To Provide Rescue Rehibiliation and Sanctuary to Unwanted Horses
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Thank you to everyone that has donated items and everyone who has purchased items for Boone Creek Equine Sanctuary. There have been quite a few no shows recently, so I just want to say thank you to the people that have followed through for the horses. The hay bill has been paid, so it is exciting we have all our hay for winter.
The 2 groups were rotated to new pastures today. The weather was perfect
Thank you Community Outreach in Gerald for their donations. It will help a lot.
Thank you so much Sabine Ellebrecht and Angel Payne for the donations
A big thank you to Gerry and Maria Counts for their donations.
A BIG thank you to Diane and Don Vomer for the kitty jungle gym for the kitties. Have not even put it it up yet.
Thank you Holy Martyrs Church for the donations.
Thank you so much to Diane Tenison and her daughters, Jamie Tenison and Kate Kelley for the donations.
The Crew. Poor Doc has the help of the Roosters
Doc eating his supper and Peanut begging. Still looking good at 31.
Beautiful day to spend with the babies. All of these boys and girls are in their 20’s. I hear so many people say they want a horse for their kids to grow up with. That is their first mistake. These older horse have seen it and done it. The kids need a horse that they can learn on. Regarding adults, you are missing out not enjoying these older horses. These horses are here for the rest of their lives, but so many good ones go to the kill pen because they are old. I thank them every day for being special.
Thank you so much Tom Yoder for your donation. Sassy Lass, Raven, and RIZA says THANK YOU.
Kitten, Tail, and Runty Grunty. They still come every night for supper. They get peach peelings tonight.
They say it is “National Love Your Horses Day”. I do not need a special day, I love them everyday.
Do you think BeBe is comfortable. She is laying on Bubba.
Here is the younger herd.
Here is our older herd. Doc is getting his supper. The others are begging.
So true and so hard.
"New Home Syndrome"🤓
I am coining this term to bring recognition, respect, and understanding to what happens to horses when they move homes. This situation involves removing them from an environment and set of routines they have become familiar with, and placing them somewhere completely different with new people and different ways of doing things.
Why call it a syndrome?
Well, really it is! A syndrome is a term used to describe a set of symptoms that consistently occur together and can be tied to certain factors such as infections, genetic predispositions, conditions, or environmental influences. It is also used when the exact cause of the symptoms is not fully understood or when it is not connected with a well-defined disease. In this case, "New Home Syndrome" is connected to a horse being placed in a new home where its entire world changes, leading to psychological and physiological impacts. While it might be transient, the ramifications can be significant for both the horse and anyone handling or riding it.
Let me explain...
Think about how good it feels to get home after a busy day. How comfortable your favourite clothes are, how well you sleep in your own bed compared to a strange bed, and how you can really relax at home. This is because home is safe and familiar. At home, the part of you that keeps an eye out for potential danger turns down to a low setting. It does this because home is your safe place (and if it is not, this blog will also explain why a lack of a safe place is detrimental).
Therefore, the first symptom of horses experiencing "New Home Syndrome" is being unsettled, prone to anxiety, or difficult behaviour. If you have owned them before you moved them, you struggle to recognise your horse, feeling as if your horse has been replaced by a frustrating version. If the horse is new to you, you might wonder if you were conned, if the horse was drugged when you rode it, or if you were lied to about the horse's true nature.
A horse with "New Home Syndrome" will be a stressed version of itself, on high alert, with a drastically reduced ability to cope. Horses don't handle change like humans do. If you appreciate the comfort of your own home and how you can relax there, you should be able to understand what the horse is experiencing.
Respecting that horses interpret and process their environments differently from us helps in understanding why your horse is being frustrating and recognising that there is a good chance you were not lied to or that the horse was not drugged.
Horses have survived through evolution by being highly aware of their environments. Change is a significant challenge for them because they notice the slightest differences, not just visually but also through sound, smell, feel, and other senses. Humans generalise and categorise, making it easy for us to navigate familiar environments like shopping centres. Horses do not generalise in the same way; everything new is different to them, and they need proof of safety before they can habituate and feel secure. When their entire world changes, it is deeply stressful.
They struggle to sleep until they feel safe, leading to sleep deprivation and increased difficulty.
But there is more...
Not only do you find comfort in your home environment and your nervous system downregulates, but you also find comfort in routines. Routines are habits, and habits are easy. When a routine changes or something has to be navigated differently, things get difficult. For example, my local supermarket is undergoing renovations. After four years of shopping there, it is extremely frustrating to have to work out where everything is now. Every day it gets moved due to the store being refitted section by section. This annoyance is shared by other shoppers and even the staff.
