The gift of giving and recieving

This Christmas was great! I can't say I have had that much fun with my family, good company and friends in a long time.

Christmas eve we went to my cousin Pam's house like we do every year. We eat delicious food until we can't walk. Then we lie around and sleep (AKA: a fat attack, when you eat so much so fast you just want to lie on the floor in pain until it digests) then we get up and eat some more. Oh we also play "chinese christmas" This is great game.
See everyone brings a $10 gift. You wrap it and address it to:? from:? then the fun begins. Everyones name is put unto a hat. The first person can pick any gift in the game and unwrap it. They then pick the second persons name. The second person can either steal the first persons item they unwrapped or pick from the pile and so on. We have one rule so the game does not go on all night. An item can only be stolen three times before it stays with that person permanently. Of course we always work the system. My cousin Pam is going to Florida in a month. Shes got a lot of plants. She unwrapped these aqua globe things that automatically water your plants for a few days. Her daughter Melissa stole it so I clued her in that was the gift I had wrapped only instead of two there were six of them in various sizes. She got what she wanted after all.

We also played a game my nephews own for the wii called outdoor challenge. It has a mat and you by yourself or with another person can play these games. Let me tell you it's a riot! My cousin Rob was just about ready to keel over he kept on playing the game so much he was breaking a sweat. When him and my aunt Donna tried to do the cooperative game they ended up just trying to shove each other off the mat or barking orders on how the other one was doing it wrong. To think we brought the game for the kids to play!

Eventually we made our way home only to be woke up at the crack of dawn by my nephews asking when we were going to be over so they could open their presents. My sister explained that two of them had been awake since 5 am. Geeze! I am starting to realize what greif I gave my parents at that age.

We unwrapped gifts and everyone got what they wanted from me this year. My mom got a new sewing machine, my dad got his motorcycle manual and some other stuff for his truck/motorcycle, my sister got some clothes and a hairdryer, her husband got a bluetooth from me and a lunch pail, my nephews got (each separate) a skateboard for one, a bunch of golf stuff for the other and two build a bear certificates. That was just from me. Lucky, spoiled kids.

I got lots of horse stuff and so many books. (sorry the image is blurry and all the stuff is put away)
I love books, especially if they are horse books or braiding/knotting books. I do enjoy a good novel or biography though.

I got two books on poltergeists and haunted houses, a leather braiding book, a braiding leather for fun book, a novel called goose girl from Jo and a fantasy novel of some kind that is new and I haven't heard of it.

The computer chair all that stuff is sitting on was much needed from my sister, her husband and my nephews. Sarah adopted it since I was going to chuck it in the trash. By the way she just started blogging you all should go visit her blog. She is a very kind hearted girl who loves all animals, including her new rescue dog, Val and a very talented young artist who has illustrated a book!

I got a much needed black saddle pad for Indigo for shows when I ride her English, some show sheen to keep her mane de-tangled and her rump less muddy.

I got these boots from my parents. They are muck boots for the X number of stalls I do on a daily basis. Not many people around here wear these but the one barn I work at, the manager also works at the only tack store within an hour from here and she has had a pair forever and swears they are like wearing a pair of bedroom slippers and they are super waterproof and super warm. All of which I needed. I figured I would try on a pair and put them on my tack shop wish list.
Wadda ya know, she was right. I was out from 7 am till 6 pm yesterday trudging through snow in which my toes would have been frozen in my other rubber boots and even though my face and hands were frozen off from watching Faith (Murdo's oldest granddaughter and my shadow) ride bareback around the driveway in 30 kmph winds, I was super warm. Crazy horse loving kids wanting to ride on crazy day's. I guess double riding bareback with me the day before wasn't enough horse time for her.

I got this cool squishy, flower curry comb for Indigo and a daily calendar, some clothes from my sister and my favorite, along with the boots, A NEW LEATHERMAN!! *squee*
As some of you have read I Lost a member of my family this fall. My leatherman original, a dinosaur of leatherman, but I still used it several times a day, fell into a river and was never to be seen again. When I did the post ten things I could not live without in the barn it made number 2, right after my trusty, dusty Blundstone boots.
See, my old original you had to open it to get the knife out. This one it's on the ourside and everything else is on the inside, like the screwdriver, can opener, pliers/wire cutters, scissors etc. Theres two knifes, a saw and a file on the outside. I have to say the knife is sooo sharp I've used it so many times. I must have cut open 20 or 30 bales of hay at least today and I don't even have to press the blade into the twine and it flies off. Time to retire the crappy dull fishing multi tool *coughpieceofjunk* back to the fishing tackle box.
Thank you, thank you thank you (again I know haha) to the person who got me this and the calendar, he knows who he is, who also got my mother a wonderful boquet of flowers and made her weekend.

