Shiredale Farm Equine Sanctuary

10/23/2025

Update on Vicky! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! Yesterday late afternoon we took an X-Ray and it revealed she had a good size piece of wire stuck in her tongue! It was not accessible from either top or bottom of her tongue so surgery was going to be needed. Due to it becoming night we elected to do it first thing this morning, so she stayed at the clinic and she was very unhappy the truck left without her last night! This morning I arrived to a very upset pony as she heard my truck again and was screaming and getting herself all worked up. So I took her on a walk and let her stretch her legs before we started the procedure. Dr Alexia did a phenomenal job with her, we checked with our favorite dental surgeon Dr Travis Henry to ensure we had the right game plan and he ensured we had the play by play of exactly how to do it without laying her down, she just was heavily sedated in stocks and she was the perfect patient! She kept her head super still, wasn’t moving her tongue and let us do everything we needed to! Dr Alexia worked her magic and was able to retrieve the wire! She now has a hole in her tongue but it will heal with pain meds and antibiotics on board! She just arrived back at home and was happily greeted by her best friends Cami and Aurora! Huge thank you to Dr Alexia, Dr Francesca, Dr Travis Henry, and Nicole our tech for helping with the procedure! Now just for her to recover and rejoin the herd!

10/21/2025

Update on Vicky, she was so much better this morning almost no swelling! Moved her to an inside stall as miss Cami decided to require attention. She couldn’t stand not getting all the attention so she decided to gash her face open and need stitches 🤦🏽‍♀️, so our vet came early this morning and sutured her face back up. This evening Vicky is back to swollen so she gets to partake in bring-your-daughter-to-work day tomorrow and get an Oral Exam/X-Rays to make sure she doesn’t have a foreign body and it is just a nasty bite/sting. She got more banamine and Dex so she is back to eating as much as she can, poor girl, hopefully tomorrow we get some answers!

10/20/2025

So much for honoring thy sabbath, the horses clearly didn’t get the message! Came out to feed dinner to find the herd matriarch, Vicky now 20yrs old, not interested in dinner and excessively drooling (minor drool is normal for her as she has had extensive dental work done on her incisors). But in typical calm, cool, collected Gypsy fashion she had a leg cocked just relaxing. Walk to her other side to see the reason….she got bit or stung by something in or around her mouth causing substantial swelling. Luckily I keep Banamine (NSAID) and Dex (steroid) on hand at all times for the neurological horses, so she got a dose of banamine, a dose of Dex, and she got to kick Cami out of her private pen so she can enjoy a night with no one to bug her! So now she is enjoying some soaked alfalfa mash and Cami is not happy Vicky is getting a special meal in her pen 😂. This life may be many things but dull isn’t one of them 😁! Even on the sabbath!

02/24/2025

New pictures of the herd on February 23th 2025! It is Adrianna's 16th Birthday, so she got her favorite, a spa day to celebrate her big day! Then the herd got to run and play after so took some pictures of them celebrating ;).

02/24/2025

Here are some new pictures of the herd in January 2025! Everyone is doing very well, even with their increasing age! We are all looking forward to March when they are done blowing their coats! They are shedding furballs currently! Enjoy the new pictures and will try and be better about updating this page :).

12/13/2023

Happy National Day of the Horse! We are so blessed to be able to call these ours! Our little sanctuary for special needs horses! So blessed to be able to work with the neurologic horses so they have a soft place to live out their days. It is amazing to be able to watch them learn how to use their bodies to the best of their abilities. Aurora didn't know how to rear when she got here as she was so unstable on her hind legs. Through supplements and care (and Rampage her pester buddy) she has learned to rear. They will never be normal but they can be here and just be the best horses they can be! In honor of all the previous horses in the world all the way through the ones in the future, Happy National Day of the Horse!

