These pintos are wild and except for the older mare, Lady, they have not been use to human contact and have had very little care. For many years they have survived solely on wild grass and a spring for water.
The purpose of this blog is to share their story with you and to raise money for their upkeep.
I will be posting photos and updates about the horses regularly.
"Thunder, Mama, pregnant Polka Dot, Little One, and Sweetie."
(Lady is not in this shot as at that time she was not feeling well and so she would stay back from the rest of the herd.)
This photo was taken a year ago, September 21, 2008 when the pintos first started to visit us. It was a very rainy and foggy day. I was surprised and delighted when they lined up and "posed" for me! Of course my camera had just come back from being repaired and unbeknownest to me the repair folks had set the setting to jpeg so the quality is not great. (For the photo techies out there, I always shoot in raw and so my latitude for improving this image is limited)
For this first blog I will give you a little history.
THE PINTOS VISIT
About 2 years ago I woke up in the middle of the night and heard neighing and discovered that there were a bunch of horses outside my window! I had seen these pintos for some time on the hill next to our property -from afar they looked iconic and majestic.
It turns out the fence was/is down that connects their home to ours. I could not find the owner at that time as he was living out of the area, so I tried to fix the fence but to no avail. For the first year, on rare occasions, one or more of them would come to visit and graze. In the past year they started coming more often, especially Thunder the black and white stallion. He would stay awhile and check us out. Eventually he brought up all the others as you can see in the photo above.
Over a period of time they started visiting regularly and I started feeding them carrots and later added alfalfa squares. Much to my delight except for Thunder, they will eat from our hands...it took about 3 months for all of them to trust us. Now they will eat carrots from my friends and family as well. Thunder is the only one who holds back, but much to his surprise he has taken a few carrots.
It was quite a process learning more about their history and finding the owner. In the meantime, they started to adopt us; now they come over every day for treats and will stay all day, all night or for a short period. We never know when they will show up but their appearance brings us joy!
Not knowing if they had any names, I gave them names. There are 3 mares - Polka Dot, Lady over 30 years old, and Mama; 3 stallions- Sweetie over 2 years old, Little One, about 2 and Thunder 18, the black and white one and the head stallion. By watching their behavior I have determined that Lady is the mother of Sweetie and Mama is the mother of Little One. Last July much to our delight a colt was born "Suki," his parents are Thunder and Polka Dot.
I finally met with the owner and he has given me written permission to photograph them and put them on the internet. He is no longer in a position to care for them and we would like to officially adopt them. Before we can do this, we need to come up with the funds for a vet and to build a fence and a corral.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PINTOS
Living in a small town, I heard all kinds of rumors about these horses. From different sources and the owner, I have pieced together their story.
The owner originally raised minature horses and his wife had the pintos. The wife eventually moved to Europe taking most of the pintos with her. The remaining pintos were left to roam free on lots of land. My understanding is that the parents and/or grandparents of Thunder were registered paints. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to get ahold of the registration papers and so Thunder and the rest of the pintos cannot be registerd. They come from solid stock that has been in this country for many generations. Three of the horses have one blue eye and one brown eye, which is genetic and quite common with pintos.
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
If you are interested in helping us out with these horses there are 2 ways you can contribute to their care:
1)I have a greeting card company and I have a line just for the pintos...all the profits from these cards go in a fund for them. You can purchase these cards at
http://www.photographycreated.com/ in the greeting card section. (Most of the Pinto Cards are on the site although part of the website is still under construction...more images need to be uploaded and more paypal links added. After seeing the site, if you have any questions you can email me at the address below.)
These cards are also for sale at Four Eyed Frog Bookstore in Gualala, CA, at the Cabaline Country Emporium and Saddlery in Point Reyes, CA, and at the Paper Moon in Reno, NV
Or
2)If you wish to contribute directly or know of an animal society that would be interested in helping, you can contact me directly at pa@photographycreated.com
3)Vist this blog frequently for updates and more photos.
My goodness, you are a brave one taking on all those horses. We have 3 horses and a donkey a few miles north of you and they are a big financial burden, but also a joy most of the time!!!
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