I also got a ton of chocolates and horsey stuff from all the people I work with and for at various barns. I would say Christmas is a great time of year to recieve and more importantly give. I need to downsize my saddle collection and I think the local theraputic riding facility would love to have it, then I would be down to five saddles. I thought I had five before but I forgot the other kids western saddle I had leant to a friend. Sheesh no wonder I am hard to shop for horsey things for I have five of everything!

What did you all get for Christmas. What did you give?

I hope everyone has a happy new year! I know I will.

Sunday stills: Odds and ends

Odds:

I haven't a clue where this glass came from. There was nothing around it that it could have come off of. It's quite big.

and


Ends:

har har har. This poor appy girl got the short end of the genetic stick as you can see from her obvious lack of fly swattage.

See more over at Sunday stills I hope everyone had a good christmas and have a happy new year. I know my Christmas was one of the best I have had in a long time and the new year sounds promising. Be on the lookout for a christmas haul post.

Mare-E-Christmas!

Merry (or Mare-E as we write at the barn) Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday, surrounded by loved ones and of course, a horse (or two or three or four or.....)

Christmas horse cookies!

Every Christmas for the barns that I work I make horse treats. Lots and lots and lots of horse treats. As some of you might remember the Nickers and neighs treat recipe. They are great, however when one has 30+ horses to make treats for one goes for the easiest recipe.

This year I asked my 4-H group if they would like to make and sell horse treats at one of our events. They were so excited to be baking horse treats. The little church down here by my house let us use their kitchen since it is certified and our food (even though for horses) would be sellable.

Long story short we sold out of treats by the end of the day! WOW those are a lot of horse cookies. We sold a little bag of approx 10 cookies for $1 or 3 bags for $2. The girls (cause theres no boys in our horse club the girls pick on them, poor things) made up this rhyme "Horse treats a bag for one or three for two, people can eat them and your horse will love them too!" They ran around with boxes of cookies shouting this at the top of their lungs at an event with over 1000 attendees. This is a very good example of how 4-H encourages public speaking (or yelling) they did that all on their own they were pumped to sell all the treats they had made.
Well yes, the cookies are technically for horses but as we were in the basement of the church cooking I went to grab some stuff upstairs. I come back downstairs to a complete giggle fest. I guess I had mentioned that I usually taste the horse treats I bake if it's a new recipe. That is exactly what the girls were doing, daring each other to eat horse cookies and they did. They wanted more! Hahha I had to remind them that they were for the horses at our event and not to eat. They want to make them again this year they were so excited!

I used to roll out and cut each cookie with a cookie cutter but after a quadruple batch of cookies and double that this year I really did not feel in the mood to cookie cut. I flattened the dough into a cookie sheet and scored it.

Here is the easy, peasy recipe I use. A single batch makes about one cookie sheet if you flatten it into the sheet and score it like I did.

1 cup of apples or carrots, grated (we use carrots because its easier)
2 tablespoons of oil (corn, vegetable, wheat germ, sunflower etc)
1/4 cup of molasses
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of oatmeal or bran
1 cup of flour
(depending on where you live you might need to add a teeny bit of water, like 1/8 of a cup)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Mix dry ingredients then wet and carrots/apples. Mix well with hands because it's no fun unless you get to stick your fingers in the gooey mess. Plus it gets too thick for a spoon or those useless egg beater dough hook gadgets. If it's too dry add little bits of water gradually.

Grease a cookie sheet (we didn't have any crisco so I oiled and floured my cookie sheet) roll out dough and start shaping it into the cookie sheet. You want the treats about 1.8 of an inch thick or they don't become crunchy. You can get really creative and cut out the cookies individually or you can be lazy like me and score them into bite sized squares.

Bake 350 for 15 minutes. Once done take out and break apart promptly. They will feel smushy still. Don't worry! When they cool they harden. Horses love their crunchy taste and they last forever! A lady came up to me the other day at a barn with some forgotten cookies I made last year. She asked me if they were alright I told her they looked fine, no mold but I wouldn't feed them to her horse just in case.

Voila, there you have it. Easy and cheap horse cookies for probably less than $1 of supplies you probably already have around your kitchen.

