[War Admiral]

War Admiral checking in w/ a brief report before falling into bed! I want to first apologize to MoCaraid for having to cut out "early" last night and leave this a.m. before y'all woke up. COTH lurker Riff was kind enough to offer to drive me back to the ATH to get my cart and we needed to leave early. THANKS RIFF!!! Also, I echo Lori in my thanks to Fernie Fox. Fox Rox!!

So, my impressions are based on a very quick meet-and-greet with Pooh the TB last night, very late.

Y'all, Pooh has been through the wringer, but he has GOT IT GOING ON. I was pretty worried about how he would manage such a long trip. He did just fine, thank you very much. He stepped off the trailer calmly, confidently, and without manifest physical difficulty. I was pleasantly surprised that he was able to walk at all, let alone show me that GORGEOUS, long, swinging TB stride. He was able to move in small circles without discomfort, and his nice long relaxed stride REALLY impressed me. Make of that what you will...

So did his attitude. Remember, Pooh is blind in his left eye. I was the first person he met when he got off the trailer in the pitch dark. All he knew of me was a calm hand on the neck and a soft kind word in the ear. I then had to lead him across the "bridge" over a fast-moving creek to the rear barn. In the dark.

We didn't know each other from a hole in the wall, and I thought "Hmm, this could be interesting." He got to the creek, heard the water, stopped for no more than one microsecond - just long enough to check it out with his good eye - and then decided to Trust The Human and stepped quietly and calmly across.

We tried Pooh and Gus in stalls at first, with HRH Avery in the corner stall between them. Gus wasn't having any of that - he REALLY wanted his Pooh. Pooh, however, demonstrated the quiet, calm intelligence that I think is going to make him one of Sunkissed Acres' success stories. He explored his stall, introduced himself to HRH Avery next door, drank deep of his water, tested the hay to see if it was satisfactory (it was!), explored the adjacent run-in, and yet... and yet... when Gus would panic and scream for him, he would invariably come calmly but quickly back and stick his head out with an encouraging nicker. Pooh clearly is a horse with a great sense of responsibility, who knows what his job is.

For those of you who haven't figured this out yet, I'm an incurable dreamer, an incurable optimist, and a total sucker for a sob story - especially when it comes to a great-hearted TB!! I think Pooh could very well be one of the REALLY special ones. This guy's story isn't over yet, not by a long shot.

What I would like to do is see if we can raise the money together to throw the vet manuals at Mr. Pooh. Get him a full REAL workup and whatever he needs. I honestly think this is a horse who is worth putting some money into. OK, no: he's never going to be Idle Dice or Keen or J.J. Babu. But my gut instinct is that some older re-rider or some young girl who needs to move up from the ponies is going to be very grateful indeed some day that this horse survived and thrived.

The sponsorships we have now are enough (just about) to cover feed and farrier care. I'm hoping we can drag out our begging bowl one more time and ask for some money for Pooh's vet bills, and any extra-specials he may need.

He's worth it. Trust me on this. He really is. Pooh is a horse to touch the heart of anybody who ever loffed a Thoroughbred. He needs us - all of us. Let's give this good horse a helping hand.

Loff
Liz and HRH Avery (who, BTW, likes Pooh. A lot. And Pooh likes him.)

[BasqueMom]

Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound and that Poof weathered the journey. IMO, Don't think it is EPM if he weathered the journey so well. Fingers crossed, anyway.

[War Admiral]

Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound and that Poof weathered the journey. IMO, Don't think it is EPM if he weathered the journey so well. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Thanks!!! That does seem to be the general consensus. His whole hind end is kind of weak/light looking, but in his present state of emaciation there is really no way to tell from just eyeballing him whether it is (a) muscle wastage, (b) starvation, (c) conformation defect or (d) some combination of any of the above. It's weak *looking* but he can definitely use it - I watched him sit down and pirouette on it during a kerfuffle with Gus over hay. He has really nice lines - the kind of TB where even though he's emaciated you can see who he is going to be. He's a VERY nice horse; I like him a lot!! He got a nice new leather halter today which is a previous SKA donation that hadn't found the right horse yet, so I halternapped it for him!

The minor bad news on the Pooh front is this: he has no lip tattoo, so we'll never be able to I.D. him. I always think it's so sad when TB's lose their identity! At a wild guess I'd say he has some Danzig in him but that's just a guess... Pooh definitely does NOT care to get his royal TB feet wet, so I'm thinking that rules out Eventing as a putative career.

