Dear Lori and my friends at Last Chance Ranch,

By now I hope you all know that I have found a new home. It was a bit of a trip to get down here to Virginia. I was a little nervous but I did okay. My new Mom stopped along the way a couple of times to check on me and that helped me not to worry so much. I do not like the noise that the big, big trucks make. Other than that life on the road was fine.

There are so many horse here you would not believe it. The only work they have to do is about an hour, three or four times a week. The rest of the time they just hang out in the field or in the barn.

My first night was kind of uneventful. Mom put me out with the Senior Citizens for a little while. Unfortunately, Cramer got all bent out of shape when he saw me. Too bad for him, he got sent to his stall for bad behavior. Little Jesse gave me a nice greeting before going in for the night. Sampson and I have the smaller barn all to ourselves and he likes me lots. He is so happy to have another horse here that is not either a youngster or an oldster. I think that we will do just fine together.

Sampson was kind enough to explain to me about Cramer. Cramer is an old retired workhorse like myself. He has had a very hard life and is mostly lame now. He is also the omega and is just trying to move up in the herd.

Sampson is a little taller than me. I am a little wider than he is. So overall we weigh about the same. I miss the girls from my foster home. But it is nice to hang out with a guy and do guy stuff.

My legs are getting lots of attention. The lower parts of all four legs have been shaved. There is some of that nasty stuff on all four legs. I had to stay inside for a few days because my legs were wrapped. Mom and nice Dr. Paul put some cream on them. It was a combination of anti-biotic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal. Mom and Paul were really happy that after three days the swelling had gone down so much.

Today they decided to let me go out with Sampson for a while without any wraps. I chewed on my front right leg even though the cream they put on had a topical anesthetic. So they had to be wrapped up again. Luckily Dr. Paul has these nice soft bandages that are flexible so I was able to go outside with Sampson.

My new Mom arranged for me to be turned out with her friend Janet’s horses so I will have lots of pasture and not be in a muddy field. I am meeting my new turnout buddies over the fence. They have been together for a long time and we want them to get a chance to see what a nice horse I am before I go play with them. In addition to Sampson I will have three new field friends….Hannibal, Gretchen and Rudy. Hannibal is about my age, about my size and is also a Belgian. Gretchen is a lot older and she is a Belgian too. Rudy is a big old Warmblood. He is 28 and used to be a dressage horse. They are all very nice to me. The rule in the field is that everyone looks out for Gretchen and then we will all get along fine. I am looking forward to having so much room to run and play and just be a horse.

In the field just next to us are 15 thoroughbreds!!! They are all fox hunting horses. They have to really work hard. On one other side of us are a bunch of burros (about 10) and a big group of miniature horses and a welsh pony.

Early in the morning and after dinner Sampson and I hang out in a small field together. We don’t go in for the night until Mom goes to bed.

I understand that when we move I will be able to be out all of the time unless there is lightening. I don’t really mind my stall though. It is large and it has at least 8 inches of fresh shavings in it. The first night I rolled in my stall. That was after I rolled in the mud three times outside. I did not look so gorgeous after that.

The food here is delicious. Mom says that I need to put on some weight so I am getting some high fat pellets mixed in with my regular grain. I get all of the hay I want and I love to eat tons of it. Mom has not figured out what my regular feed will be yet. She picked up some of the Triple Crown sweet feed that Jan was feeding me. For right now she is mixing that with the high fat endurance feed. It is like the feed that she brought to you with pre-soaked beet pulp in it.

There is this yummy free choice mineral in the feeders on the fences. I have been making quite a pig out of myself. I ate almost a pound of the mineral the first day that I was here. I cannot help it. It tastes so good. Mom says that when all of the horses first come to live with her they eat lots of the mineral and then not so much.

What is a beautiful mover? I overheard Mom and Dr.Paul saying that I was a beautiful mover. Then they laughed and said especially for a draft horse. What is dressage? Mom told Janet that it sure would be funny to take a beautiful big Belgian (meaning me) into the dressage ring.

Don’t worry about me. I am doing pretty well considering it has been less than a week since I got here. I have had to adjust to a bunch of changes and I am doing okay with that. I am not kicking or pawing nearly as much when my legs get fussed with.

I miss everyone and am happy to know that you might come to visit me.

I am going to play for a while. Sampson is teaching me to park out.

Big Hugs, Libra

Dear Lori and My Friends at Last Chance Ranch,

Time sure is flying by. It has been a couple of weeks since I moved to Virginia. The weather is crazy here. I am used to Pennsylvania where it is mostly cold. It was 70 degrees on Wednesday. On Thursday it went down to 30 degrees and snowed. Today it is 60 degrees. It was warm all weekend and rained.

Mom let us go out and play in the snow. We all had to wear waterproof sheets to keep us from getting soaked by the snow. Down here in Virginia the snow is wet even when it is cold.

I am doing very well. I have made a bunch of new friends. My favorite is a Percheron named Goliath. At two years old he is already bigger than I am. He loves to play and play. I am having a blast with him. I am going to help teach to drive and I am very excited about that. Goliath and I are going to have even more fun driving together than we are having now. You know how it is. Sometimes you just meet someone and you know that you are going to be friends. That is how it is with Goliath and me.

