Horses and Pain!

Me, helmet, my new saddle, Poco (front) and Sassi

This isn't house sitting related necessarily, but it's about animals so I thought I'd share anyway.  Almost 2 weeks ago I went horseback riding with a few friends and had quite an eventful day.  I had a riding lesson on a Missouri Fox Trotter, Sassi (picture below), who is just that!  She got a little frustrated and impatient with the lesson and decided to rear up!  I have yet to experience that on a horse to this point, but figured my time was due.  Luckily I did everything right and stayed on, but it was pretty scary and exciting all at once.  Little did I know what else would be coming...

We went to Dimple Dell afterward to trail ride and ended up having quite the frightening adventure.  I was initially riding Sassi, who I have to briefly describe.  She's an English breed so her gait is very unique.  Her walk and trot is so smooth you feel like you are gliding; you barely move, which is so different than the typical bounce of the trot on a Quarter Horse.  Her gallop is interesting too, also smooth but different.  Her breed types are used in endurance racing so she has sooo much energy and can go on forever.  As we started our trail ride she would gallop ahead a hundred yards, turn around and run back to the other two riders and then turn around again.  She is like an attention deficit child on a walk with elderly adults.  It is super fun!

Sassi-Missouri Fox Trotter-and me!

Anyway, back to the frightening adventure...so halfway through our ride I switched horses with someone and ended up riding Riley, the Quarter Horse (pictured in a previous post).  Poco (the horse I usually ride) was also there, being ridden by another friend.  The ride was beautiful and so fun, but as we were approaching the end of our ride, a dog barked suddenly and spooked the horses.  All three of them abruptly turned away from the dog and threw ALL THREE of us riders on the ground.  Right before I came off, I realized I might be coming off and kept saying to myself "No, you are NOT falling off this horse!"  I tried to fight it as best I could, but before I knew it I was on the ground rolling, having hit my leg against something.  Riley was much taller and stalkier than Sassi so the thought of coming off (compared to when Sassi reared up) was a lot more intimidating!  I could hear the stomping of his hooves behind me and I prayed he wouldn't accidentally step on me, causing much more severe damage than what I had.  Luckily he didn't, but my leg was in intense pain.  I couldn't talk or move for a good 5 minutes; I just sat there holding my leg rocking back and forth.  I was worried I had broken something and the pain shot up and down my leg.  But after I rested, the pain subsided enough that I was able to get up.  One of the other riders broke her arm, unfortunately in her fall.  After assessing each other's injuries, we ended up all getting back up on our horses and riding back to the trailer, which was only about a 10 or so minute walk back luckily.  The friend who broke her arm ended up at the ER that night, sadly.  Pictures below!

It was cooooold that day! I like Riley's ears at the bottom of the frame.

Me and Sassi; Colleen and Poco

My Leg Injury-Day 1

Leg Injury-Day 3

Leg Injury-Day 5

Leg Injury-Day 9

Ingrid the Bernese Mountain Dog

Meet Ingrid!  She is a beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog.  I adore her.  She is a giant teddy bear; she lets you lay on her belly and envelopes you in her soft curls.  She even looks like a bear.  I've been sitting for Ingrid for a little over a year and she has become my pal.  She came up to my cabin with me last summer, she'd let my foster dog Buddy come stay with her when I'd sit her, and she comes to work with me on occasion.  One of my favorite things about her is her mellow/peaceful demeanor.  We'll go on walks and she'll just saunter down the sidewalk, like she has all the time in the world and no cares at all.  But she loves to play in the snow and water!  When it snows she chases and catches snowballs like a playful pup and lays in it to cool off.  She swims and stands in the water on hot summer days, which is so funny because sometimes the water will be up to her shoulders and she just stands there looking around like everything is totally cool.  And I guess in a literal sense, she is cool!

Pee-Wee and Twinkle

I mentioned a few posts back that I would post some pictures of Erdo's kitty sisters, Twinkle and Pee-Wee.  They are very shy so it was hard to capture the pictures but I have posted them here. 

