Spring has finally sprung, the Equinox as arrived, days are longer and warmer, snow is beginning to melt and bulbs planted the year before are slowly making there way up to the light as well as little bits of green appearing on pastures.  The mud is abundant and our lighter horses in our herd are all looking a little more bay then white.  Coats are beginning to shed and we watch all the horses rolling around on the ground trying to get at those itchy spots on their backs.  They know that summer is just around the corner and the cold grey days of winter will soon be behind them as they gear up for an exciting spring and summer ahead.

This has certainly seemed like a long winter and we at Spirit Wind are all getting ready for that busy time of year with irrigation, training horses, finding some of them new forever homes and working with our new additions  Not to mention organizing fund raisers and getting those muscles prepped for all that hay that will need to be gathered off fields come cutting season.  Remember us if you have some hay to spare this year.

There has been quite a bit of activity since our last newsletter of 2009 and we are always excited to share with you all the happenings at Spirit Wind.

Firstly we would like to welcome Tuesday Rundle to our Board. Tuesday has been spending many of those cold winter days working with some of our new younger members that have joined the herd, as well as some administrative duties which she kindly volunteered her time to do.  With such dedication we thought it best to ask her to join our board and so she agreed. We would like to welcome Tuesday to our Board as our new Treasurer.  Welcome Tuesday!!

We also have a few new members of the equine variety that have joined us.

In a pasture in Crawford at her new foster home with Erin Donovan stands a beautiful black registered Tennessee Walker called Sadie. Sadie was relinquished by her owner due to financial issues.  This young horse was bought at the Delta Sales Yard and she was bought with a foal at her side and pregnant again at the young age of seven. Sadie is expecting her fourth foal in early April.  We are not sure why Sadie was bred so young or so often, but once again we have another registered horse within our rescue organization who even with her registration papers and aparantly broke to ride, one would think that this horse would be someone’s treasure, instead she found herself at a sale barn, where a woman and her daughter took pity on her and her foal and  bid on them so that they would not end up going for slaughter And now yet again she is in a situation where she is now looking for a forever home and about to foal yet again. In her short lifespan she has had little time to enjoy being a young carefree filly, instead she has had to be a mom, instead of someone giving her a safe home she is now looking for possibly her third or fourth home since she was born.  This is a true testament as to why breeding needs to be something one should seriously think about before going ahead with the decision to create another life.  There are to many horses out there, mostly great horses, but not enough people with the space or financial freedom to own a horse.  The only way to diminish the number of unwanted horses is to be responsible.

If you manage to pass by Beth’s house, you will meet Sadie’s foal who is coming on almost a year, Arnold was the foal at her side when he was purchased along with his mom by two caring people who did not foresee what the future would hold as far as their financial situation went. However because of them they did save Arnold and his mom from slaughter, and because of them Arnold now has a second chance at finding that perfect home where he will be cherished and loved for the horse he is.  Arnold is a registered Tennesse Walker, he has his papers and he is probably one of the sweetest young men you could ever wish to meet. With his thick mane and tail and his sorrel coat, he knows he is a good looking boy. Arnold has amazing potential and with time will make someone a perfect horse with the right training.  We hope to find Arnold that special home where he will be able to grow up and grow old with his person.

You may have remembered in our last newsletter reading about Cash. Well Cash is currently being fostered by Chris Fitzpatrick and her daughter, it seems that a young girl has fallen in love with our Cash.  He is currently on trial and if all works out it seems that our dear sweet Cash may have found himself a permanent home.  Lets all hope that this will turn into a forever placement for this sweet boy.

Welcome to Colby, a gorgeous mule who is broke to ride.  Colby found his way to SWHR after his owner passed away.  Colby is a typical mule and will need a new mule person to take him on rides out in the wilderness. He is very handsome and with some extra training thanks to Melissa and Erin, Colby may have a new dad, we will keep you updated on this dude’s progress.

As I had mentioned before we have a number of youngsters that have joined our herd. We would like to introduce you all to Tuesday (named after our new board member, just because we love the name, and the person of course). Tuesday is a sweet and beautiful bay filly who is probably around 11 months old, her mom was an Arab and we are not sure who dad was. She came from a hoarding situation in the valley and through our grant from Quail Roost Foundation we managed to give her a second chance along with her two companions.  Tuesday has a perfect little heart on her forehead, she is sweet, smart and is just going to get better as she grows older. Tuesday is being halter broke and will be looking for a new home this summer.  Zahra is a flashy black and white paint, her mom has Arab lines and dad is a Paint. Unfortunately the day we went to get her she had injured herself before we got there. She is extremely shy and untrusting of humans and her injured leg will take time to heal, Zahra meaning beautiful will be worked with slowly and cautiously so that she will learn to trust in humans and until that point Zahra will remain with Spirit Wind until all her scars have healed.  Last but not least is our handsome strawberry roan colt, named KIdd. Kidd is a sweet gentle soul, he is a little cautious but in time we know he will become the horse he was born to be, he improves daily and will be halter broke this summer and looking for his special person.

