January was a HUGE month! We had some volunteers out to do some very necessary repairs, replacing two gates, one that a transporter took out adding two new gates between pastures, and patching several areas of fencing!
Progress was also made on the hay barn, as all of the trusses went up and now we are just waiting on the tin for the roof! Woohoo!
Our BLM Oregon Mares got to go out into the pasture with the other BLM horses, which was a HUGE and exciting thing to witness as they finally get to be with their love, Sundancer, who has long since bonded with the mares since their arrival!
Deni, our beautiful dun owner surrender who came in thin as a skeleton with severe stifle issues also finally is in great health and got to go join the BLM herd as well! Sundancer has really taken to her, and the two are always together now. It is so cute! Deni is staying at a healthy weight, and her stifle problem is now barely noticeable and still improving day by day. Healing is such a touching thing to witness! Her journey has been long, so to see her healthy and out with her own herd is just such a tear jerker!!!
As winter hit, one of our biggest preparations fell through on us! The water line froze somewhere in the ground where it must have not been buried deep enough, so once again we are hauling water to fill every trough on the property in the truck bed until the spring thaw mid/late March!!! The process of watering with the truck & tank takes lots of time- about 15 hours per week to be exact- and puts lots of strain on the trusty ole truck especially with the weird snow then melt then snow then melt cycle we have has this winter so far! We will persevere, just like we always do!!
We announced that 2024 would be the year of kill pen saves, and we started the year by bailing TWO Bonded BLM Mustang Mares who were dumped in a kill pen in McLean Texas. We fundraised for their safety and within a week we had these two beautiful ladies HOME and most importantly, SAFE forever thanks to our Nirvana Family!!!
Here are our beloved Mocha & Scarlet in the Kill Pen…
And here they are home at Nirvana! You can clearly see how bonded these beautiful ladies are!
Tragedy also struck in January with our beloved Rain, an Alpine Wild Mare from Charger’s Band, poking her eye on a tree branch and completely rupturing the globe- requiring a complete removal of the eye. With the abnormal cold, snowy and muddy conditions our typical vet was unable to dart Rain for the surgery to be done on our property, so we reached out far and wide calling 30 different vets from our area to CSU. Luckily, we reached out to Gina at For the Love of Aria, and she graciously offered her facilities, chute, vets, and time to ensure Rain’s eye surgery would be a success. We dropped Rain off on January 27th and her surgery was scheduled for January 31st.
The surgery was a HUGE success and we are so grateful to everyone involved. Rain is now recovering beautifully at For the Love of Aria and we will bring her home mid-February once she is healed enough to come home and be reunited with her son Alex, her momma Breeze, her baby sister Sunshine, and her little sister Solstice!