Pee-Wee

Pee-Wee, the Calico, hides out constantly and will only let me sit in the same room with her; I have never touched her.  From what it sounds like she had a rough life prior to coming to her current owners. 

Twinkle, the Tabby, is funny.  She loves to play with string, as most cats do, but sometimes as we play she grabs this little stuffed banana toy and cradles it in her paws and licks it.  It melts my heart for some reason to watch her nurture this little toy. 

Jax and the Gang of Cats!

I recently pet sit for a special crew.  Jax, the Jack Russell and Fox Terrier mix, holds a special place in my heart because I have known him his whole 8 years of life and is also my therapy partner through my work.  What this means is, his momma let us become certified as a therapy team that gets to visit facilities to cheer up people in need.  In my "About" section you will see our official photograph after we became certified.  We visited the Wentworth retirement center for about a month and cheered up a few stellar elderly women who adored his kisses and lap hugs.  He is a natural therapy dog and trots down the halls of Wentworth like he owns the place and absolutely everyone is watching him in his therapy parade.  He even participated in the R.E.A.D. program for a while, which is the literacy program of Intermountain Therapy Animals (and the program I have the honor of coordinating) where children read to him to help boost their reading skills.  He would get a little antsy doing this though and wanted to just chase the ball around so we decided to find a new niche.  I truly have my dream job! 

Anyway, back to house sitting!  So Jax and I had a LOT of fun because I got to tend him over Halloween.  I borrowed a friend's dog wings and dressed him up as a little butterfly!  We went to a friend's party and he was the King of the Ball.  He would trot around with his stout body and short legs, his wings fluttering, ready to take flight!

Sitting pretty butterfly

There are the wings!  I was a ninja :)

In the pictures above you can see his "Sitting Pretty" pose.  The people he visits at the Wentworth adore that!  He knows he can get whatever he wants doing that pose!  Here is one more of Jax sitting pretty!

One other thing that always gets me is when you talk to Jax.  He really tries his hardest to understand what you are saying.  He cocks his head to one side until you think he's going to flip himself over completely!  I tried to get a good photo but he was always come out of it when I captured it, so the photo below only gives you a very small taste of Jax trying to understand.  And it's so cute because the longer you talk to him, the further he turns his head to understand.

 Jax isn't the only one in this household, though!  He lives with his 4 Burmese kitty sisters: Mocha, Nutmeg, Bluebell, and Ginger.  He's very sweet with them, licking them and cuddling with them, and  sometimes he can be a bit of a big brother bully toward them.  But overall they all seem to love each other.  The cats are beautiful kitties who kind of remind me of the Korat, Kanga I wrote about in an earlier post.  The 2 light kitties are a silver-blue color and the 2 darker are are deep chocolate color, all with big gold/green eyes. 

Nutmeg and Ginger

Bluebell reminds me the most of Kanga the Korat kitty from a previous post

Every morning Bluebell would stand on the table and make this loud, deep, and funny meow like she was trying to shout something out!  Usually she just wanted some love and one on one time.

Bluebell's sister, Ginger: she's slightly lighter in shade and very cuddly

Nutmeg

Nutmeg recently had eye surgery and only has one adorable eye, as you can see here in the above picture.  She is sooooo cuddly.  I would sit in bed ready to read a book and she'd walk right on top of the book and rub her head eagerly against my hand, or the edge of the book, or whatever would rub her.  She's definitely the most outgoing toward me of all 4 of them.

Mocha

Mocha has the most ADORABLE face when with her eyes open.  She looks like a caricature of a kitten, with her big eyes and tiny little nose.  I tried and tried to capture it here, but she kept giving me her sleepy face. Still very cute though!

The kitties, Jax and I had so much fun together!  I always get sad saying goodbye.  But Jax and I will be on our next therapy adventure soon enough!

Erdo!!

