On August 25, 2010 a meeting was held of the board of directors for WHOAS. The meeting took place along the Panther River, at Sunset Guiding, our first outdoors meeting. The meeting was required as our previous Secretary/Treasurer quit the society. At the meeting we welcomed three new directors, Ann Howes, Dan McIntyre and Merle Fox. This was as a result of one our directors moving. With our incubant directors we now have eight directors. Lori Fox accepted the nomination as our new Secretary/Treasurer and was voted in unanimously. Other business in regards to this position was also dealt with at that time by the board.  At that time it was decided that Bob Henderson will continue in his role as president of the Society and Jack Nichol as vice president.

It was agreed that the Society would hold semi-annual General Memebership meetings to keep our members up to date on any issues surrounding the Society and the welfare of the Wild Horses of Alberta. These meetings with date and time wil be posted on this site when they are decided upon. It was also decided that the board will meet every two months to assure that WHOAS continues to follow our goals and objectives in the protection of the Wild Horses.

We will continue to produce our Annual WHOAS fund raising calendar, as these have become quite poplular, with 700 being sold last year. Bob Henderson has accepted the responsibility for producing the calendars.

We are working on a new Wild Horse Management proposal to submit to the Sustainable Resource Development department of the Alberta government, sometime in 2011. Our previous one submitted in 2004 was largely ignored by the government. We did have one lady working on the legal aspect of legislation change, however we have not heard from her for a while and we may have to start from scratch on that point.

WHOAS has never strayed from our original goals and objectives since our founding in 2001. At the meeting these points as well as our fund raising, membership applications, accepting of donations and the like were also discussed to assure that all on the board were in agreement on these points.

Bob Henderson will also continue to go out to interest groups, 4H groups and schools giving a video presentation and talk on our Wild Horses, that belong to all of us.

We would also like to thank all our membership and other interested indviduals for their continued support of the Society and again of course the Wild Horses. We also give special thanks to Dave and Lynn at Northernhorse for there awesome support.

Bob Henderson will also continue to answer all e-mail inquiries sent to us by individuals and the media.

If you wish to join our Society a membership application form is on our website.

Thank you, Bob.

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I thought that our followers might like to have an update on “June Bug” who was rescued Frank Coggins earlier this year. I had a chance to visit her on August 25, 2010 and took great delight in seeing the growth in her. As you can see her coat has started it’s process of turning into a dark brown color, which will probably be her adult color. She has gained weight and height under the care of Lori and Merle Fox who manage Sunset Guiding, which June Bug calls home right now. Lori laughed as she described how she was going to wean the young filly off the bottle. She just was going to be tough and just cut her off. Feeding her good grass and hay only. Didn’t work, “June Bug” demanded her bottle of milk. More milk replacer had to be bought on a quick trip into Sundre.

Merle talks about “June Bug” being one of the most photgraphed horses he has ever known. People drop by all the time to visit young “June Bug”. They have come from as far away as Japan and Europe.

Lori takes the young filly on daily walks around the premises for excercise and attention. I must say that she does love her attention. She loves to be rubbed and patted and it was quite a chore to get good photos of her. She would come right over and stick her nose in my face. Quite a treat and it made me chuckle at her antics. We wish her the best of luck and hope to see her when she is a little older again. Thanks Frank, Lori and Merle. Bob.

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On August 3, 2010, a tornado touched down in a remote valley off the South James River. Lynn on her blog has posted some pictures of this devastation which was 1/2 mile by 2 mile swath of destruction. Pat Boomer a weather observer, on his visit to the site this past weekend confirmed that it was definitely a tornado that caused the damage.

My heart still sick with worry of the whereabouts of the herd we called the Danish Herd, which inhabitated this valley. I also went back this weekend . I scoured every back trail and road around this site looking for them. I went into different valleys and into the heavy timber in hopes of finding them but to not avail.

As I observed the site again, the ravens were numerous, indicating death and you could smell it in the air. Obviously not all creatures made it to safety. My heart sadden and I prayed that the Danish Herd is just somewhere safe and it will take me time to find them again. I am off Wednesday again and will definitely go looking again. I so love the wild horses and it would devastate me if we lost a whole herd this way.

“

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In the 2010 summer issue of Nature Alberta, which is a magazine for the Federation of Alberta Naturalists, there is an article on the Wild Horses of Alberta. The article is called, Western Canada’s Wild Horses – The Struggle for Legitimacy. It was authored by one of the wild horses staunchest allies, Dr. Claudia Notzke.  Dr Notzke has an amazing list of credentials behind her name when it comes to dealing with wild horses throughout the world. Extremely well written, it gives a very sound scientific argument for the protection of the wild horses as a native species, here in Alberta and North America.  In her article Dr. Notzke also visits the ecological opportunities in preserving the wild horses in their natural environment, the need to revisit the current management practices, the need to have an open mind in order to change attitudes toward the wild horses and what they should mean to all of us. Thank you Claudia.
Bob.

