What we've been up to for the last month or so... (Part 1: The Horses)

We have had a very busy end to our summer. It all started when we had to pack up our apartment on top of the three jobs between us, and the six photo shoots that I had to process. So, we finally got our apartment packed up and we took off to Oregon. First stop on the itinerary: Grandma's House!

When I was a litle girl I used to call this house, "Grandpa's Castle." Grandma and Grandpa built this house themselves. It was originally just the A-frame part that you see on the left side of he house, and then they added the rest of it on years later. It always seemed so big to me. In fact, the whole farm seemed so big to me. I guess it really had been a long time since I'd been there (about ten years, actually), because now that I'm bigger, everything seems so much smaller than I remember.

This is the beautiful forest drive up to the farm.

My favorite part of the farm: the horses!!!! (Please, pay no attention to the ugly girl in the pictures. Not my shining moment as far as looking fabulous was concerned.) This is me (ugh) and ol' Huck. He's a good boy, and he looks pretty good for being in his mid-twenties.

Well, he looked pretty good, except for the Rick James hair. His mane was so tangled and full of burs. I would have combed it out, but we didn't have time. That probably would have taken a good two hours to fix his mane. Maddy and I used to spend hours out in the paddocks with the horses grooming them. Unfortunately, this time, Brett and I had to take off. Someday soon, I will go up there again and give all the horses baths and clean out their hooves and brush them to a show-shine. Heck, I might even braid their manes for old time's sake.

Rick James:

Comet is such a sweetheart.

Horses are not very good at taking turns.


My Strider is a handsome boy. Please excuse my terrible, frumpy posture.




Then I took Huck for a ride. He wassn't very happy about being taken out of retirement, so his ears were back the whole time.

We can't forget about our wonderful Skala girl. She's almost thirty! She is the most well-trained horse I have ever riden. You say, "Skala, turn left," and she turns left! You say, "Walk" and she walks, "trot" and she trots. Its awesome. But, she's just so old I felt bad riding her, so I didn't ride her this time. I would have riden Strider, but last time I got on him he threw me and I broke my arm, so.... yeah. Bad idea.

More of our trip when I get home from work tonight!