Enjoy your Christmas eve.

Macro Monday

I originally had this in Sunday stills but I think it fits better under macro Monday.

Someone is getting a nice new set of sleigh bells for Christmas. I am very tempted to get a set for myself. They are graduated and sound so nice.

Sunday stills: Holiday lights and decorations

So I am a bit late for Sunday stills this week. I was in the city all day and haven't had time much during the week so I will show you some of my wrapping and festivities.



The cordless phone got it.
See how much trouble Jo and I get into when we are wrapping and no one else is home. (with flash, eeuugh how did that happen!?)

Then I stowed it in the cookie cupboard before going out to a movie.

I get home and I hear my mom and dad looking for the phone. Dad finds it, mom starts laughing and asking why on earth I do these strange things. I am thinking sooner or later I am gonna get pranked bad because I am always the one pulling tricks on people. Just another day at my place.

The mound of presents that are not completely all wrapped yet. I really should put some under the tree but I know my nephews will start shaking the ones addressed to their name as soon as they spot them. They sure got spoiled by Aunt Sydney this year like always.

Oh and of course it would not be the holidays without telling Santa what you want for Christmas (a pony like always!) My older sister Jessica and I. Santa called her by name but he seemed to have forgotten mine. I am probably gonna be getting road apples in my stocking this year.

Happy holidays everyone. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful -insert what you celebrate here-

Whatcha see there Indigo?

Snow!

I hate snow.

I do want to use my new-old sleigh I bought this summer, go tobogganing, maybe four wheeling/snowmobiling. The neighbor had his four wheeler out today. There isn't enough but after the snow we are supposed to get tonight I bet I can drive Indigo tomorrow with my sleigh.

Snow toes

Indigo stepped right on my foot print.


I got up bright and early this morning to line drive Stormy for the first time.
It went well, only afterwards she misplaced her foot right on top of my toes. I have been having trouble with this one toe that has this callous right on the end from my summer work boots being a tad too narrow and small. I have to say between the cold and the toe getting squashed it felt like the toenail was going to fall off. All in a days work right?

Normally I don't ride Indigo too much in the winter. It's cold and icy and often dangerous because Indigo is wound up like a top and the risk of slipping is great. I've decided this winter I am going to improve my bareback riding skills and ride her a few times a week bareback, even if it's only for a few minutes and at a walk/trot. I am not fortunate enough to have a riding ring (or round pen anymore, RIP it was a noble sacrifice for the new laneway). I just have the wide open fields and laneway's.

So Indigo and I start going back the laneway.
They are putting three wind turbines on the farm which is quite exciting. They made a whole new really nice, flat laneway.
First she spots the porta potty. Shes seen a stinking porta potty 5462167389 TIMES!!! She slams on the breaks, puts her head high as if to say "Why is it there!? That do not belong there!" She was doing these two little snorts the whole ride, every time she exhaled she would do this little snort snort. It was funny.

We get past that then she sees THE HORSE EATING CRATER OF DOOOOOOOOMM!
AKA: the hole where the first turbine base is going to go.

Shes like "It's going to swallow me up, it's gonna eat me!!" *snort, snort, snort* I go "it isn't gonna eat you" Indigo does her hop/head toss she does when she is having a bout of Indigo-itis. I holler for her to knock it off and she does.
Once we got past that we eventually had to go back. Same drama. What a goober. She'll get over it eventually.

Heres a picture of a cement base this morning. It is huge but they are going to be putting the dirt back around it. I guess you can farm right up underneath them within a few feet. No turbine yet but a farm down the road has the blades and the centers are there. I got stopped as they were turning in with one of the blades. It's almost three semi truck trailers long! They have police escorts and all.

I hope tonight it will snow more since this stuff stuck around today. I want to go tobogganing and use my sleigh and even drag people around on horse back, known as "neighbogganing".
Then it can all f-off back to Alaska.
The waterer hasn't frozen yet so no bucketing there. I got totally soaked at my one barn by a pipe that got broken and had to carry buckets X2 for 23 horses.
How many more days until spring?

Photography and horses

Photography and horses. I guess you could call them an obsession of mine. There is rarely a day I don't touch my camera. If I go a day without my horses there is REALLY something wrong, considering they need to eat (and poop which is what I am constantly moving around).
I have learned how to use my camera from my love of horses. From my photography of horses I have paid for my camera.
I want to share with some of you things I have learned about getting good horse photographs and using different settings on my camera.

