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Hi y'all, Was so awesome to see so many of you at our Open House. As glad as I was to see everyone, I always feel a tiny bit guilty to not get to spend more time with individuals to catch up and chat a bit. We had good food, although we forgot to get out the birthday cupcakes as everyone was munching on our famous Cheesecake! Woohooo. The chickens also enjoyed the cheesecake and were quite aggressive in their quest to get the biggest piece. There were rescued critters everywhere, dogs, cats, horses, donkey and of course our resident chickens. Just want to say thank you to the folks that took time out of their busy lives to come and hang out for a bit. God bless y'all and we cannot ever thank you enough for supporting what we do and making it all happen! We wanted to thank Nancy for the wonderful hoses and sprinklers that they brought. We are 3 steps closer to having enough of them. We can still use a few more, and will definitely use all of them, although as the nights continue to get colder our thoughts are definitely heading towards winter supplies and feedings. All of the critter kids are already starting to put on their winter coats. I just got back from Nevada, moving mares and foals that were slaughter bound (we actually picked them up from one of the kill buyers who had purchased them at the auction.) and took them to a place a few hours away from here where they will live in paradise. Many of the horses looked pretty rough as far as scrapes etc. as the auction yard is not a pretty place. When I returned home, I was shocked to see that the horses are already getting ready for winter. It has been quite chilly up here in the Mountains at night, and I am really wondering if winter is going to sneak in early. It made me remember all the double feeding we had to do last year. Arghhh. This is our trip from the Kill Buyer's place with the mares and foals to their paradise in California. So many folks forget that actually "saving the horses" is just a teeny tiny step, although a very important one, in actually making sure the horses are truly safe. PART 1 (THE HAPPY PART) Wow - what a trip. Put on about 940 miles starting Friday, then Mike & Jackie and Shirley and I took 13 pairs of mares and foals to their forever home in California. We left Shirley's about 5:00 a.m., picked up the horses in Fallon and headed out. It was a pretty good trip, with a few weird noises on one truck, (but no real problem). Then we had a truck whip into the lane I was driving in. I didn't even have time to think and whipped over into the next lane. Praise God there was a break in traffic. If there had been anyone beside us, we would have had a seriously deadly mess. Afterwards, shaking and being close to tears, we pulled over to make sure the horses hadn't been flung too hard. They were absolutely fine, PTL, and I am so thankful that our prayers for a safe and blessed trip were answered. We arrived at our destination about 4:00 in the afternoon and the horses unloaded calmly and walked happily over to start munching. If you look at the pix, you will see how calm these horses were when we arrived. We opened Shirley's trailer, the little filly calmly looked out, and then decided to stop and have some yummies from mom, nursing for a few moments and then casually stepping out. That is a pretty happy little horse who had a very positive trailer experience. PART 2 (THE NOT QUITE AS FUN PART) Hmmmmm - I am wishing I had been a little bit better informed about towing a goose neck trailer and how much clearance you really need. So I will share my humiliation and despair (haha) and let y'all in on a little secret that I didn't know.... you need LOTS of clearance, way more than you think, not just a few inches. On the way home from taking the mares and foals, we were pulling out of a gas station with a rather steep and weird driveway when I heard an explosion... Scared me to death - but I knew I didn't run over anything. I looked back and poor Soldier had broken glass all around him. We have been towing with the trailer on and my toolbox attached for quite some time. We have went up and down hills, around tight corners, loaded and unloaded. Never had a problem. BUT ON THIS DAY...... I blew out the back window of the truck. The trailer caught a tiny bit of the tool box and crushed it in, exploding the window. I didn't realize that automobile windows "burst" like that. So long story short, we pulled over again and Soldier went to travel with "Mom 2" (Shirley) so he would be safe. I now have to remove the tool box, the remaining glass and get a new window. There is something I am eternally grateful for though, yesterday if one more car had been in the mix, or I had reacted half a second later, we wouldn't even be here, so I have to be so grateful that if we were gonna have a "wreck" on the trip, it is one as small as this. I am not happy about it, but no one was hurt and like Shirley said, glass can be replaced, but equines and humans cannot. So once again I am sharing one of my "idiot maneuvers" so someone else can learn from my lack of knowledge instead of having to go through it personally.    So the first part of what we needed to do to help the nearly 500 horses that went through the auction went quite well. Will update next time about "Step 2" Helping to Prepare the horses to travel to their new homes. God bless all of you for your prayers and good thoughts. Our window has been fixed, so all is well, with the exception of my poor tool box. But again, I am so grateful that the Lord was watching over us and prevented us from a deadly accident. Hopefully someone else won't have to make my mistake and pay for a new window.
THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US! Matt, Palomino & The Gang Chilly Pepper - Miracle Mustang Equine Rescue & More - Rescue/Rehab Project LRTC www.chillypepper.weebly.com www.whmentors.org
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