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A Retirement Community and Rescue Home for Horses
Contents 
Our Current Situation
The folks at HorseBiz have been a tremendous help with our software. Please visit their website at this link If you own a Ford tractor the folks at the N Tractor Club are the greatest.
Visit Our Friends at WWW.MyTractorForum.Com lot's of all around wisdom and friendly people there.
DUE TO FINANCIAL HARDSHIPS CAUSED BY OUR ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGE WE WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO TAKE ANY ANIMALS. PLEASE PRAY FOR US WHILE WE TRY TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. As a respectible horse rescue we are responsible for the care and health of all the residents at Patch of Heaven. Each horse is visited by a Veterinarian who inspects the animal's general health and provides advice on any treatments needed. If need be a Dentist will visit and treat the animal. The Farrier is here every six weeks to treat anyone needing his attention, in between his visit I do normal trimming and grooming. Once a horse is ready to move on to a new home we must insure that the new home is a safe place for them with a loving family waiting for them. For those that will live out their retirement here we are responsible for making sure they enjoy their stay here. Penny for example, is a beautiful horse but nobody wants a 31-year-old horse. She is loved here, is comfortable here and has plenty of friends to play with. We have discovered that operating a Horse Rescue is not cheap or easy. Trying to run the house, hold a full time job, pay our bills, run the farm, feed and care for the horses. This all adds up, and adds up quickly. If we continue sliding into debt it will get to the point where the horses and our family will start to suffer. If it gets to the point where we have to sell some of the horses, well we can't, they are here because nobody wants a horse they can't ride or is to old. That leaves us with the option of selling to a slaughterhouse or swallowing our pride and asking for help. We WILL NEVER sell to a slaughterhouse, so we are asking for your help. Please!
TV 9&10 did a short story on our horse rescue back in August of 2006, you can view that short video clip by clicking on this picture
A big "Thank You" to all you folks from the Ntractorclub.com forum, and Mytractorforum.com Your donations, advice, offers for help and laughs are greatly appreciated. Thanks also to Brad and Ginny for sending us the correct drawbar so I don't break my tractor again or worse hurt myself.
HorseBiz
N Tractor Club
My Tractor Forum
Donations are always appreciated and welcome. Please use the "Button" to make donations through PayPal it is safe and easy. PLEASE NOTE: YOUR DONATIONS ARE NOT TAX DEDUCTABLE! We are not a 501(c)3 charity, we are not a charity organization of any kind, we have not filed for any type of tax execempt status. We are just a husband and wife trying to make a difference in the world by saving horses. Since my wife lost her job back in July our only funding is my biweekly paycheck, and we pay taxes just like you do. All donations go straight to the horses not some book keeper or secretary.
Sierra don't know a whole lot about her. We are told she is in her mid teens, we will have the dentist check. She was in with a smaller horse that was very aggresive and wouldn't let her eat, there isn't a problem with that now and she seems to have a good appetite. She gets along with everybody very well, she is mild mannered. Will had more as we learn more.
Captain came to us from our trainer Levi. With the three horses he is training for us he needs to cut down on his herd so Captain has come to live with us. He is a beautiful well trained gelding and will be fun to have here. Captain is not available for adoption, he will be a riding horse for us and our visitors.
Eternal Traveler "ET" is red dun gelding, previous owner said he'll be three this summer. He has lice and tape worms so he will be treated for that in the morning. ET is doing so well that he went to Levi's today for training. From there he will going to a good home.
Miss Charlie is one year old and don't know anything. She has never had any training of any kind. She is very nice and seems to be willing to learn, we will enjoy training her. Miss Charlie has learned alot in the past few weeks. She went to Levi's today to finish her training.
Lilly got her name because she was born on Easter Sunday three years ago. She had her first foal last April, a beautiful petit bay filly with no problems at delivery. She is green broke and has a good start on her ground manners. Her feet and legs are good and so is her appetite, we are hoping she will start putting some weight on now that the foal is gone. We will update as we learn more about her. Lilly has been given a clean bill of health and went with ET and Charlie to visit the trainer. Levi really likes her and agrees that she is 6 years old.
Ribbon will have to have a dentist look at her teeth because we are not sure how old she is. Her ground manners are ok. She minds well but tends to throw her head when being ridden. We are going to change her bit and see if that helps. Her legs are good, feet look good and she to has a good appetite. She came from a place where she was the bottom of the pecking order so she got pushed off the feed alot. More to come as we learn more.
Daisy is about 25 years old and walks with a limp. We haven't been able to determine the cause of her limp yet, she still had shoes on when we first met her and they have since been removed and her feet trimed. Hopefully with her feet trimed she will be able to walk better. The farrier will check in on her again next weekend.
Molley Molley went to a new home Sunday, she is Angies baby now.