So, consider the horse. Not only are they confronted with the challenge of figuring out whether they are safe in all aspects of their new home while being sleep deprived, but every single routine and encounter is different. Then, their owner or new owner starts getting critical and concerned because the horse suddenly seems untrained or difficult. The horse they thought they owned or bought is not meeting their expectations, leading to conflict, resistance, explosiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration.
The horse acts as if it knows little because it is stressed and because the routines and habits it has learned have disappeared. If you are a new human for the horse, you feel, move, and communicate differently from what it is used to. The way you hold the reins, your body movements in the saddle, the position of your leg – every single routine of communication between horse and person is now different. I explain to people that when you get a new horse, you have to imprint yourself and your way of communicating onto the horse. You have to introduce yourself and take the time to spell out your cues so that they get to know you.
Therefore, when you move a horse to a new home or get a new horse, your horse will go through a phase called "New Home Syndrome," and it will be significant for them. Appreciating this helps them get through it because they are incredible and can succeed. The more you understand and help the horse learn it is safe in its new environment and navigate the new routines and habits you introduce, the faster "New Home Syndrome" will pass.
"New Home Syndrome" will be prevalent in a horse’s life until they have learned to trust the safety of the environment (and all that entails) and the humans they meet and interact with. With strategic and understanding approaches, this may take weeks, and their nervous systems will start downgrading their high alert status. However, for some horses, it can take a couple of years to fully feel at ease in their new home.
So, next time you move your horse or acquire a new horse and it starts behaving erratically or being difficult, it is not being "stupid", you might not have been lied to or the horse "drugged" - your horse is just experiencing an episode of understandable "New Home Syndrome." And you can help this.❤
I would be grateful if you could please share, this reality for horses needs to be better appreciated ❤
‼️When I say SHARE that does not mean plagiarise my work…it is seriously not cool to copy and paste these words and make out you have written it yourself‼️
Thank you so much Susie Waddell for the donation. So enjoyed visiting with you.
A Big Thank You to House of Hope Carl Duff Ministries for donations. Have a safe mission trip.
They are supposed to be weaned. The little monsters
Thank you so much Don and Diane Volner for the donations. So much appreciated.
I have blocked 3 people on marketplace this week because they are flakes. Not showing up or wanting something and then not responding. People like this deserves the worse karma. Just not good people.
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They say it is “National Love Your Horses Day”. I do not need a special day, I love them everyday.
Sassy Lass and Rizada
My two mustangs
The babies eating their avocado. The other 2 got full.
Looks like I am going to be trying to save some baby squirrels. Yesterday we cut down a huge rotten sycamore. I was afraid it was going to fall on one of the horses. Had no idea there were 4 baby squirrels in the tree. The tree shattered. I tried to get the nesting material and gathered the babies. We left them there for 10 hours. Mama never came back. I finally brought them in when it started to rain.
Looks like I am going to be trying to save some baby squirrels. Yesterday we cut down a huge rotten sycamore. I was afraid it was going to fall on one of the horses. Had no idea there were 4 baby squirrels in the tree. The tree shattered. I tried to get the nesting material and gathered the babies. We left them there for 10 hours. Mama never came back. I finally brought them in when it started to rain.
Introducing a new addition to the herd. Meet Rizada. She is a 12 year old bay roan Mustang from Pancake, Nevada. Brooke adopted her 4 years ago. She is now headed to vet school and she brought Rizada to our sanctuary to live out her life. She is a curly mustang and her name in Spanish, meaning curly girl. I also have her Extreme Mustang Makeover, Sassy. I love my mustangs. Sassy and Rizada are polar opposites. Sassy is over the top personality and Rizada is quiet and reserved.
Thank you for the donations Emily McDonald
Well I caught 1 of the roosters dumped. Doc did not like him in the stall next to him. Would not eat his food, so I had to be in the stall with him.
Well I caught 1 of the roosters dumped. Doc did not like him in the stall next to him. Would not eat his food, so I had to be in the stall with him.
Donkey thinks Doc should be done with his supper.
The Doctor has come a long way from a year ago. I wished I could have saved his 2 herdmates. To anyone who has older horses, feel free to notify me if having trouble keeping weight on older horses. Any pelleted feed—SOAK. No matter the age soak those pellets.
Prin begging for belly rubs.
Doc getting his special meal. Donkey is locked out.
Rabbit and everyone else enjoying the water after the rain.
Nothing is better than the sound of this big boy enjoying his food. He gets 3 meals a day. Everything is soaked, he just cannot process grass anymore.
Here is Doc getting his breakfast
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