Shiloh, Breehia's Empty Womb plus Horsey Pictures

At the end of April, my husband and I went away for a vacation for about 10 days.  During that same time, David also was away on a horse round up in Colorado.  This was the exact same time that Breehia was due to have her baby.    At least that was what we thought.  So, during our absence, I gave the owner of the property, Gene, the mommy contact list for the baby's arrival.  We really did think Breehia was pregnant, I mean, why wouldn't she be?  The only part was, she just didn't really look like it.  So, on my return, still no baby.  Gene was joking with the mommies saying that she wasn't pregnant, but again every time when we went to feel for the baby, we somehow imagined feeling it rolling around.   Or was that just her tummy rumbling??  So I decided to call the vet.  I had to know for sure one way or another.  At the vet's first visual she said "Nope, no baby."  Then came the ultrasound.    Empty womb!!   She said that the reason Breehia did not get pregnant was because she had a lot of fluid around her cervex.   She also said that there are medical methods we could use to flush the fluid out right after breeding.

I knew I had one more  month to breed her before it would get too hot for the baby to be born next year.  The breeding fee is still good until a baby is actually produced.    So, we took her back to Tom's and bred her again with Rio.   About 18 days later, we did another ultrasound.  Still no baby.  It was then too late to breed her again, so we resolved to wait until 2013 which puts a new baby out to 2014.  Oh well, timing is everything.


Meanwhile, on David's trip back from CO, he accidentally ran into the back of his friend John.  The truck that my mom donated was totalled.  Thankfully, the trailer was ok.  So, with the insurance money from the truck, the ministry bought, with the help of Gene coming with me, a F350 1 Ton Dually pick up truck this time that can pull even more weight.  It's a 1999 with 217,000 miles (Triton V10) and it was owned by a company.  The interior is immaculate.  We also figured that they must have maintained the engine as well so we were not concerned about the mileage.  I also made sure that I had enough money left over from the insurance check to put a gooseneck hitch in it, plus a tow hitch in the back, which is exactly what I did.  Now we can use a gooseneck trailer to pull horses with which is something that the ministry really needed to be able to do.  Praise the Lord!!!

 
On Thursday, May 11, shortly after finding out there was no baby coming,  I get a call from the owner of Shiloh.  He was now ready to donate him to the ministry.  So, that Friday, David, Mary Lynn and I drove up to Flagstaff, picked up the horse trailer (left at a body shop with the totalled truck) and then drove to Strawberry to get Shiloh.  We didn't test drive him, but based on the owner's demonstration, we knew he would work great for the ministry.  He wasn't as big as we were hoping, in fact he's practically our smallest horse now,  but he sure is good with the kids.  We've been putting our most timid little riders on him and he's been great.  We do have to use a crop (something we haven't needed to use before), but when we do, he's a completely different energetic horse.   This helps the kids understand that sometimes certain tools, like spurs and whips, is what is needed to motivate a horse, since they do not operate by reason.

Dawn and Amanda, who were feeding the horses during our absence decided to do a photo shoot of the horses.   Here are some really awesome pictures from that photo shoot.  We didn't have Shiloh yet, so there are no pictures of him and MaGlory was on the round up with David.


I've included pictures of our new truck.  I bought the decal to fill in the detailing that was already on the truck to make it look more horsey custom.

Not so pregnant Breehia

 Zeke

 Dillon

 Buddy

 Tigger

Cowgirl

Cocoa

Allie

Harley

Boo

Dude

Grey

Our First Car Wash Fundraiser

Since my last post, we have experienced continuous growth.  I know that the Lord has amazing things planned for this ministry and I'm excited to be a part of His plan, so we will continue to keep up with His pace. 

