Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Camera Critters #2

Question of the week: What are your plans for this weekend?

A: Not really sure. I don't usually plan too far ahead. I'm a wicked procrastinator. Might try and get to the library.

On to the pictures.

Since I haven't posted these on this blog (or at least not as far as I can tell, the pics are on my facebook though) I'm going to today. With the story first.

Lilly is an ex racehorse. My mom happened upon her one day while visiting a friend at a farm about 30 minutes away. The friend had her own horse at the farm, and was looking for someone to take him, buy him, adopt him, WHATEVER. While visiting, my mom noticed a horse seperated from the others. This horse was so skinny it was obvious she was starving. Why the owners of the farm didn't do something, why no one else fed her, I don't know. It makes me angry just to think about it.

My mom came home and told me about Lilly (who's actual name is Blythewood, but my 3 year old named her Silly Lilly Picadilly, and that was cuter so that's what we say) and I immediately found all of the information I could about what to do for the horse in this particular situation. We went back out to the farm and took pictures of the condition of the horse, the fact that it had no water, and the fact that after my mom had left the first time, the owner (who lived across the street so he was practically WATCHING the horse starve) had filled her bucket full of CINNAMON RAISIN BAGELS.

Animal control had already been called, but the owner still wasn't doing what was right for the horse. So we took it upon ourselves to start bringing her hay. And water. We'd bring 1 or 2 bales maybe 2 to 3 times a week for her. So she'd always have something to eat. Even if it wasn't grain. And we made sure she always had enough water.

After a while, we offered to buy the horse. Now, the "owner" had gotten this horse for free somehow, but was demanding 600 dollars from us for her. It would have been a struggle, but we were going to do it. We knew she'd be better off if he had nothing to do with her, so we told him we'd bring him the money that week. My sister, nephew, and my sister's au pair went with me to pay him his money. He wanted to meet at a 7-11 about five minutes away from the farm. We looked, there was no such 7-11 anywhere close to where he claimed, and he'd never even left his house. So attempt number 2... my mother went up to meet him at the farm after typing up a bill of sale that all he had to do was sign. She waited for him for an hour and a half. Went to his house and knocked on the door several times. He was home. But wouldn't answer.

Unfortunately, there were some issues following that day that made it so we couldn't attempt the purchase again, but we still took her hay. And because we had started buying her grain when we were under the impression the sale was going to go through, she kept getting that as well. She EVEN jumped the fense into the other pasture so she was with the other horses being boarded at the barn. So she had friends. She wasn't isolated and alone anymore. And she was being fed.

We haven't been able to go see Lilly for a while, but my mother's friend who has her horses there tells us she's beautiful. The "owner" is actually buying her grain now but leaves the task of actually giving it to Lilly to my mom's friend. No matter. She's eating. She's putting on weight. We helped her. No matter that we couldn't buy her and take care of her ourselves... what we did got HIM to take care of her.

She's gained 150 pounds since I met her.

I don't have any current pictures of her unfortunately. But I can show you what she looked like for the few months that we were able to get out a few days a week to see her and love her.

I miss her. But she's happy. And that's what we wanted.

 I love her. And I miss her.
 This one is Lilly with the halter that I bought for her after making the verbal agreement with her current owner to buy her. The horse on the right is Mack. Beautiful boy but he's a pill. :-)
 Lilly and Mack again with halters off. I think this was before putting Mack in the pasture with her to see how they'd get along together.
 This is Lilly after the first time we put a halter on her. Up until this point, she'd always walked around with her head down. She always looked so sad, but no matter what, whenever she saw us pull up she'd always walk up to the fence to say hello to us. I think jogging her around her pasture with the halter on made her remember what she was.

This weeks post is a part of Camera Critters. I know I'm almost a week late putting this up, but.... it's been a stressful week.


Camera Critters

Monday, April 25, 2011

Friday, April 22, 2011

I Go Out Walkin'

My daughter and I took a walk around the block this past week when it was nice out and I took the opportunity to snap some photos while we were out.

This is one of my favorites.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thursday Challenge - Happy

The Thursday Challenge is a weekly meme. There is a theme announced for each Thursday and you either take a new photograph or select an already existing photograph that you feel best relates to the theme. This weeks theme is HAPPY.



Sunday, April 10, 2011

Scenic Sunday #2

Scenic Sunday is a photo meme for scenery. It can be anything from landscapes to trees to flowers etc. Anything you think is beautiful scenery.



Friday, April 8, 2011

Camera Critters

Hi! This is my first weekend participating in this particular meme, hosted over at Camera Critters.
This particular meme is to encourage posting pictures of all our favorite critters and creatures etc!

Since this is something close to my heart, I've decided to share more pictures from my trip to Eagle Hill Farm which is a local Equine Rescue. There are so many beautiful horses that have been rescued and that have found a temporary, loving home on this farm that it's just absolutely amazing.





Question of the week was "What was your favorite childhood toy?" I'm not sure I remember. I loved playing outside when I was little. Riding my bike and throwing a baseball around. And we played board games a lot. I played barbies with some of my neighbors. LoL. But I don't think I had a favorite toy. I'd have to say I liked them all pretty equally.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Old Time-y

My daughter and I took a trip a few weeks back to the battlefield a few minutes away from the house and to the confederate cemetary the opposite direction. I love all things history. I just think it's so cool to look around places that were so important to people so long ago. To see the things they saw and stand where they stood.



Saturday, April 2, 2011

Scenic Sunday

Scenic Sunday


Eagle Hill Equine Rescue

After losing out on our chance to save Lilly (long sad story) my mom thought to cheer me up by taking me out to the Eagle Hill Equine Rescue to see all of the horses there. There has to be at least 150-200 horses there. It's amazing that this woman has opened up her home and her land to rescuing animals like that. They're all absolutely beautiful and LOVE getting treats.
If you want to check out the website just click on the link up there!