good.

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What a couple of days we've had!! Scratchy, the orphan foal, is doing very well. He is eating/drinking his formula like a little trooper, and we still put him on London ( the nurse mare) 5-6 times a day. We call it 'releasing the beast' when we open the door for him to go to her to nurse- he dives right in and goes at it- he knows already that he has a limited amount of time to get his fill from her. She has her own foal- and she still is not totally on-board with this whole ideas of adding a second foal to her care. He has been on Zantac, Pepto and Pro Bios, and as of last night he started passing some solid manure instead of the scours that we had been fighting. Each day that goes by feels like a mini-victory to us. I'm planning on adding some hydrated alfalfa pellets to his diet, along with the fol lac pellets.

Other good news, Rose's mare Carbi FINALLY foaled- and all is very well. She was horribly overdue- to the point that the vets were pretty sure that she would have a stillborn foal. She was producing absolutely no bag/udder- that and the amount of time she was overdue were both signs of a problem that some mares can get ( from ingesting a plant with a certain type of fungus on it) that can cause them to have an overly thickened placenta that prevents a normal birth and causes still born foals. We had been very worried about her- and it's been a couple of long. frustrating weeks waiting for her to foal. The vets said to just wait, inducing really was not an option- so wait we did. Yesterday morning I got the call at about 6 a.m. that the mare was foaling. I never showered and dressed so quickly in my life. She is over an hour south of here- but after all the waiting and stress I just had to go to help with any needed follow up. I arrived to a barn full of very excited people- half of which were in the mares stall with her. Carbi was a bit stressed out by this- so I ( hopefully politely as it's not my barn ) kicked them all out. Rose had still been at work in Philly and was on her way, so I got folks to calm down and quiet down while we waited for Rose. With all the people out of her stall, Carbi settled down and started taking interest in the new arrival - and after about 15 minutes he ( gorgeous and refined black colt with a lighting strip down his face) began to nurse. She passed her placenta a few hours later and all has gone very well. So glad this is over- she was so overdue that we were concerned about her own safety- 373 days!!!!!

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Sadly, we sent Misty to the big horse pasture in the sky yesterday afternoon. When she was down we could see just how badly her shoulder had been broken- this wonderful, strong old mare had done her very stoic best to stay up and eating to give Scratchy a few more days of her milk. I then spent a very long ( and frustrating ) night last night trying to get the colt, Scratchy, settled and eating. He went nearly 13 hours with no food. Refused to nurse from a bottle, refused to drink from a bucket, refused to swallow when I used a large srynge to put formula in his mouth. I read countless articles online, have been given great advice from dozens of colleagues and friends, all seemingly to no avail. He simply refused to eat. Finally this morning ( after what was basically a sleepless night) Erin relieved me of foal duty ( I really needed a shower- had been doused in formula numerous times throughout the night) After a bit ( much to the relief of all of us ) she managed to get him to drink some formula. I decided to bring London and her foal Charlie down- I just had to make sure that we would be able to get enough food into little Scratchy. We got them into the stall with him and restrained her so that he could drink. He took one look at her udder and was on her lickity split. We did end up having to tie, blind fold, twitch and tranq her for a few hours- but then could relax a bit. Thee is not a lovely temporary partition up in the foaling stall. 5-6 times a day we will let him in to nurse off of her ( she still has to be pretty strongly restrained) but he is also eating the formula very well- so things are looking much better than they did at midnight! Well- I'll post more later- for now I need to head back down to the barn to feed him, and I'm going t0 try to get some rest- did not get but 2 hours of fitful sleep last night!

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We have sad news here. Misty, my wonderful old brood mare, is not going to be with us for much longer. Several months ago she lost her eye-sight, but she successfully made it through foaling last Thursday. She has been dealing pretty well, though every day she has had a new mark on her face from running into the arena wall and such. It has been miserable to see her dealing with he lack of sight, and I knew that she probably would not make it too long before a decision would have to be made about her. Well, the decision has been made. Yesterday morning when I went to give her her morning water ( we go to her about 5-6 times a day to hand offer her water as she hasn't always been able to find it herself now that she has a foal to tend to ) I found her standing in the corner of the arena favoring her front left. Looks like her shoulder is broken. We will try to keep her up and comfortable for a few more days ( at most ) to try to give her colt, Scratchy, a few more days of having his mom, a few more days of natural mares milk. I'm absolutely devastated about this. Misty is one of my first Paso Fino horses and she has been a wonderful horse, plus she has given us some fantastic babies.

If anyone has knowledge of a nurse mare please let me know. I am planning on bringing Rose's mare Kat back in from the pasture to see if she will take the foal- it's going to be a long haul- raising an orphan foal is no easy feat. Any advice from you all will be very welcome.

Another bit of news that hopefully will not be bad news, Rose's mare Carbi still has not foaled. She is several weeks overdue. She is absolutely huge! with foal- but is showing no bag yet. Hopefully she will foal very soon and not have any problems. She will be having an ultrasound on Tuesday- or possibly sooner- to see if there are any problems.

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