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Equestrian Department |
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MEET OUR PONIES AND ANIMALSCLICK HERE FOR MEET THE HORSES SLIDE SHOW! Welcome to our farm! We have all kinds of farm animals for you to meet. I hope you like them, we do! As a matter of fact, we love them. They are our friends and companions. We will be telling you how we got each one and how we take care of them. Each animal has a story to tell: Some were abused or neglected, and some we bought because we liked them! You will learn about some sad things, like how people are mean to animals. But, you and I can help animals that are hurt by people. We have rescued or helped 11 different horses and donkeys. Some of them died, they were too sick. The rest still live at our farm or have new homes. We still take care of our neighbor's animals when they need it. Some of our neighbors have animals that they don't feed or care for very well. When we see that happen, we go take care of them. We believe that is what God wants us to do.
Hope you enjoy your visit with our animals. Be sure to check out our FARM UPDATES ! Our AnimalsShadow
Shadow was one of the first ponies we got. He came from a family that was mean to him. They beat him with big sticks and cut his head. He was afraid of us at first. But, we took our time with him, fed him out of our hands, brushed him, and loved him. Soon he started to trust us. We promised him we would not sell him. We found out that he was very smart. We could ride him and he knew how to pull a pony cart. He is so gentle that we put baby ponies with him when it is time for them to be weaned from their moms. Shadow likes to give children rides. One Easter morning we had 20 kids come over for rides on Shadow. They each got a ride and a piece of candy! Shadow eats grass, hay and grain. He licks a special salt block to get minerals and he drinks a lot of water. He is 6 years old and about 34 1/2 inches tall. He won't grow any bigger because he is a Shetland pony. Shadow was injured in late November 1999. One of the other horses kicked him in the face and he lost his right eye. The vet had to remove it, but Shadow is recovering well. We are so thankful that he is ok. Shadow will learn to function without his eye and will live his life happily with us. If you want to send Shadow a get well greeting or letter, here is his email: You can find out about Shadow's injury on his own page... FoxyFoxy is my daughter's pony. My daughter's name is Margaret, but we call her Maggie. Foxy is a mare, too, like Valentine. Foxy is dark brown with a black mane and tail. A horse or pony that color is called a "Bay". Foxy is a wonderful pony. When Margaret was 7 she could ride Foxy all by herself. That is because Foxy is so gentle and has had a lot of experience with children. Foxy worked on a pony ring for 5 years before we got her. She worked 6 hours a day on Saturday's and Sunday's. She also has had many babies. Baby horses and ponies are called foals.
Anyway, Foxy has an easy life now. She was so thin when we got her. The man who had her kept working her the whole time was was pregnant. He didn't feed her well, didn't worm her. He sold us Pepsi first because he thought Foxy was going to die. Pepsi was sick, too. Foxy and Pepsi were rescues. That means we bought them because they were neglected or abused. Foxy is fine now, fat, healthy and strong. Margaret doesnt' ride forxy any more, we have retired her to pasture (she just eats and sleeps). They used to ride with an English saddle and sometimes a western saddle. Margaret and Foxy would go with me and Valentine around our neighborhood. Everette would walk with us in case Margaret and Foxy needed help. Seven years old is too young for a kid to ride on the street by herself. We have to be careful because sometimes horses get scared of things like: garbage cans, fast cars, basketballs and dogs. Foxy hates lawn mowers, so Everette holds her bridle when we go by a person mowing the lawn. Foxy is about 16years old and is 11 hands tall. She is a grown up pony, just like Valentine and Shadow. Margaret loves her a lot. Foxy a baby on March 19, 1999! His name is Hunter's Paper Tiger, here is his picture!
This is Tiger. He was born March 19, 1999. He is a Chestnut in color, like his sire. His mother is Foxy and his father is Buster.