If your camera is capable of it, shoot in RAW- I guess this can be quite debatable but basically RAW is a digital negative of an image. You can't actually view it on anything other than the camera unless you have a program to specifically edit these images. For instance I use Adobe's light room. You can adjust the sharpness, tone, contrast, filter, white balance, exposure etc.
Sure some of you are going "but I can do that in photoshop with a JPG" True but you are very very limited in how much before the picture really looks obviously photoshopped. Of course the downside to this is that RAW images take up more space. Because of this I have many GB of memory cards. I have saved many a bad image that was too dark or oversaturated by shooting in RAW.

Read your camera's manual- I can't say this enough, the camera people for the most part know what the heck they are talking about. At first when I got my good DSLR I was running around in auto snapping pictures. Sure some turned out alright but they lacked a lot of good lighting since I hate using flash. Once I read the manual I learned how to adjust the settings and now I rarely ever use auto for anything other than joking around with friends.

Focus- Especially for horses because they are prey animals they are always on the move. Most cameras, even point and shoot have several different points of focus. Mainly you can have one shot , AI focus and AI servo. The difference between them is easy. One shot is a single fixed point of focus usually left, right or center. If your horse happens to be made of stone that is great. AI focus is a focal point that continues to move with the subject if it's slowly. I use this the most. Say a horse is walking in a field it will follow it making little adjustments accordingly. AI servo is a faster version of AI focus say for a horse galloping in a field.

ISO- Since a lot of you here have point and shoot and are taking pictures to blog I will explain ISO. Most cameras, even point and shoots have an adjustable ISO setting. ISO basically is how much light is allowed into the camrea in order to take a picture. The lower the ISO speed the less "noise" (grainy, pixelated etc) there will be in the final picture. For fast moving photographs indoor with bad light 800-1200-1600 are good examples. Experiment. A well lit photograph in which the subject is slowly moving use a lower ISO like 100. Remember with lower ISO (100 for example) there is a longer exposure time so you will want to use a tripod or your image will be blurry. Of course everyone is different and uses different ISO for different reasons.

Surroundings and backgrounds- I can't count the times I took a photo of a horse next to a building (think Indigo, white horse next to red barn) and the horse turned out a funky colour. Sure the horse may have been in the right pose or the right place but in the case of making highlights show up on a horses coat the surroundings can make or break a picture, even if they are not in the frame.
Like this picture it was early morning and the sun was behind me, which would have created some pretty dramatic shadows on Naigens face. I stood her next to a big white arena door to the left in the picture.
They can help or hinder your subject.
I did not take this picture of Naigen and I but I can tell you the sun was not to the right of the picture, a big white barn was. It was about 4 pm in the summer last year. Everything is overexposed compared to other pictures taken 10 feet away from there that day that turned out nicely because it was not bouncing off of that freshly painted barn.
Now on an overcast day that white barn might be your best friend by placing a dark horse next to it to get highlights instead of shadows.

Backgrounds. Be aware of what is in the background. Distracting backgrounds and ruin an otherwise good image like this one of Sonata that I have since photoshopped the trailer, shed and car in the background out before selling the image. Eyes and ears- For humans this is an easy one. Our ears do not move. Most mammals however do. Always focus on the eyes but when photographing a horse be aware of which directions the ears are swiveling. You want your sharpest focus on a horse (unless you are focusing on lets say, hooves) to be his eyes. Having said that you want his ears pointing in the direction he is looking, which should be forward most of the time. An example is this picture taken a few years ago on my old razr cell phone of Indigo. Shes got one ear on me and the other pointing towards two cats duking it out behind her in the photo.

Look with both your eyes- I have to admit I see about 90% of people that are taking a picture do the one eye open, one eye shut deal. If you went your whole life with one eye open imagine all the stuff you would miss. It's like driving the car with a bunch of blind spots on one side and not the other. You are going to miss a lot of cars coming your way. It may seem confusing at first but every single one of the photo's I really like that I took I had both eyes open. It allows you to see the full picture, not just what your lens shows you.

There ya go. A little that everyone with a camera here can put to practice, not necessarily all on horses either.

almost Wordless Wednesday

Who is the real poo pile princess here?