I didn't really get to meet Gus much the first night, so spent some time w/ him today. First off, huge thanks to MoCaraid and Amy and whoever else helped in getting rid of all those rain rot scabs. Nice work, ladies!! AND, more good news: this boy can definitely see at least SOMETHING. We got them out to their paddock today, led them along the perimeter so he could sniff the fencing, and lo and behold he could find where it was all by himself. He found the water trough by himself, as well. Interestingly, he's been the more adventurous of the two all day long, and when I left the barn a few minutes ago he was trotting back and forth along the fence line b/c HRH Avery, Chippy, and Sunkissed Angel were all galloping along their side. Clearly he knows where the fence is. He's a sweetheart - and is actually the friendlier of the two - but as MoCaraid said, definitely has some feet-picking-up issues. We'll work on that.

And yes, they are both Dumo' Ho's!!

[MoCaraid]

Fernie Fox, how absolutely AWESOME!

Thank you, I know that's a lot of work, and it is greatly appreciated
BIG Ole Suthren Hug goes out to you and all who participated at your show!

Sorry I had to miss it, but I was a little busy trying to avoid the ditches (and fuel stop stanchions) Hubby said he's going to send me to Richard Petty Driving School for haulers

When is the next one? I'll try to schedule a little more carefully

Blessings on Your Barns
Mich, Cara & Winterhawke

$$150.00 coming your way from my little schooling show today.

Will put a cheque in the mail tomorrow.

[MoCaraid]

Drove in my gate around 9:30 Sunday night, shut down my rig, said a prayer of thanksgiving for a relatively safe journey, and fell into my husband's strong arms. I'm still recovering from "white line fever" so if my post seems disjointed please know that I'm a happy, happy camper for having the opportunity to play this small part in Gus and Pooh's journey to sanctuary.

SunkissedAcres is a firstclass operation run by committed and compassionate folks who are totally committed to the welfare of the horses. Commonsense and compassion and that level is VERY rare. Having now been there and seen firsthand the manner in which the animals are cared for, I am even more determined to support SunkissedAcres any way I can.

Reading the assessments of the horses this morning makes me weep all over again. Pooh definitely knew that he had finally arrived at a place worth of his stature, and that the humans would care for him properly. With Liz lovin' on him, he'll be holding that beautiful head upright in no time. Gus will learn that he has nothing left to fear and will soon be a "pocket pony".

They will require ongoing support to address their very expensive issues - Pooh in particular is going to need many dollars over a long period of time just to be comfortable.

OMG I cannot forget - I met HRH Avery! What a horse! What a personality! He wrapped my heart around his ears and I fell in loff!

Lori, please give those precious poochies a big hug from Auntie Mich. Specially the bouncin' cuddler

My heart is overflowing with gratitude to Lori and Liz. Thank you for your hospitality to two very tired travelers. And a special thanks is due to "Big John" for his repair work. Thanks John

Big Ole Suthren Hugs to all you COTHers who helped in any way to make this happen for Pooh and Gus.

Blessings on Your Barns
Mich, Cara & Winterhawke

[ChocoMare]

Sure wish more people could see and fully experience Sunkissed Acres and all the kids. Glad you could MoCaraid.

Oh, and I really hope you got some Katie Mule Kisses!

[snkstacres]

We got to play with the boys a little bit yesterday. Oh they are cute ya know. Very affectionate. I think WA has fallen in love with Mr. Pooh. No, I know it LOL.

Things can change very very quickly given different situations and so has for these boys. Pooh is now top dog. We have to make sure Gus gets enough to eat now as Pooh is taking advantage of better eyesight LOL. He wants to eat his and then eat Gus's food. We are feeding them what is knows as Rabbit alfalfa. Poor Pooh's teeth just make it impossible for him to eat properly. While I was hoping to get by with just one major vet bill, fact is, I will have to do it in stages.

Most people wont understand this but, Pooh's teeth will have to wait for a week or so. He is very underweight but eating well. If you change things to quickly, they will lose even more weight and he cant afford a pound. To change his mouth that drastically when he has learned to eat with his disablity, means that he will have to learn all over again. We wormed them yesterday and started on foot care. Pooh has a very bad case of whiteline disease. So bad he would rather not set down one of his back feet and it turns at a funny angle when he does. He avoids stepping on the bad side.

Gus though is in much better shape. While he is thin, is covered in rainrot, he has more weight and strength. In all likely hood, he will be adoptable as a companion horse. He has an adorable face and his eyes give him a very distinct look. He is capable of finding his way around and functioning well in a safe situation. By safe I mean, no deep creek beds or foriegn materials in which one could harm themselves. He is good about fencing, ponds etc. etc. He just needs a very loving person. He likes people muchly but needs handling. He is brave, goodlooking, kind and I believe he will be a very easy keeper. Pooh will probably need a year or so to recuperate and then see what we have.

We will keep you all posted though on there progress. I dont think it will take long at all before you see huge differences in these boys. And I for one am happy that they turned out to be the sweet and sensible guys they are.

Thanks for all your encouragement and kindness.

