Thank you Abby!!

I asked my friend to "watch" Denali for me while I'm in DK, and she has had to listen to my detailed list of "what to do if" when it concerns Denali. She is such a great horse, and I can't believe I am leaving her. It breaks my heart. She is going to be in training and my friend is going to ride her so I'm glad she'll be in good hands.

I guess I won't be writing on here. Hard to write about your horses training when you are half way around the world.

Denmark

So we're leaving in two weeks. I've spent the past few weeks just getting Denali to come to me in the field and praising her with love and treats. That's as far as we've gotten. I've gotten on her a few times and she did okay. She has no clue what the legs mean and steers pretty nicely by the bridle. We'll need to change that. I honestly have no clue what I'm doing with her. Lots of help from my trainer, but Denali is a big horse with a big attitude and when she doesn't want to do something, she doesn't do it.

Maybe I should tell people about this...

I realized today that I've been writing on this blog, but have yet to share the address. It would probably make more sense to write a blog and let people read it.Today was pretty crazy. I went to work until noon, and then went to see Denali. She was still super lame. The poor thing hasn't been out of her stall in almost three weeks. She hates being in her stall, but is getting really fat. The only way to keep her happy is to feed her. She's been grazing on grass pellets everyday. She's gone through 200 pounds of them. I figured it's probably about time to stop feeding her so much. She's going to be a porker.She got her feet done today by a different farrier. I really liked her. Denali was misbehaved, as usual, but that's my fault. I need to be more stern with her. I swear she has horse ADHD if that's even possible. She gets really interested in something, and then, barn, she's onto something new. She's the horse version of me. I'm convinced.

I spend so much time on cleaning her up, and brushing her hair, and about five minutes later she's covered in dirt and you'd think that she was a wild pony beast. I left the barn and came home, (after two hours in traffic.) I missed Crew, which made me very sad. Tomorrow morning is my last time before Denmark. I also managed to lock the keys in the car. Thankfully, the husband is an awesome/quick bike rider, and was able to come to my rescue! He's awesome!Well that's it. We're going camping this weekend with friends of ours. I think Jay's just in it for the Smores! I'm pretty excited.

Foot Butcher!

So I had a farrier come out today to do Denali's feet. They looked great when he was done, but what ever he did made my horse super lame on all 4, especially the front two. I came back to the barn today and Denali had her chest leaning against the front of the stall. She was in so much pain! The vet came out and wrapped her front feet and told me that the farrier took off WAY TOO MUCH. I feel horrible!! I keep petting her and giving her bute and made her stall super comfy. I feel like a horrible horse mom!!

Denali and the Animal Communicator

So, this is my first post in a while... I've had a lot going on. Working, and running around trying to get stuff in order for Denmark. We leave in a month and a half. Denali is doing better. She LOVES being turned out. She has her tail in the air and does this beautiful extended trot. She's a joy to watch, not so much to catch! She wants nothing to do with being caught and it's a pain in my butt to run around the field and keep her running until she decides that she's tired and wants to stop.

I had an animal communicator come out. I know some people may be spectacle, but it really was an amazing experience. She gave me some great insight to Denali and also Yukon! Denali told on the two girls who do morning shift. Funny. She said that they don't feed her her grain and call her crazy. She doesn't like being called crazy. I believe the part about her not getting grain. Bags disappear, but there is never any dust in her grain bin. The part that got me was that she told me that Denali doesn't like me talking to her in Danish. HA! No one knows I'm learning Danish, let alone in the car. It was really cool!! I also wanted to know if Yukon was upset that I had Denali. He still wanted love, but was okay that I didn't ride him anymore. He is a VERY fast horse if he gets going. I had an incident with him at Farrel a few weeks ago and the communicator said that he goes fast to get me back in my seat and to keep me from leaning forward. WOW! It was really cool!!

WOW!! What a WEEK!

Yikes. Things that have happened since I brought home the devil in horse form.

1. She's NOT an appendix. She's an OTTB, and the woman who sold her to me lied. The woman, who's husband is a jockey, and brother a trainer, knew exactly what she had... That made me a little sad, since I know how OTTB can be and this is my FIRST HORSE! But, we'll make it, and I love her regardless.