Macro Monday: Shiny my meme

How I love shiny things.
I love shiny so much I used to have a collection of shiny things (secretly, it's still around here someplace).
I love this ribbon. I had to buy it and then I wrapped Indigo's brow band of her bridle in it. I love the rainbows of colour the light makes.
I also love prisms of all sorts of shiny, pretty glass.
My grandmother used to have a new yorker pentagon hood ornament thing hanging from the window in her breezeway. In the summer I used to lie on the floor and put my hands under the rainbows, fascinated by all the colours.
Things I buy, jewelry wise, are usually depending upon the shiny factor. Like I bought a necklace the other week that was made of blue glass beads. Now I honestly don't think I have anything to wear with it but I'll find something cause it's shiny. Or maybe it'll just sit on my lamp, hanging and being shiny.
I forgot to add, my aunt (as seen in comments as "Creeper Aunt") made a point a few years ago about my shiny "obsession". She said it must be because I am a dragon, being born in 1988.

Sunday stills: Technology

Technology. I could take a million pictures of the electronics I have built and that I own but thats kind of boring, even though the computer I am using right now, the tower does glow several different colours.

Instead technology allows me to capture moments like these.

Because of technology I can cut a foot off my hair and show you all before and after pictures. I did this just this morning.

Before pictures, front and back. Gee, technology got the worst of me I swear I make the stupidest faces in pictures no matter what.It looks a lot worse in the before because it was wet. I just got home from doing stalls Saturday morning, took a shower and put my pajamas back on...for a few hours before I had to drive carriage in the city.

I handed my mother my Nikon, showed her how to focus. She presses the shutter button and like many others and goes "oh my gosh what just happened" I laughed. She took 6 pictures in a second and a half. I think she needs a little more practice but she enjoys cameras a lot.

My whole idea was to donate it to cancer. Unfortunately I had highlights some two or more years ago put into it and you can't donate it because it can't be used for wigs when it's been dyed. One more cut is a foot closer to being able to lop the majority of it off. I can grow my hair back, someone who has cancer may not be able to and can enjoy it and get more self esteem from it than I ever could. Plus like my hairdresser mom says "it's hair it grows back".

So here it is, digital photography, my technology.

Wordless Wednesday

First snow

Have I mentioned I am really not a winter person. I like warmth, swimming, riding with a tank top on, bonfires, swimming at the beach with my horse and lying around in shorts and sandals etc.

However the winter has a kind of cleansing effect on the earth. Everything goes dormant and when the snow falls it is white and crisp and pure.
I opened my blinds this morning just as the sun was coming up and I see snow falling in huge flakes but not really sticking to the ground much.

This is the first year in a long time I can remember it not being muddy. Everything is relatively flat because we haven't got a lot of rain. Hopefully this means more winter riding for me because the ground will be fit.
See theres snow, just not much to stick. GO BACK TO ALASKA!! (after you snow a lot once or twice so I can drive my new old sleigh and go tobogganing aka: busting my ass on a piece of plastic just to get the thrill of whizzing down a hill at speed)
Although I hate the snow I love tobogganing and wheeling snowballs at my friends and making snow jumps and jumping them with my horse, going for sleigh rides and going as we have named "neighboganing" which is really me riding a horse pulling around kids/adults on a sled with a rope. The only rule is if your headed for the side of the barn BAIL!!!

Today I ducked around the side of the machine shed as the snow blew by. Sheba and Indigo were huddled here, smart horses out of the wind.
Heres what it looks like across the field.
Of course there were little snowflakes. I wish I had my other lens on my camera they were hard to get in focus(downfall of 55-200mm lens) being mobbed by Indigo who was licking the back of my jacket and Sheba fogging up my lens by snorting at it.
They didn't seem to mind the snow though with those thick winter coats. They just don't like the wind. I don't blame them.

On the weekend I participated in our small towns christmas parade which usually consists of five or so floats, a marching band or two, our big carriage with santa in it and me riding. Indigo had her humiliating hat on and a BIIIIIIG red bow in her tail.Indigo had red polo wraps on her front legs too and my green saddle pad had mistletoe, holly and this red rope garland around it and a bunch of bells.

At one point in the parade she had a bit of a temper tantrum when she did not want to stand. I forgot to bring baling twine or zip ties to tie the hat on to her bridle. In her frustration she swung her head around and the hat came twirling off her ears and wheeled right in front of her face. It got caught on the back of the carriage before falling to the ground. The guy in the ambulance behind us (sans sirens thank goodness) came running out to pass it to Santa in our carriage.

