Rescue horses need rescue

I should have gotten this word out earlier, but I've had some glitches with my web page. This is a message I received from the Grand Mesa Back Country Horsemen:

"As many of you may have heard on the news this week, LaVon Hoffman of Mesa was shot to death by her estranged boyfriend.

LaVon ran a Horse Rescue. She was caring for approximately 12-14 horses. There is urgent need for hay & feed for these horses until all the legal matters can be sorted out under the circumstances.

If you can donate hay or feed, please contact Dan or Annette at 250-2343 or email dannette58@q.com.

Cash donations can be made at any Coloramo Credit Union in LaVon Hoffman's name." 

The photo is from a picture of Hoffman posted on Facebook.

EQUINE EXPERTS NEED HELD

This is from The Daily Sentinel's "Horseplay" page today.

After End of the Trail Horse Resuce of Olathe announced last month it was forming the Western Slope Hay Bank to help struggling horse owners feed their animals, the response was dramatic — especially from Mesa County.“I’d say 75 percent of all the people we’ve given hay to have come from Mesa County,” said Kathy Hamm, executive director of the Olathe-based nonprofit. “In the last month (since news of the hay bank was published in The Daily Sentinel) we’ve sent to Mesa County about 3,000 bales of hay.”

The need locally isn’t limited to hay. Over the past year, Hamm said, her organization has taken in or placed in foster homes about 20 head of horses from Mesa County.

“We’ve turned away 40 or 50 more because of a lack of funds, lack of foster homes or lack of hay,” she added.

End of the Trail Horse Rescue, which grew out of Hamm’s other organization, Dream Catcher Therapy Center, has operated for a half-dozen years in Montrose County. It takes in unwanted horses and rescues neglected horses primarily from Montrose and Delta counties. It has also begun working in the Ouray-Ridgway area.

But the biggest boom in equine need of late has been in Mesa County. That’s why Hamm’s group has been working with a trio of local veterinarians to establish a Mesa County chapter of End of the Trail Horse Rescue.

The veterinarians are Dr. Bob Bessert of Desert Springs Veterinary Clinic in Fruita, Dr. Braden Shafer of Shafer Equine Services and Dr. Brian Wiseman of Amigo Animal Clinic. They are involved with the American Association of Equine Practicioners, which has been dealing with the issue of unwanted horses nationwide, Shafer said.

Even though a number of Mesa County residents have expressed a desire to help with the Mesa County chapter, Hamm said it’s been slow going to get it fully functional.

“We’re trying to get more people who are go-getters and want to be involved,” she said. “We need people to be engaged. We need land. We need foster homes. We need hay.”

One reason for the greater demand is the state of the economy. But education is an equally big problem, Hamm said, a sentiment that was echoed by Shafer.

Many people move to a few acres in the country and think it would be great to have a couple of horses, they said. But they don’t understand the amount of care and money that horses require.

“People know dogs and cats live 10 to 15 years,” Shafer said. “They don’t understand horses can live 30 years.”

He also noted how many new horse owners aren’t aware of proper horse care.

“I visited with one gentleman after his neighbors called concerned about the condition of his horses,” Shafer said. “He had good hay, but he hadn’t dewormed his horses and he didn’t believe in trimming their feet.”

As most horse owners know, frequent deworming and regular hoof care are critical to a horse’s health, and to preventing serious and costly medical problems.

Hamm said her group has received donations to provide more education service for horse owners.

Also, Dream Catcher Therapy Center plans to begin offering weekly mental health equine therapy sessions at a facility on Orchard Mesa.

Additionally, the Mesa County chapter of End of the Trail Horse Rescue will soon begin holding regularly scheduled meetings in the evening in Grand Junction, and hopes to attract more members.

The organization and local veterinarians will keep trying to recruit volunteeers and foster horse caregivers to help meet the needs of unwanted and neglected horses and to help educate horse owners in Mesa County.

If you are interested in helping, contact Kathy Hamm at 970-323-5400. Email her at khamm@dctc.org. Visit the group’s website at http://www.dctc.org.

PLENTY OF ACTION AT ROCKY MOUNTAIN HORSE EXPO

This flier shows plenty of interesting clinics and shows at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo, set for next month in Denver.

The photo is from one of the events listed in the flier. Click HERE to go to WestSlopeHorse.com and download the entire flier.

‘QUACK AND TRACK’: THE INTERNATIONAL IMPACT OF U.S. HORSE SLAUGHTER BAN

A Toronto restaurant plans to reintroduce horse meat to its menu Thursday, according to this article, in combination with duck meat. The entre will be called 'Quack and Track.'

Horse meat was dropped from the menu last year, according to the story in the (Toronto) Star.com, because of news reports that many of the horses slaughtered for meat in Canada came from the United States after long and grueling and often cruel truck rides. And there were concerns about whether some of the meat was safe for humans to eat.