Goliath and I did get in trouble the other day. Goliath likes to herd Mom. This is not something that Mom thinks is okay and she let Goliath know it. It looked fun to me so I started herding her too. She looked so s mall wedged between the two of us. Mom told us that when we act stupid she gets hurt. I had to think about this for a while. I guess if I was surrounded by horse weight 40 times my weight I might get a little ticked too. Goliath and I had a talk about this and decided that it probably was not a good idea to do this again.

I think that I am going to be happy here. I am starting to come out of my shell a little. Whenever Mom comes out into the field all of the other horses go up and say hello to her. I am starting to do this too. It is so nice to be patted and called a good boy. At first I did not really understand. You were all nice to me and Jan, my foster mom, was wonderful to me. Still, this people being nice stuff is kind of new when put in the context of my whole life. Having enough to eat consistently and having someone concerned about how I am feeling and if I am happy is still new for me. I like it. It just may take a little more time for me to accept.

I am beginning to understand the routine too. Most of the horses go into the main barn right around dark. Sampson and I get fed at the fence and then we get to stay out until Mom goes to bed. When Mom comes out to put us to bed we are supposed to come in the barn when she calls. I took me a few days to figure this out. I have the drill down now.

My legs get better and better all of the time. They no longer smell and the sores are healing up. My legs are almost normal size. I get lotion put on them twice a day. The lotion is a mixture of diaper rash ointment, and Neosporin. Mom got the recipe for it from some nice people. She left a posting on the Message Board at the Chronicle of the Horse asking if anyone had ever had a nice horse with a case of scratches as bad as mine and what they did about it. Several people wrote to her and told her what to do to help me feel better.

We have bought up almost all of the diaper rash ointment in the stores around here. I need two tubes a day. Dad had to go to a baby store to get some more. The nice woman at the checkout commented that he must have a lot of babies to need so much ointment. When he said it was for a horse she laughed so hard she almost cried.

You would not believe how good I am when I get my legs worked on. I don't stamp my feet or paw anymore. I am an angel. The lotion acts like a bandage over the sores keeping mud out while letting everything breath.

It will still be a few months of treatment before my legs are normal. I will probably have some scar tissue from all of the infection. The good news is that I am completely sound. The infection did not go into the bone.

Mom was trying saddles and bits on me the other day. She has a saddle that fits me good. It might need a little more stuffing in the back of the panels. We will know for sure after I put on a little more weight. It was Sampson's saddle when Mom first got him. Even though he was a purchased horse he needed some physical work too. Once his back and legs got straightened out the saddle did not fit him right anymore. The saddle was just there waiting for a nice horse like myself to come along. I wear a size 6 bit. I know this because Goliath's baby bit is a six and it fits me. It is too small for Goliath.

Goliath went for a trip the other day to get his legs radio graphed and to be weighed on a real scale. He weighs 2200 lbs and he is only two. How big do you think he will be when he stops growing? His legs are fine. It was just a precaution because of how big he is and how fast he is growing.

Cramer got his legs radio graphed too. He has high ringbone and he gets pictures taken about once a year to see how he is doing. The good news is his legs are better than they were last year.

I am not going to start riding until my legs are a little better and I have my feet worked on. It may take two trimmings to get my feet to a good place. I have way too much toe and not enough heel. Like everything else with me it is just going to take a little more time. Also I am going to get shoes put on before I start riding. Mike the nice farrier thinks that I will need size 7's in the front and maybe 6's in the back.

I watch the other horses going riding and it looks like fun to me. In the meantime I am being despooked….having all kinds of things rubbed on me, thrown around me, etc. Mom took me for a walk today to introduce me to our neighbor's llamas, pigs, and ponies. A lot of time they end up in the riding ring when nice horses are trying to work and she does not want me to be afraid of them.

I understand that one time when T was little Mom took him riding and a goat showed up in the road. T reared, then bolted, and Mom almost ended up on the ground. She does not want that to happen again. Now T is fearless. The other day one of the llamas followed him all over the riding ring and he could have cared less. I guess he figured out that even though he is small compared to we draft horses he is bigger than the llamas. T is what you would call a bulletproof horse. Mom says that is what happens when you get a horse as a baby and other people have not messed with them. He rode field trials this fall and did wonderful. Even all of the beagles hollering did not phase him.

Mom assures me that someday I will be like this. I won't be afraid of things or shy around people. Someday I won't worry anymore if I am going to have enough to eat or a place to keep out of a storm. She says that if love can move mountains it can certainly give confidence to a nice draft horse.

If I sound a little blue it is only because I have so much to think about. I am being what you would call introspective. If you had not saved me the unthinkable would have happened. Now I am in a place where I am loved, and wanted and cared for. I have plenty to eat, new friends and a soft place to lay my head. The difference between what could have happened to me and what you made possible just takes my breath away.

I send you all big hugs! Love, Libra

Update # 3