Saturday

A beautiful day at the ranch. The weather is coooling off and it was wonderful! Even some of the older horses were feeling frisky!

The Western Vet horses returned home today- Stormy, Trace, Pablo, and Sundance are all back in their pastures. Roy, Aiken, Alleghany, and Hudson left to be used for teaching vet students for the next three months or so.


Heavenly gets some carrots after her bath...
Priceless
Everyone waiting at the feedroom!
Part of the Big Pasture and Boarder Pasture.
The Boarder Pasture
Freedom and Celebrate get groomed in Assisted Living.
Jackson gets a hug!


Watch this great video of Moonshine, a prospect Pony Shiloh bought last year at the New Holland sale, he is looking for his new home. He has a higher adoption fee which brings in more money for other rescue horses. Turn up the volume! If you are looking for a Show Pony- here he is!

Will is being weaned!

Today was Will's big day, we separated him from his mom, Inspirada. There was very little whinnying, in fact Inspirada and Chief called to each other for a while, but little Will just ate and watched the grown ups making a fuss! Little Will is very laid back and doesn't seem very bothered by the weaning process. Will and his babysitter/companion, Chief are in a double corral in the Hospice.

Will.

Will and Chief have some lunch...

Inspirada says "Thank God that is over! Now I can work on getting my figure back!"


The Hospice area. There's Chief and Will in the first corral on the right, Good Grief and Pepperoni are in the first corral on the left. When the video swings to the left away from the Hospice, you can see some of the Gummie's Pens and Duplexes. The Mare Motel is the red roofed building to the left of Hospice and there is an attached small turnout between the Mare Motel and the Hospice. We can just open gates to let certain horses into the turnout. At the end of the video, to the right of the Hospice are some of the Wanderers.

First of all, please take a moment and visit Habitat for Horses, a wonderful rescue located in Texas. HFH is a huge rescue who helps hundreds of horses each year. Jerry Finch is a wonderful man, someone many of us in the rescue world really look up to. HFH is a fellow Homes For Horses member and we see Jerry in DC when we go for meetings and conferences.

HFH is currently assiting horses in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, but their own facility was hit and sustained major damage! Shelters and barns were destroyed and hay was lost. The Shiloh Horses just donated $100.00 to their organization, please check them out and see if you can help. Go here: Habitat for Horses

Here are some more videos from Shiloh that I took today. The first one is of Big Vacation Village, Shiloh's largest senior pasture:

The second video is of two of Shiloh's turn outs/arenas on the rescue side of the ranch.

Will's Weaning! Little Willing (Will) is 6 months and 4 days old today! So, it's time for him to start to be weaned away from his mom. We will be moving him this week to an area away from Inspirada. We will be putting him in with an older gelding or possibly Chief, who is one of his best friends and Bungalow mate, to act as a babysitter and steadying influence. Shiloh always weans at 6 months of age, it's the most natural time for it to be done as both mom and baby are spending less and less time together by their own choice. Will still nurses a bit now, but mostly just comfort. Some people wean at 4 months or even under- but a baby needs more than milk from his mother- they need the comfort and security that only their mom can give them. Will might be a big baby, but he is still a baby. After all, they are only babies once, so why rush it? The weaning process should be a natural one for both mare and baby, when it is done correctly there is little whinnying and as little stress as possible. We will also be giving Will some ulcer medications during the process as weaning can cause stomach stress for the baby.

Assisted Living Video!

Assisted Living eating their morning Equine Senior. From left to right- Priceless, Abilene, Jackson, Navajo, Eureka, Clover, Chatty, Heavenly, Freedom, Celebrate, and Canyon.

These horses eat Equine Senior twice a day and all the grass mix hay they want. These horses are in their late 20's to 30's. Most older horses cannot keep their weight up with just free fed hay and have to get most of their nutrition from a feed formulated specifically for Senior Horses. We also feed some of the old guys wet Alfalfa hay cubes along with their ES to add some more variety. All hay cubes are wetted down before being fed to make them easier for the old teeth to chew! (Although, not all of our old guys can handle any Alfalfa, so only certain areas get the cubes...)

Equine Senior is our second largest expense, behind the hay bill. We feed 14 bags of Senior feed per day between Little Vacation Village, Assisted Living, horses on special diets, and the Gummies.

A core belief at Shiloh is that all horse do better, emotionally and physically, when they are out in a pasture or herd type of situation. Horses are only housed in our Hospice, Duplex, or Mare Motel areas for daily wound care, specific feeding needs, or if they are in training and are up for adoption to new homes. These corraled horses are all turned out on a regular basis with other horses in the arenas to play and interact. All of our Sanctuary horses live in herds so that they can just be horses and do horse things . Horses are, by nature, wanderers and should not have to spend great periods of time in small closed in corrals...

The Big Pasture this morning. Turn up your sound...

Daisy wanders on the far side of Assited Living's fence. She eats all of the Equine Senior that falls out of the buckets! Smart Daisy!
Tommy Haflinger gets groomed...
The rain clouds are coming!

Charlie's Weekend Adventures

As usual, Charlie was right in the middle of all the weekend action! He's such a trouble maker!

Leading Tanis down the wrong path...

Tanis likes his little friend!

But, Charlie looks bothered...
Suddenly, Charlie turns on Tanis!

Now it's time to bother Gus! Follow me Gus! Faster!

"Ouch Charlie, that hurts!"

Later, he is spotted ripping things apart on Jill's cart and tearing into the carrot bag...

Charlie! The whole ranch rings with that one word everyday!

The Newest Arrival!

The blind Appaloosa mare arrived yesterday afternoon! Shiloh friend, Mikey, drove round trip from her home in AZ to pick her up at the auction yard in Idaho. Huge thanks to Mikey, and to ALL the horse lovers out there who followed this gentle mare's journey to her new life.

We have named her "Keller" after Helen Keller, who lived a life of dignity and purpose. Keller is settling into her new home and seems content. She will remain in Isolation for 30 days and then will be moved into either a bigger corral or small pasture where she can make friends and enjoy a good horse life.

Listening to her new surroundings...

Keller looks happy in her new home!

Saturday and Much Ado About Mustangs!

A great Saturday! Lots of hard working people and all the horses enjoyed some extra attention and carrots from the Carrot Brigade.

Before we got to the Mustang Class at 10am, there were chores to be done:

Sally's Birthday Cake...

The goats are fed...

Even the Tortoises, Thelma and Louise, enjoy some treats fed by hand (of course!)...

Salsa welcomes the Hickey Family to Shiloh...

Charlie looking cute after his bath!
Inca.

The Much Ado About Mustang Class was a huge success! Shiloh Boarder and resident Mustang Expert, Eric Clayton, taught a very informative class all about the NV Mustangs and the issues they face. Lots of people showed up and everyone learned alot.
The class...
Everyone is learning!
We all had tons of questions, Eric answered every one of them...
Even the dogs listened in! Listening intently...

Then, as a special treat, after the class we all loaded up into trucks and headed out to see if we could find some Mustangs!

We know they are out here somewhere...

Eric knows this small Band very well and helps keep an eye on them for the National Wild Horse Association.There they are!
Getting closer!
We couldn't believe our eyes...
It's incredible to see them out in the wild...
They crossed the road in front of us...
There was a young foal, maybe 5 months old or so...
A big Buckskin Stallion. He was so beautiful! All the horses were in wonderful shape...

There was a pregnant paint mare...
And young stallion...

It was so cool to see them interacting together as if we were not there... It gives one a whole new perspective on the Mustangs to see them in the wild. It's very moving to see and we all thank Eric for bringing us out here to see them. What a wonderful day! The End!