The U.S. General Accounting Office concluded last year that the de facto ban on horse slaughter in this country simply pushed horses to Mexico and Canada, often for those terrible truck rides mentioned above. The ban was lifted in a Deparment of Agriculture funding bill late last year, although no slaughter plants have reopened in the U.S. as of yet.

But the restaurant's owner in this story said he believes that will occur and will again make horse meat more suitable as restaurant fare.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

JUDGE WON’T HALT NEVADA WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

Interesting that the same judge who issued an injunction to halt a Nevada wild horse roundup last fall refused to do it again this week. In fact, based on the quotes in this story, he sounds a bit peeved about being asked to do so.

It's part of the continuing battle over how to manage federal lands for wild horses and other uses. To read more at the Boston Globe website click HERE.

THE MOST USED HORSE NAMES

Dakota is No. 1, according to this list, Star is No. 2 and Cheyenne comes in third.

I saw a similar list on another website last week, which I haven't been able to find again, but in it, Buddy was No. 1.  Buddy checks in at No. 8 on this list.

But Moose is nowhere to be found on either list. And Moose is the name of my horse (he's also my buddy, but I rarely call him that).

To read more from youpet.com, click HERE.

FOAL OF THE YEAR?

This photo is of Rachel Alexandra's new foal, born Sunday near Lexington, Ky. Rachel Alexandra was the thoroughbred racing's Horse of the Year in 2009. The sire of her colt was Curlin, Horse of the Year in 2007 and 2008. Obviously, the youngster comes from some pretty good genetic stock.

To read more about Rachel Alexandra's first foal, click on The Washington Post link immediately below. But to read more about where the speed gene originated, read the post just below this one.

To read the Washington Post story, click HERE.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SPEED GENE

For years, a lot of racing experts have argued that more of a horse's speed is handed down from his dam, not his sire, even though it is the stallions that usually generate big news and big bucks in breeding. This study suggests one ancient mare may be the source of all modern thoroughbred's speed.

I love scientific efforts like this one, that try to use modern technology to track historical mysteries, which couldn't have been solved with earlier science.

To read more, click HERE.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HORSE EXPO COMING IN MARCH

As mentioned in the post below, March is shaping up to be a busy horse month, and one of the big events is the annual Rocky Mountain Horse Expo, March 8-11 at the National Western Complex in Denver. The event is sponsored by the Colorado Horse Council and features a number of exciting and informative events. I'll post more later, but for now, click on the link below to read the Horse Council's January newsletter with details about the Expo.

Oh, and this wonderful photo came from the newsletter.

To go WestSlopeHorse.com and access Colorado Horse Council's January newsletter, click HERE.

BUSY YEAR FOR BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN

It looks like the Grand Mesa Back Country Horsemen have a busy spring and summer scheduled. This is from President Terry Gray's message in the February newsletter.

"The President’s Saddlebag
I would like to welcome Scott & Jennifer Fogarty.
2012 dues are now due so, please mail them in or bring to next meeting on February 6, 7 PM at the Mesa Mall meeting room. Please remember if you joined after October you will not need to pay until 2013.
I am in the process of contacting committee members to see who is still interested in working on their committees. If you are interested in working on a committee please let me know and we will try to put you on that committee. We need someone to volunteer to take over the library.
I would like to thank Penny Ackerman for her hard work last year and last year’s Board as most of the goals that were set, were achieved. So thank you everyone who worked so hard on our projects.
It looks like we are going to have another busy year. We are going to put on a program for the Glade Park Elementary School. The Fruita Co-op has ask us too return this year and participate in their Co-op Country Day March 24. We have been ask to have a booth at The Horse Expo March 24 & 25 as both of these are on March 24, I would like to ask for some additional help. We will possible have additional other educational programs throughout the year.
We are going to host the Back Country Horsemen of Colorado Leadership Clinic June 16 and need volunteers to help.
We need your help to keep working on the right to ride in the National Forests, as there are groups that would like to keep us off these trails. I have an article put out by the BCHA 02/12007 titled Why We Need the Right to Ride Protection. The following are excerpts from that article.
In 1956 when the First Wilderness Bill was introduced by Senator Hubert Humphrey stated that "existing uses and privileges are respected in this bill.” “This bill will not interfere with but will perpetuate, the present multi-purpose administration of these National Forest areas."
A travel management plan for White River National Forest had areas of the WRNF closed to horse use in some these areas. The proposal creates new areas where hikers will not run into stock (limiting current horse access). challenged and changes have been made. The WRNF was not the only NF to have issues on trail use in this article detrimental to horse use.
Jan has information on the GMUG travel plan coming up. There are a very large number of trails on this travel plan. So you might offer to help him with the trail inventory.
This is the reason we all need to continue working to keep this from happening. So please renew your membership and try to get others to join as the more of us there are the bigger voice we have. "