PJ
RedRed is a Shetland pony, too. He is a stallion, a stallion is a daddy horse. He is PJ's father. No one can ride Red because he has never been broke. Broke is a word western riders use to describe training a horse to ride. Since we have so many other ponies to ride, we don't care that we can't ride Red. So, he just eats and stands around. Sometimes we take him for a walk down the street. He likes it when we brush him and clean his feet with a hoof pick. A hoof pick is a tool we use to pick dirt and rocks out of the horse's feet. It is important to do that so the horse won't limp. Red is a chestnut, a dark red color. He is over 20 years old. He used to live on a big farm and run over about 100 acres. He had a lot of mares and he had a lot of babies every year. The lady who owned him was nice to him. Now he is nice, too. If you treat the animals gently, with love, they will be gentle with you. Red is so gentle that kids can brush him, but they can't ride him. He stops being gentle if you try to get on him. He bucks and rears up. Since he is older, we will not break him. He likes it that way! A Sad note about RED - This March 2000, Red passed away. He was over 30 years old and lived a good life on a big farm with lots of mares for many years. He ran free and made lots of cute babies for the people who owned him before us. Red was never broke to ride and never did a days work in his whole life. He just ate and slept and made cute baby horses. He lived with us for about 5 years. We didn't make him work, either, and didn't geld him or anything. We just petted him and fed him and took him to the tall grass to graze sometimes.
WE MISS YOU RED! Love, the Hunter's. HeartyClick Here for more about Hearty
Working the FarmHaving a farm is fun and a lot of hard work. You can't be afraid to get dirty. We rake manure, clean the barn, build fences, work in the garden. We grow most of our own food. Meat, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt and butter come from our animals. We have a garden with vegetables and fruit. We have to plow the garden and weed it. During the summer we water it and put rotten manure on the ground around the plants. We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, collard greens, mustard greens, asparagus, beans, peas, peppers, okra, and other vegetables. We freeze them, dry them and can them. We grow raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, apples, filberts, blueberries, rhubarb, black walnuts, kiwi fruit, plums, pears, peaches and more. We go in the woods and pick wild huckleberrys, blackberrys and gather other edible plants like wild sweet pea shoots. All of this takes work, work, WORK! We like it, though, and feel good about our food. Meet A Cow
Two Donkey's We Have Owned
Here are two of the three donkey's we have owned. The big grey one is Ed. He was great to ride, very sweet and friendly, and large enough for my large husband to ride. But, Ed wouldn't stop jumping the fences and breaking them down. He would let the other animals get out in the street. So, we had to sell him. That was hard, because we all really liked him. That is Margaret with Ed when she was about 5 or 6 years old.
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We used to have chickens and ducks, but when we
moved from Oklahoma to Washington State, we had to sell them. I miss them
pecking around the yard! This was our big rooster, Brewster! To learn more
about chickens, and view the Meet the Chickens slide show, go to our
PJ is Valentine's foal. She was born on January 29, 1998. She
is too young to ride, but she is learning to wear a halter, lead, and has
had a riding pad on her back. We use a riding pad to teach the foals not
to be afraid of something on their back. That way when it is time to ride
them they won't be afraid of the saddle. PJ is a nickname; her real name
is Hunter's Pistachio Jewel. I like PJ's color. It is called pinto, like
Valentine. She is sorrel and white with a flaxen mane and tail. Flaxen is
white with some red and black hairs. PJ is funny. She likes to play games
with the other ponies. She sneaks up on them and bites them then runs away.
I think she is laughing inside! We donated PJ to Personal Ponies, Ltd. in
Nov 1998. She will be a friend for a disabled or very sick child. It is a
good job for a pony. PJ will be about 11 hands tall when she is full grown.
We try to have at least one cow on the farm, sometimes
we have more. This is one of the cows we raised for beef. We always name
our beef cows after some kind of food. That way we are always reminded the
reason we have the cow, and we don't get too attached to it. This one's name
was Jerky.
Our other donkey was Pixie. She was rescued, and
was very, very sick. We tried for a long time to get her better, but her
disease was too much for her and we lost her. That was sad, but it happens
sometimes. When you rescue sick, abused or neglected animals you always know
that they might not make it. You tell yourself that so it isn't so upsetting
if they do die. But, we are always sad, and we miss Pixie, she was a kind
little donkey.
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