Spring hay drive!!!

MNRRP SPRING HAY DRIVE

 We are running low on hay and racing season is quickly approaching!

If you support our efforts and believe in our cause, please consider donating. $4.50 covers one bale of hay so anything helps. We are a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible. We'd also be more than happy to accept actual hay donations.

To help you can:

• Send your donation online via paypal - http://www.paypal.com/  using email address donations@paypal.com
• Make your check out to MNRRP mail to Annie Ringwelski - MNRRP 925 Alysheba Rd, Mailbox 323, Shakopee, MN 55379
• Contact us at retiredracehorses@yahoo.com for hay drop off locations.

Minnesota Retired Racehorse Project relies solely on donations and 100% of funds go directly back into the program to support the horses. Please help us continue to give these wonderful athletes a second chance!

Springtime at the Minnesota Retired..... YAK... program?

 Today the thermometer near the fire station in Elko read 62. Sunny skies with a nice breeze. Ahhh spring is here.... finally. After what seemed like an unusually long (and very trying) winter it felt nice to be in a tee shirt. Although I am extremely happy with the warmer weather, I am not so thrilled with the thawing and the mud that comes with it. After battling a flooded barn for nearly a month, it was time to finally get down to digging out. The two inches of water that had covered the entire floor of the barn left a disaster of ruined hay, shavings, feed bags, supplies and 4 saturated stalls. Overall we lost nearly $250 in this flood, pale in comparison to the devastation caused by Japan's tsunami, but unfortunate nonetheless. As a struggling non profit organization, every penny counts for us and $250 leaves a substantial hole.

In addition to the springtime thawing and mud come the shedding horses. You can brush a horse for an hour with a shedding blade and still be pulling off the same amount of hair as when you began. I do believe today I collected enough hair to make myself a fully insulated parka and snowmobile suit. I sure wish there was a market for that - with 8 horses I'd have that cornered.

Anyway you look at it, the horses look goofy. One mare of ours in particular resembles more of a yak  rather than a Thoroughbred. She is currently available for adoption if anyone is interested.







I did do a bit of research on yaks and found them to be very interesting creatures. For example: 



You can go Yakback riding





You can pack your yak





You can have a yaksack race

You can buy matching yak tack





You can have an attack yak

You can race at the local yak track

And you can go to a yak rodeo

I think with the versatility of the yak, I may be on to something here. That said, I'm done yakking. (sorry, I couldn't help it)

MNRRP at the Minnesota Horse Expo

April 29, 30, & May 1

Minnesota State Fair Grounds

MN Horse Expo website

If you live in Minnesota or the surrounding area and plan on attending the Minnesota Horse Expo, make sure to stop by and see us. Instead of having a booth this year, we will be bringing three horses and representing both MNRRP and the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association. In addition we will also be speaking each day at 2pm at the new venue in the cattle barn.

The three horses accompanying us are all MNRRP alumni. Bailey Road, Lucky Ducky, and Cinnaminst. All three have raced at Canterbury Park within the past few years and have been transitioned into new careers. We will be exhibiting in the breed demonstrations daily, sporting English, Western, and Racing tack. We are really striving to promote the versatility of the Thoroughbred.

If you haven't experienced the MN Horse Expo, I strongly suggest it. Imagine three entire days devoted to nothing but horses. Vendors, demos, speakers, a tack swap, and a rodeo.... oh and don't forget the fair food. Yep, corn dogs and cheese curds! You seriously cannot beat that.

If you have adopted a Thoroughbred from us in the past and have an interest in exhibiting at the Expo, it's not too late.  Contact us for details at retiredracehorses@yahoo.com . You will need to pay for your own stalls and care for your own horse. This would be a great way to promote your discipline, our program, and Minnesota Thoroughbreds. If you cannot exhibit, please email us a short story along with photos of you and your adopted horse in their new vocation. Weather it be polo, trail riding, dressage, or pasture pet - we'd love to highlight you.

Make sure to check out the link to the expo website, (You'll find us on the last page of the speakers)
See you at the expo!!!

Embrace Techonlogy!

This past week I've found myself without a computer. The laptop I was using was 6 years old and well past it's life expectancy. After many months of intermittent grinding, it finally died, taking all my photos, documents and contacts along with it. My life seemed to come to a screeching halt. A field trip to Best Buy and a visit with the Geek Squad informed me that I could pay $350 minimum to fix the hard drive and $100 for a data retrieval. Fantastic!

I decided to purchase a new laptop and retrieve data at a later date. Of course I couldn't seem to just pick a computer... I had to shop around, compare prices and performance. Each day that went buy I'd panic thinking of unanswered emails, horses that needed to be placed, bills that need to be paid online etc. FINALLY I couldn't stand it anymore, I broke down and bought a laptop. It's nothing fancy - I went with a larger memory and a slower processor - after all in this economic time I would fall under the category of "horse poor".

So now I'm back up and running. There is so much going on and a lot of news!. I hope to post again tomorrow and share. Stay tuned!