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I received an e-mail Tuesday July 27, 2010 from Sujata Clark, informing us of a wild horse foal that they had come across. The Clark’s live west and south of Bragg Creek and they had just come across a day old foal, a few days before, that could not get up or stand and appeared close to dying. It would appear that the mare was a young one and did not have the milk to give the baby it’s strength. Mom was standing guard but could not help the little thing.

Acting out of the kindness of their hearts they decided to intervene to save the foal. Sujata is a vet technician and with the help of their neighbors, who are a paramedic and a nurse, they went to the aid of the foal. They start an IV, out in the field, to get fluids into the foal right away. They then took it to the local vet for further assistance. With the aid of the vet, the baby was given more fluids and started on milk.

Sujata had e-mailed WHOAS looking for advice on what was best to do for the baby. It was advised that when she was strong enough, they try to find a foster mare to adopt it. Sujata had really wanted to adopt the foal herself but was more concerned with it’s immediate health. After a few days with the vet the baby was drinking milk from a bucket . Although still really weak it was getting better day by day.

On August 02, Sujata informed us that the foal had gone to a foster home and is doing great, She is gaining about 5 lbs a day. The foster home got her a donkey friend but they might if that does not work get her a goat to be her buddy.

It is amazing the compassion that so many people show for the wild horses and the lengths some go to save or help them. I would like to thank Sujata for her efforts to save this young wild foal. Bob.

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Doreen had always wanted our young Wylie to attempt to be a pack horse, among his other endorsements. Since I (Bob) was going out west to check the horses, I decided to bring along my trusted Warzone and young Wylie to tag along. I do not have a pack saddle, nor have ever had the experience of using one myself, but I was determined to try this with him. Saturday morning dawned so bright and warm but already by the time I went to saddle them the bugs were horrible, especially the horse flies. I put Wylie’s own saddle on him with saddle bags, then took two other sets of saddle bags and rain jackets and tied then securely onto the saddle. He just stood there looking at me curiously wondering what this is all about. I made sure to rub both horses thorougly down with a new product, which really worked , to keep the horse flies from making them go insane. I then mounted up on Warzone and using an extra long cotton lead shank off we went.

Wylie was great he would be just right behind Warzone and or right up along my right knee, always on the proper side. He followed docily along, through everything we had to go through, except when he went around a tree wrong and came up to me a looked at me as if to say, now what. I laughed and just grapped the front of the shank and off we went. The next incident was when I did not notice that he had stopped to do his thing. Warzone just kept going and the next thing I knew I was almost pulled backward out of my saddle. Note to self: “pay attention”. Wylie finished and then walked up to me so that I could get that dangly thing out his way.

The eight of small herds that we did find were in the heavy timber, trying to avoid the onslaught of insects. We did come across one that was on a hillside in the wind. Wylie upon seeing them, ran out in front, postured himself and arched his neck at these interlopers. I had to laugh again at his antics.

I met one fellow slowly motoring along on his quad, also out to take pictures. We stopped and talked about the horses. The foal crop is good with around 80% of the foals surviving so far. The grass is thick and the horses are in great shape. He mentioned an older stallion with a badly busted leg from a stallion fight. He is in a location you could not get to even if you wanted to try to help. The location and discription sounded like one we had called “Hombre”. That hurt knowing that he may be the one, he has been a special one to me and I still hate to see any of them suffer.

We went on for 16 miles altogether with my great little pack horse. More and more campers and atv’s were still moving in at that hour on Saturday and the massive clear cutting done by the logging compainies have destroyed a lot of our more pristine trails. I decided that it would be time to go home and maybe we will try this again on week day when the woods are quieter.

I also want to thank all of you who sent such kind words to us in regards to “Ginger”. Thank you.  This is also my first time at trying to post a blog so have patience with me.

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I just wanted to share this with the followers and supporters of WHOAS.

It was late on a Sunday afternoon when I decided to take a drive out west.  I was struggling with some personal issues and my heart was quite burdened.  I decided that I would go out to where I laid to rest the young wild foal Doreen had named Ginger.  I still had thoughts about the struggle this little one had endured and I wanted to say good-bye one last time.  When I got to the sight a small ray of sunshine was coming through the trees and lit up the small cross I had made to mark the sight.

As I walked closer, I was surprised to see that someone else had been here before me, for there on the grave was a wild flower and a small tangle of wild horse hair.  Tears welled up inside me and my heart hurt even more.  I was upset with my own problems and now thinking I should have done more for the little thing.  I placed some flowers on the site also.  Then I sat down on a log and closed my eyes enduring the pain inside, as I thanked Ginger for being a part of my life, even if it was for a very short time.

