What a ride! This last month has been a busy one and we have lots of news to report.
We are still working hard to treat, vaccinate, geld and rehome the horses of the Sparky Project. To date, we have either rehomed or found available rescue space for 22 of the 41 horses on the farm. We are currently gelding stallions and this has gone very well, aided in no small part by the fact that these are sweet horses, unhandled or not. Available horses are being featured on our “Sparky Project” Facebook page, which we created specifically for the project.
We are deeply indebted to the wonderful folks at the ASPCA, who have ensured the success of this project through their generous grant. We are also in complete awe of the other Virginia rescues who helped out by opening their doors to these horses- and we know darned well how full you already were. These include: Brook Hill Retirement Center for Horses, Blue Horse Mukwa, Central Virginia Horse Rescue, Traveller’s Rest Equine Elders Sanctuary, Lilly Pond Foal Rescue, the Middleburg Humane Foundation and also our wonderful rescue fosters, volunteers and the absolutely awesome transport drivers Sam and Chris. Special mention goes to Allie Sinclair, who w be working so hard to make these horses good equine citizens, and to Dr. Ray and Hanina Hyde, our talented feral horse veterinarians! The horse in this picture is fine, by the way and he is enjoying his new life as a gelding!
Last weekend was also one of our two annual haycutting events. We cut, baled and stacked about 80 bales, of the 2000 that we use annually. We’ll have second cutting in the fall, so we are doing well so fa We owe part of this success to Jay Rupky and the kind donation of his standing hay. We would also be remiss if we neglected to thank the fantastic Paul Frappollo, for his donated hay over the course of many years.
The ASPCA Help a Horse Day Benefit Horse Show was a resounding success! We are sincerely grateful t our Trainer Allie Sinclair and the many people who volunteered their time, their hard work, or even their leisure time, to come out and enjoy the beautiful weather and just play with us and our ponies!
This weekend, if you are in Virginia, you can visit the White Bird crew at Tractor Supply Stores in Farmville, Midlothian and Manassas, as we will be out to meet and greet! Please come by and say hello, and consider supporting our efforts to save horses in urgent need. Rescuing horses is truly a “village” effort and we could not do this without the support of many people. If you can’t come visit us, please consider making a donation through the “Donate” button on this page. No donation is too small, and this is more important than you can imagine!