Hola and Adios to Magnum a gorgeous Mustang who found his way to SWHR along with his pasture mate Colby.  Soon after Magnum arrived we had Melissa start working with him and soon after that Magnum found his person and was adopted by Robert Barclay who has renamed him Shadowfax.  Shadowfax now has a permanent home with someone who dotes on him every day.

Another farewell of the good kind to our friend Chaz, the 19 year old Thoroghbred that was a previous state champion hunter-jumper.  Chaz has now found his final retirement home where he will be used for some light riding. Thank you to Mary Dufon for giving Chaz a wonderful safe home where we know he will be very well taken care of for the rest of his life. After many years of faithfully giving what he could to his previous owner Chaz now stands in a quiet peaceful pasture under great old cottonwood trees and a river flowing gently by.  We as owners should all be willing to retire our horses that have given so much, unfortunately for so many horses this is not the case, once they can no longer be used, they are sent somewhere else, many of which end up in slaughter houses and the dinner plates of Europeans.  Lucky for Chaz he found his final home with someone who saw that special something in him and a previous owner who wanted to ensure that Chaz got what he deserved, a quiet and safe place to grow old.

We would also like to welcome Shaman, Shaman was rescued from the hoarding situation along with the three youngsters. Shaman is probably around 20 years old, a deep thinker, smart and willing to remember his foundation training which was probably over 15 years ago.  We believe that with some extra work Shaman will prove to be a great light riding horse, we will have more to tell you later this summer.

Our spitfire of a pony boy Ruger may have found his forever home with our new volunteer Judy Rundle. We would like to firstly take the opportunity to thank Judy for all her hard work and dedication she has shown this past winter, at both working with horses as well as volunteering her time working with Suzie Morton and Linda Baker at organizing our big fundraiser for this year.  Judy fell in love with Ruger and has had her husband at work fixing fences so that he could come and live with her.  Two hours of using panels and chasing Ruger around the corral, he was finally loaded and is now happily cavorting with his new equine friend at Judy’s home.  Ruger is not an easy pony, he does not realize he is only 4 feet tall, with the attitude that would for the most part scare any future adopter a hundred miles in the opposite direction,  Judy was able to see past this little spitfire’s attitude and is currently keeping him on a trial basis to see how things work.  We will keep you updated.  Judy gets a hoofing applause from all of our herd members for taking on Ruger.

You may have noticed through this newsletter that the topic of slaughter ways heavily on the shoulders of our board members.  We realize that this subject is highly controversial and that even some of our supporters feel it is a necessary evil as apposed to allowing horses to be left out to starve or even worse released into the wild.  However we at SWHR feel that slaughter is really just a bad band aid on a problem not yet defined. The truth of the matter is there are no statistics on the number of “unwanted horses” within in Colorado or in the United States. What we do know is that the business of horse slaughter is a multi billion dollar business with foreign owned slaughter houses making money off horses that for the most part have many years left in them, unfortunately the paths of these horses did not cross the right human and their lives ended in the most horrific and brutal way.  You may have questioned my reference to our “ever present kill buyer”. Well he does exist, and in fact an organization called Animal Angels has been investigating him since 2007, not only have they witnessed animal abuse during transport and at his feedlot but they seem to be finding many violations concerning his trucking and transport company as well, their investigation continues today.

The fact that slaughter houses in the US have closed has not made any change to the number of horses still going to slaughter, instead they are transported to Canada and Mexico where they finally meet their end. Slaughtering of horses is brutal no matter where they are slaughtered.  The truth is that we all need to keep an open mind and we certainly do not judge anyone who believes that slaughter is necessary, we celebrate all those who have a love of horses no matter what their opinions are on slaughter,.

However we do think that irresponsible breeding and the fact that there are far to many horses out there is and will continue to be a problem. Horse Rescues can only save so many, so it is up to all of us to make the change that needs to be made by taking responsibility of our older horses, by not breeding because our mare is so amazingly wonderful and by offering help to a neighbor in need when they have no money to buy hay for their horses and have to give them up. If we all do just a small part, perhaps we can all make a difference for horses in the future.

And so thank you to all of you who support us, our horses and your own equines, we celebrate all of you. Remember as always your donations are appreciated and don’t forget they are now tax deductible, and of course your time is always valuable to us.

Thank you from all of us, two legged and four legged alike. We are all looking forward to the year ahead and hope that we can make a difference to equines needing a second chance. So with a collective whinny from the herd and a great shout out from us humans.

Be well.

Vendla Stockdale – and the SWHR Board Members