Autumn

Bad news today. A mare that we purchased about 18 months ago was diagnoses with malignant melanoma. She is about 25 years old and is not in the best of health. The treatment was going to cost about $900 and had a 98% chance of curing the tumor. The only problem was that if it had already spread it would do nothing for it. We had a tough decision to make but we are not going to do the treatment. It just does not make financial or moral sense. In light of what is going on in the equine community with the number of horses on the market right now, I can not justify spending that much money when there are younger horses that need a good home. I am not being a penny pincher about this, I just can not justify it. We can not help every animal. We will do all that we can to make her comfortable in the coming months or even years to come. It will be a tough decision if we have to put her down. She has been a good horse for us and hopefully will live out the next couple of years comfortably.

chuck

busy-busy-busy

What a difference a change in weather and school being out makes. We have been swamped with trail rides and surprisingly lessons. A month a go we had no lessons and now we are looking to add our third instructor to the program. We have at least 2 dozen students, 6 years old to 50+ years old. I am really excited about this part of our program. Trail riding has really picked up as well. It is always nice to see familiar faces returning. Downside to all of this, not able to get any maintenance done. Marie hurt her knee a couple of weeks ago, had a Bakers Cyst rupture so she has been out of commission. What a difference it makes when we are down to one adult. The kids have been great picking up some of the extra work. Corinne has been cleaning stalls for me everyday. Good lesson for her as I have alreay threatened to fire her a couple of times (NOTE TO IRS --SHE IS WORKING FOR FREE--INSERTED ON ADVICE OF MY ACCOUNTANT). Thanks to everyone that has lent a hand recently.

Chuck