[War Admiral]

We got to play with the boys a little bit yesterday. Oh they are cute ya know. Very affectionate. I think WA has fallen in love with Mr. Pooh. No, I know it LOL.

No word of a lie!! I've ONLY posted 3 blogs about him today!

We're brainstorming fund-raising ideas, b/c this is one good TB I am NOT gonna give up on without a fight. Suggestions welcome!

[Ted the Peep 'Ho]

Hey - this is MY foster brother you're talking about! I just knew it! There's something about those TBs...like I have always said, once you have a TB, you never go back. I tell my mom this all the time.

I am going to bug my mom to make cookies, the soft kind. She has to go out of town this week so maybe next week. But I told her that since I grew out of my nice Schneider's fly sheet with the belly band it should go to Pooh. Because that's what brothers do, they share.

[BasqueMom]

Such good news about the boys! Another testiment to the power of COTH!

[War Admiral]

Well, well, well...

WA is doing the happy dance.

Guess who can pick all four of his feet up and HOLD them up, in any reasonable position, without any apparent difficulty whatsoever, so long as his head is DOWN??

Mr. Pooh, that's who!!

While Lori was busy, I had "Feet Day" at the barn today and went around treating the 3 horses we've got at the moment w/ feety kindsa stuff: HRH has another tunnel abscess that blew out 2 places at once; there's a new nice horse we got in who has about the worst case of thrush I've seen in 10 years; there are a couple I'm advised are abscess prone unless feet are kept clean/dry, and last but not least there's Pooh.

I couldn't get him to pick that hind up before, but matters weren't helped by Gus buzzing around b/c he knew for a fact I had Dumors. I don't really dare to separate them yet for fear of causing Gus to have a panic attack... So today I was more sensible and tossed hay for both of them first, making sure Gus knew where his was - well away from Pooh's!

I treated Pooh while his head was down and he was munching, and voila - no issue whatsoever with picking either of the back feet up. So they got scraped and scrubbed and picked up and put down and picked up and squinted at and treated and he had no issue with it at all.

Yayness.

Special to Ted: We could try these guys on Peeps... I'll see if I can find any and provide a report!

Not sure if Mr. Handsome is as much of a fashion maven as HRH - I caught him trying to rub his blanket off - but if anyone wanted to buy him a halter nameplate....

[MoCaraid]

Techno-challenged to say the least

I registered and did a quick profile - no problemo
But when I tried to leave a comment there popped up a box saying something along the lines of "....MIME does not support this.....
What must I do to comment?

Re Pooh's feet - I should have told you that, everything was such a rush I forgot! So glad to hear they are settling in well, and that Pooh has you to tend to his every need

Blessings on Your Barns
Mich, Cara & Winterhawke

[War Admiral]

Dunno, maybe you have to be our Friend first? I just sent you a friend request. Let me know if you can comment us now!

[MoCaraid]

But I think I left a "comment". Let me know if you want the pics.

I'll be offline for the weekend as of 4pm - ja, haulin' agin - short one with overnite this time

And I figured out the plug - shoulda used the one from hitch to truck - it's a 4-way LOL ! I'm a dummy! Hubby's still amused

Blessings on Your Barns
Mich, Cara & Winterhawke

[War Admiral]

But I think I left a "comment". Let me know if you want the pics.

I'll be offline for the weekend as of 4pm - ja, haulin' agin - short one with overnite this time

And I figured out the plug - shoulda used the one from hitch to truck - it's a 4-way LOL ! I'm a dummy! Hubby's still amused

Blessings on Your Barns
Mich, Cara & Winterhawke

Yep, got it! I would LOFF to have the rest of the pics!

Re the plug - oh my... I bet you'll never hear the end of that one. Don't feel bad, though, there were 3 of us looking and none of us figured it out!

Happy haulin'! I'll PM you with my e-mail addy.

[snkstacres]

For all interested in these two boys especially MoCaraid. The boys have gained a phenominal amount of weight. In fact, Gus doesnt need another pound. Pooh's backbone is no longer sticking out and he has MEAT on his butt. You wouldnt believe this. We dewormed them one week ago and I swear they have each put on better than a hundred pounds. Of course now, Pooh is eating about 30 lbs of hay or close to it and app 15 of that is rabbit alfalfa. His teeth are working much better now as well since he is being fed regularily and using them to grind. He is coming around really fast and showing us some TB traits, like getting all the groceries LOL.

Boys are doing wonderful and hopefully Mr. Gus will have new friends shortly as well as a new home. His own home where he wont be scared cause there wont be walls to bump into.

Thanks everyone. Cant wait to post the after pics on these two.

[IheartGambit]

Hi Lori and Liz and all the kids,
Be on the lookout for a box full of 'stuff' for the shop...and a 'dribble' to help out with Pooh and Gus.

I love reading the updates!

Thank you for all that you do!