Wrapping it up at Wild Horse Rescue Center

We finished up at the Wild Horse Rescue Center in Mims, FL last week. We had a really fun time there and met a lot of great people. Jadyn was able to help do a lot of different things there like wash dogs, guinea pigs and a bunny, “help” make a chicken coop, and lots of other things.

Here’s Jadyn helping with the chicken coop and the finished coop with a curious baby mustang wondering what those squawking things are. :o)

               

Jadyn had so much fun helping Annick (a volunteer from Quebec) wash the dogs.

 

While we were there, they had a class teaching how to use energy work to determine the needs/problems of the animals. It was pretty interesting to hear the results of what each person was sensing from the horses.

         

Joe tried his hand too (literally!) and came up with the same as the others as to the needs of this little baby.

                                  

There was also a Poker Run fundraiser that we helped with before we left. Below Joe’s trying to put up the letters on the board advertising it. Since he’s got issues with heights he’s having a bit of a go at it up there on that windy day - He rarely let go of that pole he’s holding onto in the picture. But Joe and his friend Danny got it done as the completed sign shows.

       

They had various games to raise money and free mustang rides. Below is Jadyn riding Rio (with our RV in the background) and in the other picture is Joe spitting a baby pickle (if you look close you can actually see the pickle in the air). He won by the way – he spit it 18 feet and 3 inches!

      

We left the rescue center Friday last week and Saturday we spent with our oldest daughter Jessie. It was our 7 year wedding anniversary and Jess took us out to Macaroni Grill to celebrate. They sure have good food there!

Then Sunday we spent the day at the beach. We normally don’t go on the weekend because it is so packed, but we wanted to get out and do something since it was so nice out. We took the RV – which was nice since when we were done at the beach we were able to shower off in our house. :o)

I love low tide there! It makes the most wonderful tidal pools perfect for Jadyn to play in!

                      

                        Well Matey’s! I’ll be writing again soon. Arrrrgh!!

                           

What Do Boeing, Native American’s and Wild Mustangs Have In Common?

A great educational opportunity! We (Wild Horse Rescue Center) were invited to the Boeing American Indian Society’s luncheon in which we educated them about Wild Mustangs. Romeo and Little Thunder were painted to look like war ponies and I was painted to look like an Indian. Just kidding. No paint on me. I did play my Native American flute though for the event. :)

Here’s Romeo before his paint job.

Now he’s getting his markings.

 

The finished paint job.

Jadyn grooming Thunder before the event.

Getting set up at the site.

 

An enthralled (partial) audience.

Jadyn posing in front of a shuttle statue in the Boeing building.

Here are some photos of Romeo playing back at the ranch after the event.

 

And some pictures of the baby mustangs.

And Jadyn finally got to ride a mustang!

Ride Jadyn Ride! :o)

Wild Horse Rescue Center in Florida

We’ve finally settled in at the ranch. They didn’t have a traditional RV hookup here so Joe manufactured what they didn’t have.  He took a 55 gallon drum and made a septic system – it actually tied into an old existing one. I love my husband!

 

He also made a “front yard” for Jadyn.

Not only do they have mustangs here at the ranch, but they have some at two different locations on land people are letting them use.

Every day these horses are brought food. In the pictures below the horses are trying to get the hay right off the truck. You can see the brand on the neck of one of them.

Joe and Jadyn are saying Hi to Tatonka and the horses in the next picture are following the truck to where the feed is put out for them.

At the other piece of land they have “sanctuary horses” which are horses that can never be ridden or used for anything. They have been abused so badly both physically and mentally that they cannot recover from it. So these horses are in the “sanctuary” to live out their lives peacefully.

Below Diane (founder of Wild Horse Rescue) is giving hay to these sanctuary horses AND to the pet cows they share the pasture with. Jadyn of course had to pet one of the HUGE cows and then she posed pretty for a picture. :)

It’s been pretty nice here because we get to meet all kinds of different people  that come to volunteer. The lady in the picture with Romeo is a farrier from Quebec. Diane, Romeo’s owner, is showing the farrier that he lets people pick up his feet.

Romeo is such a gorgeous stallion! Here he’s blowing off some energy and also saying Hi to one of the baby mustangs.

Here are the babies playing around.

Jadyn gets to help do things around here too. Below she’s helping one of the volunteers groom Little Thunder.

She also gets to help with McBob the donkey.

She also likes to sweep. Here she’s helping get ready for a Parelli Clinic put on for the volunteers.

And this is Sandy Vann the Parelli instructor and you might also recognize her from my posts from last year (around May). We stayed at her ranch for a little bit and helped out. I guess you could say that’s where we got our start on the ranch circuit. Her website is http://www.aceofheartsranch.com .

One of the cool things about being on the space coast is seeing launches. The picture below is the launch from February 24th. It was a pretty cool picture with the horse’s head in it too. :)

                                  

And these pictures were of a rocket launch. The way the sunset was hitting the clouds made them look really neat.

               

Here’s a picture of my handsome cowboy. :) And of him playing guitar with a friend.

And I am happy to say we finally made it to the beach – our favorite – Playalinda. We didn’t actually swim in the water since it was so cold. But we let our legs get wet. Ok. So a few times we weren’t paying attention and the waves would get us more wet than we wanted. It was still fun because after a while we couldn’t feel the cold. :o) We also flew a kite and played frisbee.

Yikes this is cold!

Jadyn running in the surf flying her kite.

My two girls gettin’ some sun (and Joe trying to figure out if his shelter is going to hold in the strong wind – it did.)

Joe and Jadyn hanging out in the shelter – in the background is the kite – he has it pegged to the ground.

We have a mustang awareness event next week with a Native American theme. We’ll be painting Romeo to look like a war pony. I’ll post more about it next week.