As I sat there beside the grave with my eyes closed now, to stop the tears.  I had what the native’s call a vision.  Every once in a while, I have these when I am troubled and out with the wild horses. This is what came to me.

In it the Spirit Stallion appeared through the trees and came to me once again.  He said to me, “I see you are troubled my child.  What brings such sorrow to our friend?”  I explained to him the difficulties I was facing and then of the pain I felt toward not being able to do more for the foal, “Ginger”.    He then said to me, “Not all of my kind will survive the hardships that plague us as we live out our lives, even our new ones.  The young one you helped will be forever grateful to you in the spirit of all of my kind.  The spirit I can see you love so much.  Take comfort my child in your love for my kind.”

The afternoon thunderstorms had began to appear as I drove into the hills and as I sat there with my eyes still closed with tears, I could hear the booming of what seemed constant thunder.  I then heard something else, the thunder of horse’s hoofs.  “Stand my child and behold.”   I stood.  There coming across the clear cut was Ginger’s herd.  The stallion spoke one last time.  “See, our lives do go on.”  He then disappeared.

In the herd when we found Ginger ailing, there had been four foals including her.  Now there was five.  The herd stopped out the clear cut and the stallion and the mare came out in front of the others and both shook their heads up and down and then took the herd away.

Despite my own inner feelings, still bothering me.  I again knew, that I must continue our efforts to protect these free-living spirits, that we call the wild horses of Alberta.

Bob.

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It is hard to imagine in our so called civilized society there are some severe cases of animal abuse sanctioned and carried out by government employees.  This is happening just south of the border in the USA.  Many foals are run to death, relentlessly chased in the summers heat by helicopters and other vehicles.  Foals ran so hard for so long, end up breaking their legs or dropping dead from exhaustion and other chase related causes.   One American foal shown on the news release looks a lot like our June Bug featured in the next blog.   

Read more about this disgusting and heartless practice on the following link and please write to the officals stated therein.  Also attached is another link about some wild horses saved from slaughter.  Thanks for your ongoing support of North American mustangs. 

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001p0G3IzaXxpycaOEYiCzJOKGT8SkQ34pN-pYscl5BwUTv99GQkgU8vHYDlAK-hYSI0JCx8-feh2cbyrx00AeUcwwDISQtR35JGz-aGmBVmAk-Qucd9usSHA%3D%3D

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/wild-horse-activists-pay-31-415-to-save-172-animals-from-slaughter/

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June Bug safe and sound

Meet little June Bug.  She was chased by some wolves or some other predators and went through a fence to get away.  Unfortunately her herd, in the ensuiing panic, left her behind, or couldn’t find a way to get her back on the other side of the fence and therefore carried on without her.   Fortunate for June Bug however, she ended up on friendly turf, the Sun Set Outfitters Ranch and Frank Coggins came across her.   She was standing there all alone with cut and bite marks on her little body.  The new managers of Sunset Outfitters Merle and Lori Fox were delighted to be able to take care of her while waiting for the herd to come back.  A couple days past and there was no sign of them so Merle and Lori asked Bob’s advice.   Bob had mentioned that he could probably find a home for her but Lori said that she wanted to keep the foal as she had a mustang in the past and would love to have another one, but wanted to make sure to do so legally.   Consequently, Bob contacted one of the employees of the SRD to ask if the couple could adopt this abandoned young foal.   Don did the paper work and contacted Merle and Lori,  gladly giving them a letter of permission to keep the filly.  

Bob and I had the pleasure of meeting the little horse and her new family on Canada Day.

June Bug is a gentle little filly, who just seems to be really grateful to be alive and have some humans adopt her.  She  will require several bottles of milk replacer both day and night over the next several months.   There is a lot of work ahead for the Foxs’  but they are up to the challenge and June Bug will be a marvelous addition to their herd. 

We will keep you updated on the filly’s progress.   

Congratulations Merle and Lori on your four legged bundle of joy.

Safe in her new paddock

Gentle mare keeps June Bug Company

The happy family

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Small enough to fit in SUV

The following documents are copies of emails I sent out to some of our WHOAS members about this precious little foal we rescued this past Saturday night. 

Some of the names of those involved have been omitted or just mentioned by first name for privacy reasons.

July 3^rd, 2010. 

Hi Everyone

It has been a busy week for wild foals in trouble.  We got a call from Kathy Bartley of the Bear Valley Rescue Centre stating that some people found a very young wild foal with badly swollen back legs.  They didn’t want to see the baby get torn apart by wolves and so they phoned Kathy to see if they could help.  As WHOAS is more experienced with wild horse rescue and knows the area, Kathy phoned us, but offered to come out and help too. Bob had to wait until after work but in the meanwhile I cleaned the SUV, and put a tarp and blanket in the back, along with a lariat, foal halter and several lead shanks. 

