New Store!

I now have a new store in which you can purchase products and the proceeds will help pay off Johnny's vet bills!
Visit:
http://www.cafepress.com/equineelegance

Watercolors are up!

Link to see them at the link to your right or at http://colorsforjohn.blogspot.com. All proceeds go to help pay off Johnny's vet bills!

Watercolors

I am trying to figure out how to download the pictures of the watercolor paintings from my digital camera. Should be up soon!

Make a Donation

You may make a secure donation for Johnny's vet bills through paypal at the link below.




If you can't do that, please click on the ads above. A couple of cents will be donated to Johnny's cause. Thank you so much.

Johnny and I---a picture

This is my thoroughbred gelding, Johnny, and I at Rohan Stables in 2004.

Meet my horse, Elusive John

Elusive John is a 22 year old Jockey Club registered thoroughbred gelding.

When I was 8 years old, my friends and I made a deal that we would all save up to buy horses. While the rest of my friends had quit before they had even saved up $10, I kept saving. When I was 16 years old, I paid $630 to buy two horses at a therapeutic riding organization that I was a volunteer for. One was a 21-year-old quarter horse/saddlebred mare named Ella, and the other was my 15-year-old thoroughbred gelding, Johnny. Between the two of them, I had everything that I wanted in my first horse...the gorgeous, huge thoroughbred that only cared for me, and the sweet, quiet mare anyone could ride.

Johnny came to me without a care for anyone. He was depressed, underweight, had a yeast infection, and wanted nothing to do with me. He bit when I picked his feet. He refused to bit. He kicked when I brushed his legs.

The first stable that I moved them to after their purchase, upon recommendation of a friend, fed poor quality hay and had an outbreak of stranges in the herd. Johnny nearly died from the strangles, while Ella got a very mild case. Twice a day my mother would drive me to the stable to heat pack my horse and take him on walks. One day he suddenly changed---he suddenly decided to trust me, and realized that I was his girl.

Both horses also acquired heaves during the three months I was there. As soon as they were well enough to leave, we left. At the new stable, a vet came out and gave Johnny two weeks to live. He was now up to 900 Ibs, from 800 a month before.

Johnny blossomed at the new stable. By the end of the summer he had turned into a beautiful horse. He had reveiled himself as something more beautiful than I had imgined. Ella looked better, too. They were now on nothing but watered down complete feeds (no hay...he will never eat hay again) to control their heaves and weight. Johnny was up to 1200 Ibs., not far from his ultimate weight of 1400.

Once I took Johnny on a ride several miles from the barn. We were walking along the edge of the road when he suddenly fell. Someone had cut the grass to look like it was flat all the way across, but in fact it took a sharp slope downwards. I jumped off as soon as I could. Johnny had a flap of skin hanging from his left hind foot. I knew that I couldn't ride him back, but I was glad nothing was broken. I didn't have a cell phone to call anyone. I couldn't hold the reins to lead him because I wanted to give him free movement of his head. He followed me beside the road walking three miles back to the barn.

I can't even begin to describe everything Johnny has done for me since he began to trust and love me. He will position himself in front of me if horses begin to fight around me. He will stand with me for hours with his head on my shoulder if I need someone to cry with. He stood next to me for two hours as I put my other horse in the ground, on his own will without a halter or rope. He has tried harder and fought harder to be my horse than anyone ever has for me.

He stayed when my first boyfriend left.

He was there for me when I started college and all my high school friends moved away.

He was there again when my nuclear family moved to San Diego after my first year of college, selling the house I grew up in.

He let me cry on him when my house burned down in January and my cat died.

He was there for both of us again a few weeks later, when his best friend, Ella, my beautiful and wonderful now-28-year-old mare passed away. He was beside her as she died.

He was my rock as I moved from house to house, hotel to hotel after the fire had destroyed every reminant I had of my childhood and my sense of self...everything but him.

Johnny recently came down with a neurological disorder. He tested positive at Cleary Lake Equine for EPM in the blood test, and went to the U for further evaluation. He came up with a slight positive in the spinal tap. Radiographs of his neck also showed minor arthritis at all joints.

He was started on Marquis. Shortly after, he began to get much worse. He couldn't walk in a straight line and couldn't hold himself up to sleep. He also got acute laminitus. He is back at Cleary Lake. He is yet undiagnosed; the vets aren't sure if he's having an inflammatory reaction to the dying protists or if the arthritis in his neck is more severe than it seems from the pictures and is possibly pinching a nerve. Right now, we have only to wait and see.

Johnny is my best friend and confidant. He is my whole world. His vet bills are already in the thousands and he is yet undiagnosed. He is currently on DMSO, Marquis, Dexamethasone, banamine, and he occasionally gets some ace. He also gets hugs and treats and despite all this, lots of love. I visit him twice a day in the vet hospital, and will unti he can come home.

I am doing some watercolors in my spare time to try to raise money to pay off some of his vet bills. Please let me know if you are interested in anything. Prices include shipping within the US. They look great framed, and as they are watercolores, can be trimed to fit your frame.
My e-mail is horseygirly2002@yahoo.com