January, 2013

Hello, Hytyme friends! Sorry for the delay in posts! A lot of cool stuff has happened during the month of January, so we'll let this blog entry cover the first few weeks of 2013. 

The first part of the month was cold--but dry!--and we had the usual weather-related concerns.   Cameo seemed to need some extra grain and attention, so she came to live with Rosa inside. Cameo is in her late twenties, and she is relishing all the activity and food inside the main barn! 

In this picture, Delilah and her pals are eating from a 575-pound round bale covered with a slow-feed haynet. Notice how the haynet is connected to some boards on the ground.  That is an invention by our fabulous volunteer, Doug.  It was a little time consuming attaching the hay net to the bale every time one needed to be replaced.  Jim told Doug how he could use a contraption to help cover the bale.  Doug suggested an idea, and it worked.  We call it the "Doug net."

It turns out that Doug has been quite busy coming up with ways to help Hytyme this month. Doug thought we needed some new safe tying areas in the arena. We use Blocker Tie Rings. It turns out that Ted Blocker lives in Estacada! Ted Blocker has toured with Clinton Anderson and is a real proponent of natural horsemanship methods. Doug contacted Ted Blocker, and he came out to the barn! He donated three extra Blocker Tie Rings, and now we have lots of safe places to tie horses available around the property. Thanks, Ted!

Speaking of tying, Doug came up with another excellent addition to the barn using the Blocker Tie Rings. In the above picture, fabulous volunteer Diane and Natasha model Doug's latest invention--crossties! It's a huge help to have the crossties available with new lighting in the main barn. Thanks, Doug! 

Diane is working with Natasha, Isis, Vanilla Bean, and Abby. All are doing great! Speaking of which, Diane and Doug have been able to work with Yuma, one of our long-term residents who is very fearful of people. Great job, guys! Thank you for taking on the most difficult horses as projects and getting them ready for adoption!

This weekend, we had our friend Dr. Rosario do teeth floating for Hope and Dallas. Both older mares needed to have their teeth fixed so they could enjoy all the benefits of their hay and grain. Dallas also had an eye injury to treat, and after a round of antibiotic ointment, she'll be fine! 

More to come soon! We have lots of exciting upcoming events. Here's a video our friend Michelle made of many of the drum and rescue horses at Hytyme. It's a neat video! Sunday at the Barn

Spring is coming soon, too!

December 14th, 2012

It's been a sad week at Hytyme. We lost one of our original equine residents, the wonderful Coal. In his former life, Coal was a hunter-jumper pony, and he arrived at the rescue dyed black to disguise his grey hairs and obvious age. He also had a heart murmur. He was totally devoted to two horses and a donkey during his tenure at Hytyme: Masquerade (pictured above and below), Old Christy, and Rosa. Coal was probably at least thirty years old, and he'd been doing so well this past year thanks to a personalized feeding system. 

 He was a good friend, and we'll all miss him forever. What a good horse--a true character. Goodbye, Coal.

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Exciting (and delicious!) fundraiser!

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving from all of the humans and horses at Hytyme! Hopefully you've enjoyed a lovely day with your family and friends (equine members included!).

 We've got an exciting new partnership to announce for the upcoming holiday season! Zara May's Handcrafted Fudge, makers of all-natural and organic fudge, want to help the Hytyme horses and have established a fundraiser for us. They'll donate 25% of their fudge sales to our rescue! 

Here's the link to the order forms, where you can peruse all the delicious options: http://www.zaramay.com/hytyme_equine_rescue_fundraiser/index.html

They're also displaying some of our current and former horses on their site--Hope, Shannon, Ada, Christy, and Masquerade and Coal. 

Share the link with your friends! Who doesn't want fudge for the holidays?

Thanks again to Zara's, and thanks to all of our friends!

November 18th, 2012

Yikes! Where has the time gone? Our last post was all the way back in September...things are looking mighty different at Hytyme since our last update. It was dry and dusty back then...now it feels like a typical Oregon winter. The mud is back...

Luckily, thanks to Katie's research, we've found a fantastic new way to feed the Hytyme horses. We're using small-hole haynets, and it is definitely cutting down on the wasted hay. The horses really seem to enjoy having something to do in their stalls. What a great idea!

Gracie loves her haynet!

Before we get into pictures of the mud, here are some nice shots of the barn before everything got damp. However, the grass is growing and the field is green again!

Super volunteer Diane and Chino

Boss

We also had a visit from an old friend. In 2010, the Oregon Trail Primary School came out to meet the horses. They also made a wonderful donation. Katie Zimmer, one of the students on that 2010 visit came to Hytyme with her mother. They collected over $70 in donations and went to Burns Feed to buy us some much needed items! Shampoo, wormer, horse treats, hoof picks, and more! Katie is now a fifth grader, and she and her mom will be volunteering again in the future. Thank you so much!

September 14th, 2012

Hello again! We've had a great stretch of warm weather, but fall is on the way. All the hay for the winter has been delivered, the horses are getting fuzzy, and the leaves are starting to turn. 

Things are great at the barn! The Hytyme Drum horses did very well at the Oregon State Fair last month, and we're looking forward to the arrival of Alex's horse as a new boarder. Jim's been working hard on the area behind the arena. It was filled with weeds, chunks of concrete, and dirt left over from the arena's construction. Now it looks like this:

Despite the small signs that fall is on the way, it's been extremely hot and dusty for the past few weeks. We're not complaining just yet--the mud will be back before we know it! There are also several fires around the northwest contributing to our hazy skies. Here are some scenes from Hytyme over the past few days. Lots of horses, lots of dust!

Dust dust dust!  A video of the arena sprinklers and Hytyme residents in action.

And here is Coal, who is sharing his old horse mush with some friends.