Serenity Farm Equine Sanctuary

07/03/2025

Hey Byrds Mill Road peeps... are these your babies? They were here this morning but left when I tried to get close enough to them to see if there was info on their collars. Sorry the pics aren't great. They're from our security cameras.

07/03/2025

07/03/2025

Ellie continues her healing process but still at times, becomes a little challenging to manage. This happens less and less and she's going to be just magnificent. We'll be working in the round pen today!

07/02/2025

Some of you know that Bill and I were on a search and rescue team. It was a great experience. I need to correct the first sentence. Bill and Duckie and I and Jackson, were on a search and rescue team. We and our partners worked hard to qualify. Among other things, we had to do serpentines through burning flares. That was fun.
This picture is from 2015 when both horses were in their prime. Jackson (22yo), my horse, now has navicular which is progressive. Corrective shoes help the pain but a rider is just not possible. I miss riding him more than I can say. Bill's horse Duckie (20yo) has struggled with ongoing lameness for 2 years. He's now blind in one eye (copperhead bite) and has heaves. They did so much for us and others and their pain is our pain.

Duckie had a small cyst on his coffin bone a year ago which (new xrays) has tripled in size. He cannot walk unless he's on 100% stall rest and he can only graze for an hour or so. And every time we try something to help, it seems to help for a day or so but then things return to lameness. For example, he had a false sole and when that was removed, his pain lessened. But in a few days, it was back again.

A very kind retired equine podiatrist is helping us determine what to do next. We do not want him to continue to suffer and pray there's something that can help him.

07/01/2025

So, I may be a 69-yo 5’1” woman but having SFES makes me work hard. Day before yesterday I bush-hogged 3 pastures, then yesterday another, then today another.

I know you must be thinking what a lucky man Bill is. He’s not lucky, he’s BUSY fixing the gate I broke and putting the 2 fence lines back together.

THAT DAMM GATE JUMED RIGHT OUT IN FRONT OF ME! I have no explanation for the lines…. Just oops.

07/01/2025

I'm not very verbal when I work with horses. I use "few" words and only when I need to. But, I make sure that I use the same few words over and over so they begin to learn them. I rarely, rarely yell at horses. They remember and it doesn't particularly change anything anyway :)

06/30/2025

So we built the barn.... yes Bill, me and many volunteers. We'd work on it after the morning feed and it took 6 months for the main structure and more to finish stalls. Did didn't have doors until a kind donor covered the cost of the wood to build them. We have 10 stall total and planned to only use it when horses need rehab. One stall holds our muck rakes, shovels and brooms as well as hay and bedding. Horses LIKE to be outside and there are run-ins in each pasture. In addition, there's a double stall accessible as another run-in. And this has worked fine for years.

UNTIL YESTERDAY....
We have 3 horses in rehab (Ellie, Faith and Duckie) and 1-34 year old who will not leave Ellie's side (Amos). So that's 4. Then there are 4 that need to come in and eat. (Joey, Skip, Stetson, Phoenix and Stetson). Now we have 8 horses who eat in stalls may need daily medications or need to gain weight or eat mush because of teeth/age. So if you add that up, it's 8.

Yesterday let Orla, Aurthur (Belgian Drafts) and Jack (N. American Curly) out to graze and realized they were in crisis. Although temps were not quite as high yesterday as they've been, they were breathing really hard. Orla was the worst. All 3 brought themselves into the barn standing in the aisle. We began to hose their legs to help them cool off, then their necks, then full body.

So NOW we have 10 who needed to eat in the barn. We have 10 stalls but 2 are used and run-ins and one holds tools. It may be time to rethink where we store tools.

Anyway, we had 7 stalls filled and 3 eating in the aisle. and 2 ate their mush right outside the door. All in all, it went well. Shannon was here to help (thank you Shannon)

While it took us a minute to figure out how to accommodate all, we did it.

ps... Orla, Authur and Jack settled down and were able to return to their pasture after their heat crisis. 5 always go back out after eating. 4 stayed in stalls overnight.

So the end of this story is.... maybe we should have built a bigger barn.

06/27/2025

It finally happened. We have rain. The horses are all standing there looking so appreciative. We are sooooooooooo relieved. The temp is already dropping. It was 97 when we fed at 6PM. Even Ellie didn't really want to stay outside.

Duckie is still very lame. His dead sole is finally off and he has a new living healthy sole but he's still lame. A specialist (equine podiatrist) is coming out Monday along with Ernie. Duckie is a sweet buckskin that we adore. His front feet are slightly splayed. That could have been fixed when he was a baby, but no one cared enough to fix him. He was always sound until a couple years ago and although we've tried and tried, we don't seem to be able to help him. We're praying the specialist will have some ideas.

Faith, our other worry, is slowly gaining weight. Her teeth were floated last week so that along with stall rest should help us help her. She was furious to find herself in the barn and gave me the kick of my life. It was an unexpected, full-force, cow kick that is still healing. Guess she told me.

Bill and I are barely hanging in there. Amazingly, most of our volunteers have been able to tolerate the heat and help us feed. It's been rough. Thank you to each of you and one quick story.

Sunday a little baby bird fell from its nest somewhere in the barn. We weren't able to find the nest to return it although we tried. Sharon decided to take the baby home and it's been almost a week, and he's growing feathers and eating well. We're proud have Sharon on board and one little baby bird will soon fly thanks to her efforts! THANK YOU Sharon and everyone!!!!

06/25/2025

I rarely say this but woohoo a storm is coming. It was 100degrees until 10 minutes ago. It's dropped to 89 just with cloud cover. I can hear thunder in the distance. It's supposed to be a bad one but it may give us some relief. Pray for the horses!

What we're behind at with the lovely weather we've had for the last week.
Mowing.... everything
Clearing barn for more hay storage.
W**d eating... just haven't done it.
Outdoor anything other than feeding horses, checking waterers and keeping the hay flowing.

06/24/2025

Sitting on the back porch looking at the barn and thinking….What will be the electric bill for all those fans going everywhere.