Dreams........

Our dreams or God's vision?

When you think of where you "should" be or where you "want" to be in life what comes to mind? I was reading an article in hobby farm magazine and a saying struck me as interesting and got me thinking on more than one front. It said " Just as one cannot grow a garden without planting the seeds, dreams cannot come true until they are spoken out loud and carefully nurtured-through discussion, research and action."

I got thinking of my dreams and where I thought I would be in life or what I thought I should be doing in life and I am no where near where I want to be......why not? I realized how true this statement was.

For some the first part is hard, maybe they feel no one will support there dreams or think about how hard it will be do get it done so they keep it to themselves. Maybe its the act of articulating it and defining it. Generals of I want to be or do this or that dont count, be specific on what it is you want or where you want to be. For others this may be the easiest part....for me its the easy part.

Second, is your research and for me its easy, if it interests me I can read up on it and learn what I need to know. Some may find this daunting, sometimes it requires boring hours behind a desk or in front of a computer but its a neccesity.

Third, is the action. This is where a lot of people get stuck, and I have to say I am one of those people. Its the point of what if you fail (if you dont do it you wont succeed either!) Its the point of now we have to make the contacts and get the ball rolling. We have done all the research so we should be able to get things started but there are always a 101 excuses as to why they are not....work full time....kids....someone doesnt support what you are doing (there will always be those people even if you are mother teresea), why all the exuses if we want our dreams to come true so badly?

I feel like God is using me to start a minisrty using the gift he gave me, my love and ability to care for his creatures. It has become a dream of mine, however I feel its a vision he had for me in my life....why am I keeping God waiting. I look at all the excuses and think which one is so important I need to put God on hold?

What is your excuse?

HELLO WORLD!

Its a Filly!
Finally at 8pm Remy went into labor. Ten min later we had a healthy Black filly. By 8:45 she was up and nursing. She is coal black, with no white to be found anywhere but I have a feeling she will roan our like her mother, and that is perfectly fine with me.

I love the whole fertility and birthing process when it comes to animals, I think they are some of God's greatest creations and when it goes with out complications to mom or baby it is a miracle....a mini one at that!

Our newest addition does not have a name yet, I want to learn her personality and her quirks and she will then name herself.

If you go to my website we will have more pictures up in a few days.
Its such a blessing to have a quick uncomplicated birth for mom and baby and they are both healthy and doing well.

Life goes on.........

I knew it had been awhile since I last posted.....I had forgotten just HOW long it had been. Apologies to those who are wondering about how the rescues are doing and what we have been up to.

J.R. is doing very well. He has put on probably 2oolb and his feet are starting to come back into shape with a few regular trimmings. We are currently feeding him Aloe Vera juice to help with his ulcers and it seems to be helping him quite a bit. I can not wait till the footing is a little better around here so that he can go into light training and see how much he really knows and get him in a little better shape.

Remy still has not popped. Her previous owners were WAY off on her breeding dates so we sit a wait. She is bagging up some and her hind end has dropped some but we are going on almost 3 weeks with those signs. The way we figure it we got her the end of May so she has to come at the very latest in May.....lol.


Nim is as woolly as ever and doing well. We are registered with Delta know and have several facilities that would like our services but we are waiting on our ID badge and we must get a special patch made for our vest we wear....therapy dog doesn't really fit. We are currently going to a local puppy class held by a wonderful trainer, Donna Lee Watson. We go and participate with the others in the class. Nim of course does not sit and stay but we work on our own program a little.

I will try to get better at posting more often and we will be talking more about what and how we train our horses to go into facilities and some of the things that are asked of them.

Winter Blues

Its the time of year again when all is suppose to be Christmas and white, well here we are all Christmas and mud!

I have not posted in a while as we have just been keeping our heads above the mud this winter. We have not done much visiting as it is difficult this time of year when there is no good place to bathe Nim and keep her dry and clean. I worry about getting her wet and the possibility of her not being completely dry under that woolly coat of hers.

J.R. is doing wonderful. He is gaining weight. He is gaining it slower then what I would like but as long as we are going in the right direction. We are finally starting to see some muscling coming on his croup area. He loves to be in the barn but has a little claustrophobic issues. He has the best personality so he may just stick around for a bit.

Christmas is fast approaching and while we may get caught up in the shopping and the decorating let us not forget the friends of our four-legged kind that need our help. With the economy the way it is, things are tight for everyone and its amazing how much as little as 3 dollars could do if enough people pull together. We are their advocate, we can not forget them in this holiday time.

Thanksgiving

Are we truly thankful.......


Its that time of year when we all get together with family and eat to much. That is only after most of us have argued over which family members we are going to visit or who we are inviting over for dinner. How many of us are taking the holiday for granted?