The thing about Santa was that he had been in the "Harrow hotel" as it has been affectionately nicknamed, but really a bar called shooters. You can see it in the background of the picture with Indigo and I it has the bunch of peaks and trucks parked in front of it. The sad thing is I can name every person who drives those trucks.
We picked Santa up at the door. Apparently he went for a few pre-present giving/parade drinks. Of course everyone inside would think an enebreated santa is hilarious so they all start buying him rounds. In the end he nearly fell backwards out of the carriage getting in and he was wearing john deer work gloves that were black thankfully.

Only in this small town.

Sunday stills: pets

Since you all see my pets constantly I thought I would show you a little different critter.

This is Rikki.

Rikki is a white ferret meaning she is deaf (sometimes they are blind too).

She is the wiggliest subject I have ever taken a photo of and I get more blurred shots than I do still ones.
Here shes trying to dig a hole to china in the cement. Silly woosle, cement does not dig!

Every time I go to visit her she goes crazy and attacks my socked feet before dashing away to plot her next plan to attack my socks, or steal things.

Shes a strange little critter. She steals potatoes, croc shoes, hairbrushes and whatever else she can get her little paws on.

This is her owner and friend of mine, Sarah. Sarah loves this little girl to death and takes her on walks. It's so funny to see peoples reactions to this critter walking on a leash.

Like other peoples pets. This is a family in the neighborhood's dog, Jaxson. He was standing as Sarah scooped up Rikki in fear Rikki would attack the dog. Hes going "what on earth is that thing!?!" Rikki puffed right up it was so funny.

If you want to see my current pets just type in Savanah, Indigo or Keebler into the search and you'll find something. I just wanted to change it up for today.

So here you have it, Pets

bitter sweet memories

It's been a year since the start of the worst month of my entire life.
It seems like it was so long ago and just yesterday my life started to unravel starting with Naigen's death and followed by several other friends and family members dying. This was only followed by an endless string of drama and abruptly halted at January 09, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
I was never an angry or negative person. Never have been but in January I was mad at everything but my horses. Eventually it passed.

To be honest I knew it was December the 4th today, but it never registered that it was really THE FOURTH OF DECEMBER until just now when I walked in and sat down at the computer. I thought about visiting Naigens grave but other things kept me busy, thank goodness.

I've found so many pictures I forgot I had even taken of her. I'll try and post some.

I thought today about little things she did that always calmed me. I never had to worry about her running away when I let her out for grass. She would contently munch and wander and come back to me when I went to go get her.

She never minded being new places. Heres a pretty embarassing picture of me all dressed up in period costume at the john r park for fun and games of the past day. That door open behind us was a pretty dark, scary looking old stall.
Naigen took it upon herself to make it her stall and stood in the doorway and neighed at any visitors walking along the path to her left.
I loved the way she would sigh. You knew everything in her life at that moment was alright. She would inhale twice and then let all her wind out in one long content sigh. Naigen was the only horse I had that I would put in pink. She looked so darn cute and a bunch of little girls were always riding her so it fit perfectly.



Bananas were here favorite treat. The lip smacking sound she made when she ate a banana made me smile. I bought her banana lik-it's and she loved them. Bulk food store made me stock up on dehydrated banana chips, banana candies, banana bread, you name it banana and she loved it.

She was so spoiled. Everyone fed her everything. She was never rude or pushy though but she did have this nicker she would carry on when she knew you had something for her until she got it. It made me give up what treats I had in a second.

You can see her gorgeous long tail here that I worked so hard on to make it, and keep it this long and thick. I have quite the few tricks up my sleeves.
After she was euthanized and lie in the arena Audry and I cut a handful of her tail hair off. I made Robyn (the lady who originally found her), Audry and her granddaughter (who had open heart surgery and learned to ride and confidence on Naigen) each necklaces with an individual silver horse charm. The chains on which the charms hung was Naigen's hair.
Everyone cried when I gave them their Naigen hair necklaces.

I never made one for myself.
I still have the rest of the hair.
I only re-opened the bag I had the hair in last month and ran my fingers through the strands. Her hair always tangled so easily it was always wavy and thick.
I think it's time for me to start remembering my little horse with a piece of horse hair jewelry. I already wear an Indigo necklace often.
What should I make with Naigens hair to remmeber her by?

I think making something finally would be a new good chapter to the end of 09. Already the dark clouds are lifting and I have a feeling this December is going to be better than 08's December. I can only hope as I bundle up and put on my chaps to go face the wind and cold for a night of carriage rides for the BIA in the city. I hope I don't freeze.