2. The Jockey Club is of No Help when it comes to contacting her REAL previous owner. I was able to get her tattoo traced though, registered name--Storm City Slew. Really pretty right?

3 Hopewell Farms in KY is amazing! They got me Denali's trainers name at Emerald Downs. He was amazing and shocked that Denali (Storm City Slew) was sent to auction. She was suppose to be for the little girl of the woman who had her at the auction. I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!! MAKE SURE you know where your horse goes!! Have a contract in place that you have first refusal if the horse is going to be sold again. Denali could be on a meat wagon somewhere!

4. Denali (New Name- "The Great One") Is of Seattle Slew/Secretariat blood. She was, at one time, a very expensive horse.

5. New Blog! No point in having another blog about my "Appendix" since she's not!

I never thought it was possible to love something so much. I'm assuming this is what it would feel like if I had a kid. Denali is my kid, and regardless of her freak outs and running around like crazy, I love her more than anything!!

NEW NAME!

So Long Story!! Lillian is for a sweet, calm horse...you know, the kind of horse that I bought... I can't keep calling her Lillian. I've tossed around a lot of different names. Beet, Turnip, CRAZY, NUT BALL, well...not really the last two... I was going to name her McKinley, since it's a HUGE mountain in Alaska where my husband is, but my friend reminded me that the other name of the mountain is Denali. It just seems to fit her! She's so proud and SUPER LARGE. We keep trying to stick her to see how tall she is, but that freaks her out so bad that I can only gestimate. She's around 16 hands.

Lillian in a nutshell... (sometimes I think she's the nut!)

I said to myself, "Don't bring your wallet." Did I listen? Do I ever listen? My friends even said, don't bring your wallet...well, more on that later.

Guess what I did!! I bought a horse! I went to the auction in Enumclaw with some friends. I brought my wallet, and had no intentions on buying anything that day, much less a horse. I am deeply in love with Yukon, a 23 year old TB who stole my heart already, I couldn't imagine another horse I could love as much.

We walked around the little, dark, dirty pens and looked at the horses. Some were so beautiful, it broke my heart to see them so terrified. I questioned the organization skills of the people running the auction. Who would put a stallion next to a mare in heat? Crazy. I looked at all horses, 32, I counted as I went. Some I really liked, some could hardly stand on the three good legs they had left. It was super sad. I wanted to rescue the ones who had no life left in their eyes and give them an honorable end to their life.


That's when it happened, I turned the corner and from the dark corner of the last paddock she stood. Her head dropped down, with a sleepy look in her face. She was enormous and she was beautiful. There was just something about here that drew me to her. We talked to her "owner" (more on that later) and found out that she was a 3 year old Appendix. What a great horse! I was in love and there was no turning back. I had ridden when I was young, and had a lot of confidence in myself (at the time-it's amazing what a green horse does to your confidence.)It was the same feeling I got when I saw my husband for the first time. I just knew that she was my horse.


She stood there chewing on her lead rope, and every time her "owner" turned to look at her she would drop it quickly. It was really cute, at least at the time it was.


The next thing I knew she entered the arena and the bidding started. I didn't have a bidding number since I wasn't buying anything. I grabbed my friends (without asking-Sorry Cat) and proceeded to bid on her. At $675 I got my 3 year old Appendix! I was on cloud 9. I have never been so excited in my entire life! The fact that my husband and I had discussed getting a horse, and the fact that he didn't think we had enough money to take care of one went to the back of my head. I had Lillian, her new name, and I didn't care (at the time.)

My hubby is in Alaska for the whole summer, the only way to contact him is by writing letters. We'll see how that goes!!

We brought Lillian home. She hopped right into the trailer and if she could reach she probably would have tied her self up. She was so sweet!! What a perfect name for a perfect horse.

Things change a lot in the 50 or so miles that it took to bring her home.... I'm not sure what happened to my sweet Lillian I bought... out of the trailer came the Devil herself. You would have thought we brought home a wild Mustang Stallion from Nevada the way she was running and bucking and rearing in the arena. It was nuts!! No comfort to me was everyone looking asking me, "what are you going to do now?" Gulp.

I own a horse! What am I thinking...