We drove out West and Bob and I found the camp of the three people who reported finding this lame foal.  Henry drove us to the location and we decided then and there that the foal didn’t stand any chance of survival in that clear-cut debris.  The filly could only pivot on her front legs, the back legs dangled limp.  There was no chance the foal could get away from a predator as she already had a chunk of flesh taken out of her back.  Bob threw the lariat around her body and quickly grabbed her.  The mare was very upset and would charge towards us.  Henry and I would go towards her and she would stop and snort.  Bob and Henry took the lariat off the foal and took turns carrying her through the immense debris of the clear cut about 200 yards to the SUV. 

Seriously deformed back legs

Trapped in a Clear Cut

Carrying foal to safety

removing the lariet

Watching for Mom

Almost there

 Once at the vehicle I draped a blanket over the foal and Bob lifted her into the vehicle and put a lead shank around her back end so she could not attempt to stand.  The mare tried charging a few more times, but the stallion went after her and chased her back. He knew we were trying to help the foal.  We slowly made our way back to Olds and called a Vet Clinic on my cell and the Dr. met us there at the clinic in Olds. The Dr. said her prognosis wasn’t good, as he had never seen the degree of swelling to her legs in any other foal.  She has pneumonia, and an infection raging through her tiny legs and system.  He recommended euthanasia, but at our request, he gave her some cortisone and an anti-biotic and some instructions on how to give future needles.  Bob has plenty of experience giving injections to animals however, thank goodness, as I don’t know if I could do it.  I tend to be a fainter when I get them personally.  In any event, we got home and transferred the filly into the stock trailer and then Bob got some supplies of Browns Milk Replacer, a bottle and a few rubber nipples.  So far so good, she has had a few bottles now.  I spent the night in the camper next to the horse trailer with the windows open listening for her.  She would bang around a bit and whinny and I would call back to her.  It was a bit of a sleepless night listening to vehicles and drunks carousing the streets.   I must admit I wasn’t brave enough to leave the camper, even with my dogs just behind the fence ready to protect me.  At first light however, I braved the streets in my PJ’s and went and warmed a bottle for a very hungry girl.  Anyways, I must get back outside and check on her and pull some more green grass for her to munch on.  

Resting comfortably

Ginger is taking to us humans and she loves to be touched.  I was rubbing her neck and stopped and so she leaned into me for more.  OMG what a doll, I was choking back the tears.  We will be contacting the SRD to let them know we have her and how this all went down. 

Animal bite perhaps?

Feeding the hungry foal

If you have any advice on bottle feeding and caring for very sick foals, it would be greatly appreciated

Eating some tasty grass

Please keep Ginger in your prayers.  She is going to need all the help she can get.  I don’t know if she is going to make it, but I put in a special request to the Man Upstairs. 

  Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon.  Doreen and Bob 

 Second Email

Sunday, July 4^th, 2010

Ginger has been with us now for over twenty-eight hours.  She is putting weight on all four feet however, naturally not very steady.  Our Internet research shows her condition is quite treatable.  Her temperature was normal today compared to 103 yesterday.  Tonight she pounded back two cups of milk out of a bowl.  She drinks much more this way than with a bottle and is much happier about it.  We have rigged up a heat lamp in the trailer and I covered the front end of the trailer with tarps.  Drafts will still be able to blow in but the heat lamp should counter that quite a bit.  It is miserably wet and rainy here.  Tonight she followed Bob around bunting him for food and chewed my sleeve when I ran out of milk so Bob had to hurry and get more.  This is a very good sign that our little Diva is demanding her food now.  She also likes electrolytes and drinks lots of that from a bowl.  Ginger even sat on my lap today, I had been holding up her back end while Bob was giving her a drink and she and I both got tired and so I crouched down and the next thing you know she was sitting on my lap, quite contented.  Never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have a horse sit on my lap and live to tell about it.  lol…

I have put ice on her swollen hocks a few times today, so I think all this is working along with the meds.  So thanks everybody and please keep those prayers and positive energy coming.  Doreen

Ginger in a sling for support

Ginger enjoying the sunshine

Third Email

 July 5^th, 2010

 Just to let you know we had another Vet come and checked her out today.  He diagnosed her with joint ill in three legs and a naval infection.  The naval infection was likely the cause of the swelling and fluid build up in her legs.  Judging by her naval condition the Dr. determined that she was 10 days old.  Ginger didn’t get enough colostrum so her bowel was impacted too.  She would have most likely been very crippled even if he drained all her legs of the massive fluid build up, as her legs would remain extremely deformed.  Ginger was put to sleep a few minutes ago.  Bob has gone to return her to her home and bury her where he initially found her.  Due to other obligations I will not be going with him.  However, Bob said he will mark her grave with a wreath or something and I will go and see where she lies in a few days, anyone who wants to join us feel free to do so, we could use the support.  Talk to you later.  Doreen

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