We had the opportunity to visit the woman's abuse shelter yesterday. It was great, we got mobbed with small children as soon as we walked in the door. It was nice to chat with the families and see the smiles on the faces of the children. Then to see the faces of mom as she saw her child smile for the first time in a long time.

As we sit stuffing our faces with our loved ones sitting near us with plenty of food on our own tables we need to be remember those who are not as fortunate as us. It is called Thanksgiving for a reason, we need to truly be thankful for what we do have.

If we don't have a thanksgiving dinner, and we have soup in the cupboard we need to thank God that he has provided us the soup. We need to be thankful that we have our health or that we are surrounded by loved ones. Not everyone is as lucky as we are. It might be hard to be thankful for soup when we rather have turkey but God never said he would provide all that we WANTED, he said he would provide all our NEEDS.

Remember to thank God for all he has given you and your family this year.

God Knows Best

Saturdays events were a huge success! It was a long day but well worth it. I got up early to head down to the barn to get breakfast for everyone and get loaded up so we could head to the dogie salon. After talking to several different people, I decided to use Paws to Wash in Bridgman.

We arrived at the wash and I went in to meet the owner Beth McNeil and to double check the accommodations. I was Leary of the tubs, (leary or not we had to do this today, I had no back up). I thought they were walk in to the floor of the tub from the ramp. It was walk up the ramp which was steeper then my girl was use to. Then she had to step down into the tub. She was so good and listened to my commands through the whole thing.

It was rather cute as she was in the tub she looked like a regular large black dog from a distance and we had several people surprised as they were not looking real close and just going about talking and then shocked to see a horse in the dog tub.

Getting out she was just as good and then we went into a separate room to get blow dryed. The forced air is still a little worrisome but after awhile it was all in a days work for her. I could not seem to get her coat dry. The long winter coat with the protective oils on it is hard to get completely dry but she was dry enough for the hour and a half drive to Grand Rapids. I knew that the heat in the van would help her dry more.

We arrived at our evaluations site and I ran in to, again, see what the arrangements were and where we were actually going to be. I finished up my paper work and then we out to get Nim. The evaluator was absolutely great and everyone else was excited as they don't get mini's in for therapy often.

She was the best pony every! She walked in there like she knew exactly what was going on, no messes and was right on cue for everything. We had people in from the rehab center who liked to watch and she was great and showed the evaluator she knew her job.

We passed all the test, and are now sending in to get our badge. They have a scoring chart that is NA, for handler needs to do something other then therapy work. NC, for pet not ready yet. A 1, that is you have met Delta requirements and a 2, that is you have passed Delta requirements. Out of 25 we surpassed all of delta requirements except 4 which we still got a 1 on. I am so very proud of my girl.

The evaluator was so impressed how we did that she wants to put us in personal contact with the coordinator from Mary Freebed. Also to try contacting Borgoss down here in Kalamazoo who do not have a mini horse in their program yet, and they only take Delta certified.

After all of that she then went to a church children's group and was fussed over and they all got to ask questions and pet the pony.

She has truly surpassed all of my expectations for her. She is one of a kind. God knew what he was dong when he matched us up together.

First for everything

Today was a hectic and trying day. In working in my Delta manual it occurred to me that they wanted the pet, (not just the dogs)bathed within 24 hours of the visit. I am suppose to treat saturdays evaluation exactly like a visit. I have a horse who lives in the barn where its 30 degrees out right now and she has her fair share of a winter coat.

So on the phone I go, to try to find a self serve doggie wash. I have heard we have them in our area but never actually had to use one before. I worry about washing nim in the bathtub at home as it will be real slick and getting her in and out over the edge. I finally found one in ST. JOE that is like a walk in shower with tile around, great but still slick. I finally talked to a nice lady in Bridgman who has tubs with a ramp (not really what I wanted) but she has horse experience and seems very willing to help so far as to open up early for me so I can get her bathed and blow dried and get to Grand Rapids in time for our appointment.

It also occurred to me that these were not your at home hair dryers, they were commercial grade dogie dryers. That means lots of noise and a great degree of forced air. I know the noise would not bother her as we walk by generators etc... BUT the forced air might bother her.

I remembered my dad had a professional dryer from when he showed dogs so we went over to borrow that to get her use to it. It worked out well, she was wet from the rain so we brought her into the barn and turned it on. I placed her supper in front of her so it would be a positive experience. I was right, noise no big deal but the blowing air she was not fond of. After a little coaxing and starting slowly at the feet she stood still for me to blow dry her. We did both sides and of course one side is not as comfortable as the other but that is expected out of a horse with something new.

I could not be happier with her reaction to it all and she made great strides today. Nothing like doing everything last minute, but as we go through the next couple days we will keep doing it a little every day and she will be a pro at going to the salon.