Orion

YAY! He's grown! He is on the tall side of 14.3 now! I know he will make 15 hands! HE'S ALMOST THERE!!!!! I was able to go see him again and visit while he ate dinner. He was pretty happy to see me and followed me around like a puppy. He even got in trouble with Annie, another horse, because he followed me into her stall. I'm really happy to see he's doing well. Maybe he'll be able to hold his own against the pony this year!

Orion

I was finally able to see Orion for the first time in two weeks today! He was so happy to see me and followed me into the barn from the pasture. I spent twenty minutes grooming him while he ate a snack before the herd came in an tried to get his hay. After that i have to spend more time defending him than brushing him. Finally i threw everyone hay and they were content long enough to finish brushing him. With the surgery happening just 1 week ago i have another 5 where i cannot do much and another few after that when I can start riding lightly and getting back in the groove. I can't wait!

Out of commission for a while! :-(

Monday night I went into the hospital feeling pains in my abdomen. All day I had been feeling the pain, but it got worse after I almost hit a pheasant while driving to the Bay Club to work. The pain worsened after that, and I ended leaving work early and going to the hospital. The doctors though it to be acute appendicitis but after opening me up they found a pool of and discovered that I had a an ovarian cyst that had burst. They fixed me up and finally sent me home late Wednesday with the instruction of staying home for the next few days, no lifting anything, and not much movement besides a little walking! Bummer!

Brandt and Traven

Last Saturday some friends, Brandt and Traven came over to ride the horses. Traven rode Orion while Brandt rode Lenanna. They spend three hourse running around. It was snowy out and I froze to the bone for the most part... until they decided that it would be fun to run me over. It was pretty cute to watch the brothers attempt to ride my horses, and my horses did really well, taking the abuse. Hopefully next spring they'll will be back!

Snow!

The horses enjoyed a run through the new snow on Saturday. Lenanna and Sirrocco where galloping everywhere kicking up their heels while Orion enjoyed the first of his new food source, hay! After a while the wind picked up and most of the snow was blown away. But hopefully it will warm up soon enough and we will be able to ride without freezing!

Jobs, anyone?

Right now I have begun to look for horse jobs outside of Alaska for next summer. After riding and training at Meadowview I have decided that working at a stable would not only be a fun job and good pay, but it would also be great experience and help me to be better qualified for college in Dillon, Montana. I have been looking at several states and have found a few places that have offered to take me in. It would be really fun to go but my big delema is where should I go and what do I do with MY horses?

MY HORSES AREN'T FAT!

There is no such thing as feeding too much hay in the late fall! Lately i have had a few comments about how obease my horses are, but judging by how fit and strong they are going to come out in the spring, i would say they're perfect! Lenanna weighs about 1,070 lbs right now which if she were in mid-summer i would say she was huge, but intead she comes out at about 960-985lbs and the last 2-3 ribs can barely be felt. Many horse owners try to keep a horse that weighs 1000 lbs in mid summer at 1000 lbs throughout the year, but they have to pump so much food into that animal, and they still come out skinnier.

Letting a horse beef up before winter really helps with their system as well. That what they do in the wild and i think that it would be wrong to mess up the natural way completely.