My Trip to Calgary

On Sept 7th I flew to Calgary Alberta to help Jan Turnbull and other members of FoalQuest with this years foals for PMU FoalQuest.

Friday night I was met at the airport by Jan's husband Dave. Jan and the others had already left to drive up north to the Friday night sale so I had dinner at Tim Hortons and was in bed early in order to get up to go to the Appaloosa sale the next morning. Glad Calgary is 2 hours behind us!

Saturday morning Leanne picked me up and we drove north up to the Appaloosa sale. I have been to other horse sales before but never one with just foals. All the foals were in pens awaiting auction with maybe 4 - 6 foals per pen. Lots of screaming, but generally the foals were quietly watching the people looking at them.

The auction started and we watched as foal after foal was sent out through the chute to the ring. They were obviously very scared but the men handling them were very gentle with them. This was a long sale as there were lots of foals to sell. Many were lovely colorful foals with nice conformation. Some of the leopard appys went for quite high prices.

Part way through the sale Jan took a few of us to another sale. Some very nice foals at this sale. Especially the sport horse foals. These foals went for quite high prices with several going well over the $1,000. mark. I just drooled! LOL Guess after riding and showing English all these years I am rather partial to the sport horse TB X type foals. :o) Jan didn't buy anything there…no need to.

By the end of the day at the appy sale Jan had purchased several very sweet appy foals and some solid foals as well. Kim, Jan and Jennifer returned the next day (Sunday) to pick them up.

Sunday Karren and I went to Spruce Meadows and saw the last class of the Masters….and shopped :o) Spruce Meadows is a huge place and well worth the visit.

Monday morning bright and early we were on our way to Coaston Ranch where we would be haltering and marking about 80 foals who had been purchased by FoalQuest members. This was sure a major undertaking!. The mares and foals are run through a chute. The foal is stopped in the chute and the mare is released back into the herd. The foal is then haltered and given wormer and has a number clipped on the butt. All the work is done from the outside of the chute between the bars to minimize risk to the handlers and the foals. Foals do try and get out with some trying to jump the top bars in the chute to get back to Mum. At one point Jan was knocked off the platform by a foal and landed on her back. She was pretty sore for the rest of the week and I am sure still is :o(

Fortunately there were quite a few of us there that day. (Kim, Jan, Leanne, Jennifer, Karren, Jennifer2, Cheryl, Leona and myself). Everything went fairly smoothly with everyone doing a job and getting the foals ready for their ride to Jan's. Lots more screaming here as the Mum's were just in the next field. Everyone arrived at Jan's that evening in good shape (except of course Jan and Jennifer2 who got kicked). Thank you Adair and your crew for all your help.

Tuesday we mostly spent watching the unbelievable events in New York on TV. A very sad day for the world. My condolences to all the families and friends of those lost in that terrible tragedy.

Wednesday we went to visit the SC farm and separate the mares and foals who were sold to members into their own group. Jan, Jennifer and Kim had pictures and we watched the mares and foals run through a pen. The ones we were going to keep went one way the ones who were not the other way. Lots of pretty babies here and friendly mares. We walked out in the pens with the mares and petted them. One big black perch mare followed me around for more scratches. Jane D and her husband also met us at SC Farm although her foal would let her get near.

After that we headed to Rocky Mountain House for the auction that night. This sale is at an auction house and several farms were involved. Jan didn't buy any till half way through the sale but then bought about 12 -14 foals, mostly QH , fijord X, and a few draft X's. This auction as at the Appy sale the feedlot man was there. It was sad to know which were going with him and I only hope that maybe a few of the babies he took will be sold later to private individuals. The next foal I get will defiantly be bay or brown as no one wanted them even though they were just as nice as the colored ones. I wish I could have bought one there :o(

Thursday we were off early again…very little sleep this week. This time we went north to the HF Farm. We arrived and were fed a delicious lunch. After lunch, when the vet had arrived we went to work. With the help of the owner and his son and some friends and the 5 of us(Jan, Kim, Karren, Jennifer and myself), we got coggins and haltered and clipped numbers in butts of 37 more foals. They were all loaded in the trailers and sent home to Jan's. We all arrived back at Jan's well after dark and had to unload in the dark.

Friday I went to Jan's and helped feed and took more pictures. Then Dave drove me back to their airport. I was one of the fortunate ones and my flight left Calgary only an hour and a half late. I got home at 2:00 am.

This was defiantly a learning experience. I have never seen so many horse trailers and horses as I did in my time in Alberta. Wow! Everyone was very nice. The farmers were very helpful and seemed genuinely happy that we were buying their foals. My impressions of the farms are that they are well run by caring people and I didn't see any horses that were not well cared for and well fed. The barns were neat and clean, stalls had lots of room for any of the mares to lay down in. The mares themselves seemed happy and relaxed although a bit stressed at weaning time but that is normal. Some of the mares just walked away and never looked back, guess they had been there before.

I felt bad for the foals left behind that didn't get adopted this year as I know some will go to feedlots. But at least we are saving some and maybe next year more :o).

Soon all the foals, well over 200 will be on their way to their new homes. I wish everyone good luck with their babies. If it were not for the FoalQuest group all these babies would be on their way to the feedlot now.