Erdo in Neff's Canyon bundled up

You may remember a few posts back when I house sat for a funny boxer named Erdo.  Well, I am now his bi-weekly exercise partner.  He has so much energy (especially for a 6 year old!) that his mom and dad asked if I'd help by giving him some good exercise.  So we go up Neff's or Millcreek canyon a few times a week and go trail running.  We started jogging at the end of October when we started getting our first snowfalls.  Erdo has hardly any meat on him, so he wears a cute dog coat (shown in the picture above) to keep him toasty.  He adores these hikes!  He runs up the mountain playfully a ways and then turns around and runs back to me to make sure I'm still coming.  He made a friend with another dog on the trail.  At first he wasn't sure about her and was quite wary but once he met her and got to know her, he was bowing down in in playfulness.  That's our adventure!

Kanga the Korat

Kanga is an adorable and beautiful Korat kitty.  She's silver-blue in color and her breed originates in Thailand and is one of the oldest stable cat breeds!  Kanga is very small and super playful.  She reminds me of the Burmese cats I house sat for recently (see above blog for pictures).  Kanga lives right by the Lu Lu kitty that I recently posted about and is one spunky cat!  She lives up to her name as she bounds around; when I come over she is very vocal, meowing and running just under my feet as I walk.  I will often sit down on and Kanga will crawl right up into my lap and purr and purr and purr as I pet her. She has a very eager way about her when she wants attention and will shove her cute little head into your hand to help you pet her.  She soaks up the love and gives it back!

Kanga the Korat Kitty :)

Video Riding Poco

Here is a video of me riding Poco and doing some casual barrel trots on my new saddle!  My momma was sweet enough to film it for me. There was another girl in the arena at the time so I had to share the space. :-/

Lu Lu!

This is Little Lu Lu, or also known as Emmie.  I get to visit her when her family goes out of town and recently had the chance to.  She is an adorable Siamese kitty who emerges for the scent of food in the air.  She is not the easiest to photograph as she is always moving, but you kind of see her pretty blue eyes.  She has a funny little walk and meow and loves to be loved.  She has a brother who is a therapy dog through Intermountain Therapy Animals where I work but he goes somewhere else to play while the family is out of town.  I also house/cat sit for their neighbor; post and picture coming soon! :D

Me and Erdo Dog

It has been far too long since I have posted here, especially since there are so many new things to post about! First things first: the next chronological house sitting gig since Maddie and Hootie is with Erdo and his kitty friends, Twinkle and Pee Wee.  Erdo is an absolutely adorable Boxer.  He has some anxiety and fear issues with new people, but he and I bonded quickly and now we (his Mom, Dad, and I) like to joke about how I am his girlfriend since he lays on my lap and won't let me leave (see picture above!) or gives me lots of kisses. :)  I got to play with Erdo and cats in October and it turned out to be a really fun weekend!  Erdo and I went on a few hikes up Millcreek canyon; it was his first time trail running and he had so much fun! 

The second hike was stunning and healing the whole way.  We went to Mt. Aires and the leaves were just in their prime of Gold, Red, and Orange.  There were blankets of Aspen trees draping the mountainside, quaking as they do with Gold leaves shimmering in the beautiful Saturday morning, sunshine air.  I started at the trail head by about 9AM and there was not a soul in site, so it was very solitary.  I met no one on the way up and only 2 small groups on the way down.  This hike was like opening a present: it started out beautiful and as you unwrap it just kept getting better and better.  I remember at a few points I would just stop in awe, with my jaw dropped.  I have included a few pictures, although they don't do the experience justice, but you get the idea.

Starting Mt. Aires Trail.  Erdo isn't too sure about this...yet!

It was just what I needed to heal my soul that day, being up in the crisp air and rejuvenating my body and mind with a sweet pup running ahead.  The further I hiked and the more beauty that was unveiled, the more my heart expanded.  Negativity melted from me with every step I took and by the time I reached the peak, I felt reborn. 

Wow!

Aspens

View on the way up

This is the view of the ridge from below, just before the peak.

When I did eventually reach the peak the sun was streaming through the trees just over the ridge of the mountains beyond. Below is a picture of Erdo at the peak, with the sun coming in from behind him.

Erdo made it to the peak!

And so did I!

Needless to say Erdo and I had fun.  The kitties are more shy so I have not gotten a photo of them yet, but I will try this month as I will be watching them next week!  I'll post them soon.  Thanks for reading!