Congenial Ash Ashy is a registered Quarter Horse AQHA #2954117, her sire is Mr Congeneiality and her dam is Continental Ashley. She is a brood mare. She has a knob on her left front knee, it does not seem to bother her, she doesn't favor it or limp. She likes to be dominate in the pasture.
Bronson was brought in with Tonto, he is a red Morgon gelding. He too is very underfed. The vet has floated his teeth and tell us the Bronson and Tonto both will be ok if they don't put weight on to fast. There owner said to "take them or I'll shoot them". Now we need to find a way to make them a shelter before winter.
Bronson's New Picture This is a new picture of Bronson taken November 18th 2007. As you can see his regaining his weight nicely.
Fences
. We currently have a seven-acre pasture that is fenced with electric wire and t-stakes every twenty feet (there is no barbed wire anywhere on our property). This needs to be changed to a wood fence. We have a second five-acre field that we plan to plant and harvest hay on. For this we will need a plow and disc. With five horses and a seven acre pasture we do a lot of hay and supplemental feeding. We need to harvest our own hay. This will make life better for the horses and cut the cost of feeding.Horse Barn. We have cleared away enough of the overgrowth to have located the foundation of the original live stock barn. I have cleared the debris from the foundation and have run water and power lines. The next step is to build a ten foot by thirty foot building on this foundation. This will be a three sided building too allow the horses to have free entry during bad weather or other dangers. The side walls are in place but we have not been able to finish the roof as of yet. This project is also coming along slowly as a result of my COPD and available funds.
Farm Equipment. We started with a 1949 Farmall Cub. It didn't take long to realize that this was not enough of a tractor to work the fields with. We sold it recently and used the money from its sale to buy a 1940 Ford 9N. We have a six foot landscaping rake that mounts to the three point hitch and works just fine. I have also made a 3 point bale spear that works for moving small round bales into the barn. We need a lot of implements for this tractor. I have built a 6' snow blade that mounts to the front of my 1940 Ford 9N without using the 3-point hydraulics. The "N" Tractor Club has a "How-To" document that shows how I built it. I have also picked up a two way dirt scoop and a 3-point cultivator for our garden.
1940 Ford 9N Tractor Was purchased because the farm out grew our little Cub tractor. We've had to replace all four tires, and three rims. I broke the center housing and replaced it with one from a 1952 Ford 8N. Added "Zane" position control to hydraulics. Added sway bars, trapazoid hologen headlights, 1,800lbs winch, new governor, fuel guage, horizontal exhaust, tire chains. It will soon have the water pump and distributor changed.
The House. A 1900 stone farmhouse that is in great shape but it was never insulated. I have stripped all the first floor interior walls to the studs and put in fiberglass insulation. Replaced most of the wiring with new 12/2 romex, new switches and outlets also. The living room walls I have redone with 6 inch maple planks that I cut from trees in the back forest. The kitchen walls are redone with plywood to make it better for hanging cabinets and cupboards. This is moving along very slow with all that?s going on outside the house. My wife is real happy about her new kitchen. A pantry, cupboards and cabinets were donated by Steve S. I drove down and picked them up Friday and spent Saturday and Sunday installing them. Her kitchen still needs some finish work but is coming along nicely now. Did I mention how much I love her?
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Patch of Heaven Horse Rescue
is located in Coleman, Michigan. A small farm that has a 106 year history with horses. The oldest date we can place on the house is April 17th, 1900. We are trying to restore the original farm and also provide a horse rescue for all the injured and unwanted horses in our area. Back to top
We try to check our email every morning, please forgive us if time does not allow us to respond promptly.
Web address: Patchofheaven.8m.com
Our NEW Phone Number: 989-465-9459
Mailing Address: 4189 North Coleman Road, Coleman, Michigan 48618
Email Address: Patchofheaven@att.net
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For myself (Dan), after finishing my day job, I am a jack-of-all-trades. I do all the repairs and renovations on the house, barn, truck, tractor and land. From flashing the chimney to trenching water and power lines to building shelter for the horses. We can not afford to hire this work out so I do it all myself. I am well versed in mechanics, carpentry, plumbing, construction, electrical, electronics and on some nice occasions helping our two daughters with homework or scraped knees. My hobbies include wood working, welding, hunting, gun smithing, reloading and marksmanship. Running a horse rescue keeps all my skills honed and sharp (it's fun and I love it).
The woman of the house (Karla) is a very busy woman. She cooks, cleans, pays the bills, and negotiates horses coming in and going out. She cares for the animals that are here and for the ones that can't get here. Probably her hardest task is to give me direction. Did I mention how much I love her? She likes to make baby blankets and watch her fish tank.
Our oldest daughter Jean graduated high school this year and is working as a certified nurses aide. Her hobby is talking to her boy friend on the phone and riding horses.
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Last Revised: April 29th, 2008