12/09/2023

The princess FULLY enjoyed her acupuncture session today! We started acupuncture treatments over the summer when Cami and Adrianna were struggling with anhidrosis despite being on supplements to increase sweating, being under fans and in front of misters. After the first treatment they got so much better, they were on weekly treatments for awhile, then graduated to every other week and are now on their maintenance once a month treatments. Cami learned acupuncture is her favorite thing in the entire world (other than her food!) and I now question who she loves more, me or her acupuncture vet Dr. Tavel. Whenever Dr Tavel comes she is relentless about getting Dr Tavel to work on her. She regularly pushes into the needles, then she clearly falls asleep during the treatment and gets grumpy when she goes to remove the needles! Spoiled little princess! But whatever keeps her happy!

08/16/2023

Some new updated pictures of the herd! They are surviving what will be one of the hottest and driest summers ever recorded in Scottsdale, Arizona! Adrianna and Cami enjoy staying in stalls during the day under the fans and misters since they are both anhidrotic horses (they get acupuncture treatments and LOVE their acupuncture treatments provided by local veterinarian, Dr Tavel). Cassie, Aurora and Rampage are all doing really well, think I have their neurologic conditions as controlled as can be! Annie is looking GREAT, she just gets better with age! Zorro finally got to join the herd (he has been isolated since arrival to ensure adequate manure production, but he hasn't been happy isolated, so finally took the chance to let him out with the herd, and so far two weeks in he is doing just fine!) and he loves spending his time in the barn under the misters! We are all ready to put this summer in the rear view mirror and start enjoying the 9 months of paradise that Arizona is so well known for!

08/16/2023

07/05/2023

Happy 4th of July! Celebrating the day with our blue girl Camille aka Cami. Cami is doing great on her weight loss journey! She doesn’t have much more weight to lose till she is at a healthy weight for her; now more just waiting on the fat adiposity to go away which takes longer than normal fat! Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July! Happy Independence Day America!

06/12/2023

Well it is officially Summer in the Desert, and although the temperatures have been very mild for a typical June, it is still summer (highs are in the upper 90's although usually we are 105-115 this time of year....not complaining at all just surprised having been her for 16 years now). Took some new photos today of the sanctuary horses. You won't see pics of Cami or Cassie as they are currently stalled on a diet (they get to go out later at night) to encourage weight loss since they are both Metabolic. Aurora is REALLY learning how to rear, so proud of her as when she first came she couldn't figure out how to do it without flipping over/falling over. But all the playing she does with Rampage has really helped her feet placement and learning how to leave her feet safely. So there is a group of 7 photos showing her rear the highest I have ever seen! Zorro is enjoying his retirement, a bit too much to the point he doesn't even keep his tree trimmed, so I have to let the professionals do it (took some photos of the professionals hard at work). All the ponies are fat and healthy, just as they should be, getting ready for the rest of summer!

05/12/2023

This is the real side of the horse world, especially when caring for “special needs” horses. It’s been a long, difficult week at the vet hospital, get off work at 7pm tonight, get home and immediately go start feeding dinner to the horses. Immediately notice that Zorro, who normally has 4 very large piles of manure in a 12hr period, has 10 small piles. Red flag. Feed him and start cleaning manure. Zorro eats for a little bit then goes and attempts to pass some manure but is straining with just a couple f***l balls passed. Clearly having an impaction flare up. So go get his “care kit” which is comprised of IV Banamine, IV sedation, re**al sleeve and l**e 😁. So Zorro and I got to spend some “quality” time tonight clearing out all the manure that was in his re**um. Some f***l balls were larger and drier, so back to the drawing board on increasing his hydration. He is already on daily electrolytes and he has gone without an impaction for the last four months, but it did get a little cooler yesterday so he didn’t drink as well as normal 😔. Thinking of trying Gatorade on him and see if he likes that. He is clearly still a work in progress on how best to limit impactions (for those that don’t know him, he has a fractured pelvis and a small bone fragment that sits on a nerve root to his re**um, so if his manure gets too dry he loses function to be able to push it out of his re**um effectively). Just blessed through my horse career thus far I can care for him in his time of need! Hopefully morning brings his normal large piles, otherwise we are spending more “quality” time together 😂! Oh Zorro what would I do without you? 😁