Horse Plus Humane Society

Sunday morning two horses were put in the trailer.  Tess and Candy wondered where they were going.

They hit the road and before long they got to their destination.

Tess and Candy were both going to join the herd at Home at Last Sanctuary.  Candy, the Warmblood in front, is so much bigger than Tess.  They are friends and follow each other around.  Twister, right behind Tess, was so happy to see Tess as they had originally come from the same place.  She was delighted to be reunited again.

Many of you will remember Prissy and Santiago.  They are very happy at Home at Last, and everywhere Santiago is Prissy is sure to be nearby, protecting her “baby.”

Home at Last was having their open house to celebrate the opening of their new barn.  Some of you may remember we asked everyone to vote in last year’s Chase Community Giving contest, and Home at Last won a $50,000 grant.  With this money we are already seeing some huge improvements at their facility and are so excited we could help them.

Back at the shelter Birdena was happy pecking around looking for bits of goodness to eat.  She felt like someone was watching her.

In fact someone had been watching her.  Redneck has fallen comb over spurs for Birdena, and has given up fluffing the horse bedding and decided to make his move.  At first it scared poor Birdena to death as he charged her way.

After a little clucking and cackling they both agreed they wanted to get to know each other and headed to the bar for a couple drinks.

After that they went dancing.  Redneck has found himself quite the little lady, he is a giant compared to her, but they definitely like spending time together and there is definitely an attraction going on.

The horses could care less about Birdena and Redneck being twitterpated.  They just enjoy sitting back, eating their yummy food.  Shawnee and Knickers are doing very well, and are just waiting for the transportation arrangements to be finalized before they can go to their new home.

The sprinklers are doing a great job watering the pastures.

The results in the bare pens are starting to peek out of the ground.

Phoenix enjoys the irrigation too, he just stands in front of the sprinkler and waits for it to come around so he can get sprayed again.  He just loves water.

This beautiful Circle Y saddle was donated to the shelter and is going to be the 2nd place prize for the Extreme Rescue Makeover competition.

April spent a lot of time detailing and oiling the saddle so it looks gorgeous.  She went over it with a toothbrush and got all the nooks and crannies cleaned up.

All of our staff are extremely busy getting ready for the Extreme Rescue Makeover Grand Finale this Sunday.  We hope to see you there!  Just as a reminder, the shelter will be closed Thursday – Monday.

We are all gearing up for the Extreme Rescue Grand Finale contest on May 26th at the Taylorsville, Ca, arena at 1:00 pm.  We are so excited about this, and anxiously waiting to see the progress first hand of the horses and trainers.  6 months ago we started placing the horses with the trainers, and they have made spectacular progress.

Last year we rescued quite a number of unhandled, untrained horses.  It has been so amazing watching their progress since we rescued them.  This is Diamond, who was the skinniest horse in the group.

After rehabbing him he was placed into the Extreme Rescue Makeover program.  He was placed with a great trainer.

Kirsty has done such an amazing job with Diamond.  All of our staff are so proud of Diamond’s success, going from an emaciated horse that was on the verge of death to a healthy well trained horse who has an amazing future.

Daisy was rescued at an auction when she refused to load into a trailer.  She was unhandled and untrained, and apparently, we believe, she was roped, choked down so they could get a halter on her, and they let her thrash herself into exhaustion while trying to load her.

Poor Daisy was confused, rearing and fighting the rope, trying to escape her unknown future.

She finally became so exhausted that she partially collapsed, but she still refused to get into the trailer.

After she was completely exhausted she collapsed on the ground and her owner and auction workers looked around, wondering what to do now.  We stepped in and bought her from her new owner for more than he had paid for her just a few hours before, there was no way we could stand by and let the abuse continue.  When she was rested she loaded gently into our trailer with a small herd of her friends.  To see the video of Daisy right before we rescued her, click here.

Daisy’s trainer, Mindy, worked hard on overcoming her trauma she received with some of her first human contact.  She is doing great and we look forward to seeing her at the Finale.

Miracle Moon was completely feral and has now come so far working with her trainer.  The trainers have been working with the horses, trying to get them used to anything a normal horse might encounter.  You never know when someone will want to ride in the rain holding bright red umbrella!  This competition is not about horses jumping through firing hoops, it’s about horses loading into trailers, standing calmly for the vet and other basic day to day activities that horses need to be able to do.

Judy has done amazing with Miracle Moon and we are so excited to be able to see her progress first hand at the Grand Finale!

Charmer was completely unhandled and untrained.  She has come so far with her trainer too.  Nikki has been working so hard with her.

Willow’s trainer, Tara, has worked a lot on trail trials and is doing amazing.

Candle’s trainer, Amy, enjoys taking Candle on long trail rides and getting ready for the Grand Finale.

Royal’s trainer, Megan, has worked a lot on desensitizing Royal on all kinds of things she may encounter in life.

There are many more trainers that are coming to the Grand Finale, they are all working very hard to hopefully win the $5,000 grand prize.  We believe they all deserve it and wish all could have that!  Come show your support and see the amazing work the trainers and horses have been putting in over the last 6 months.  Come up for the event, it’s about a 2 hour drive from Oroville near Greenville.  It’s a beautiful drive and it will be worth attending!

Please let us know if you are coming to the event so we can make appropriate plans.  If you would like to volunteer at the event please let us know too.