We had an interesting thing happen with a potential big horse.  I was praying for another big horse like Buddy and Grey to accommodate some of our new, bigger riders, so I put a request into the Kingdom of God on a Friday.   "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."  Philippians 4:5-7   On the following Tuesday I get an email from an unknown person who was referred to us by John Garcia.  She mentioned that the place that she had been learning about horses had a horse that the owner was looking to give away.  She also mentioned that the reason the guy wanted to give him away was because he walked too slow.   She also gave me the owner's information to contact him.  So, after reading the email I thought that this might be the horse that I prayed for.  It's ok with us if the horse is slow!!  So I called the owner and asked him about the horse.  While he was describing him, he mentioned that he would be great for our big people.  Wow!!  He also mentioned that he paid a couple hundred bucks for him a few years back and that he was a little stiff until you work him out for a little while.   Ok, sounds pretty good, obviously I don't want to doubt God, so I made plans to pick him up on Friday.  Then I called the woman back who referred the horse and she asked if he had mentioned the horse's bad shoulder.  I said no.  Since I had already committed to going and getting the horse, after I hung up with her I confessed that this horse was going to be in perfect health when we get him on Friday and that he will have no physical issues whatsoever.  ".calls things that are not as though they were." Romans 4:17.

Friday morning I get a call from the owner and he changed his mind.  He said the horse was not the same horse and that he's jumping around and chasing the mares and that he had plans on using him that day.  He actually was really excited about this "new" very energetic horse.  He also mentioned that you can get about $1200 for a horse like this.  Obviously, he was now in no position to "donate" a horse like this...so we cancelled our trip to go get him.  Meanwhile, David has been reassuring me that most of our horses can handle our bigger participants especially just riding around in the arena for an hour.   So, I'm at peace with what happened and know with confidence that if it really becomes an issue, we will have the horse we need.  The praise report is that this guy has been blessed with a renewed horse. 

Just wanted to share God's power that works in us through His Holy Spirit.  Our Words are powerful!!! 

After seeing everyone who participated at the special olympic event, I realized how important it is now to have our own ministry t-shirts to be recognized as a cohesive group.  I've been putting off printing t-shirts because the ministry did not have a logo yet.  I wanted the logo to be designed by a professional and I really like the company that designed our website, however, they charge $500 for logo design.    Last week, I stepped out in faith and went ahead and hired them to create a logo.  Here are the first two drafts:

Uh oh!!!  Since the designer really didn't know much about horses, I don't think that she realized that this horse is not really a very happy camper.  Kind of looked scary and mean to me.  Not quite the representation of the ministry I had hoped for.

She gave me the stock photo site that she found these, so I was able to find a horse that represented the ministry WAY better!!!

Here is our final design:

I am REALLY happy with this one (especially since the horse reminds me of Dude and Zeke).  I think it represents everything that we are about.  Now, I'm excited about t-shirts and all new stationery.  I can change the colors to what ever would work best.

Last Saturday, we held our 1st Car Wash and Bake Sale Fundraiser.  We had about 50 people show up to help.   With the suggestion of Crystal, we brought the horses to the car wash for pictures.  We also ended up painting two of them as our signs (for our FREE car wash) for the corners of Scottsdale/Redfield and Hayden/Redfield.  I knew I needed to again, put in a request to God for the dollar amount we would raise, so I came up with $1500 and requested that.   To me, that was a big number.  To God, that was nothing.   As I was counting the cash we made on Saturday, it came to $1503.  I was so excited that God delivered, that I sent this number out to my volunteers knowing that this would not be our official amount because I still was planning a bake sale at church on Sunday.  So, after Sunday, I added up the new money and then sent the email out to everyone that we made $1673.  Well, I went to the bank to deposit the money and we actually made $2250.  I forgot to add in the checks from the car wash!!!!!  God is good!!! 

Here are some of the pictures from the car wash.

Special Olympics

Shortly after the beginning of the year, we attended as a group the Sun Circuit Horse Show where competitors all over the country compete with their beautiful and well trained quarter horses in all disciplines.

We spent most of the time watching the reining competition since this discipline best represents the type of riding we do.  We spent the week at the show and had a great turn out.  Here is a picture of our Saturday participants watching and learning!!!

In February, Gene, our landlord, donated his horse Grey.  I am so thankful for this horse because he is big......and super sweet.    He serves a great purpose for us for those that want to just cruise around on a horse in the arena.    Here is a picture of Grey.

On March 10th, Gene asked us if we would participate in a Special Olympic's event that the Maricopa County Sheriff Posse was supporting.    We brought six horses and had about 24 adults from the ministry and a handful of kids that went to help out.

The pictures are worth a thousand words!!  It was such a blessing for us to be involved in such an event.