It's been a week?!?!

Woah. I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. The time is flying here, and I don't like it.

Let's see....What's happened this week....

Well, I've spent alot more time in horses and loved it more every time. I now have a project horse, his name is River and he's a big grey thoroughbred (I think). He's gorgeous. And I am now getting lessons there in Parelli natural horsemanship, and it is so awesome. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of River yet, but I will, promise!!!

I've been working in dogs and picked a focus area, it's called the Fairway. I really like the dogs and caregivers there, so it's gonna be a great place to work.

Other than that, I've just been continuing to love it here. Tonight I have the most adorable, sweet and loving little 3 month old puppy on a sleepover, his name is Token (but I think he looks like a Riley...)

I'm pretty sure he's never seen his own reflection before...He's so cute!!

I still love this place.

Today was awesome. Do I ever not say that? Haha!

My morning was in horses, which is always fun, I worked with Ron and it was so nice. He is such a great guy. We scooped poop and scratched ponies!

Then in the afternoon we had our first training class with our project dogs, and it was fan-flippin-tastic. I am learning so much here about dog training. We are starting with clickers, which I really like and I think I'll stick with. We learned how to teach sit, watch and down. The lead trainer, Huck, who is our teacher, has some really great ideas and is good at giving us each an equal amount of attention. My girl Kitzi would get really excited when she saw the other dogs but when I had her attention she learned really fast. She's smart, I just think she's got a bit of doggie ADD :P. Anyway! No fun pictures today, sorry! :( Hopefully tomorrow!

I love it here.

Did you know that? I love it here.

No really. I really do.

Yesterday I was in dogtown in the morning, which was fun, and then in the afternoon I was back in Horses Haven. But instead of scooping poop all afternoon (Which is still pretty awesome) I got to spend the entire time with one of the trainers. It was SO COOL. She showed me the different horses she's working with and worked with one horse for a looooong time and was talking to me the whole time about what she was doing and more and more about natural horsemanship. I have to say, I think I'm being converted. I am so excited to get a project horse and get to work! :)

Today was a little uneventful, we had a presentation this morning that was pretty interesting, and then I took Miss Kitz on an outing to angels rest, which is like a graveyard for pets. Only not nearly as grim and nasty as that sounds. It's actually really beautiful, there's windchimes everywhere and the graves are decorated really nicely. Some things there break your heart, owners leave collars or toys...But I think it's really fantastic.

So for tonight I'm just hangin back at the house, I decided to take a different dog home tonight on a sleepover, his name is Harpo! He's sooooo sweet and all he wants is to cuddle. I think he is really enjoying being out of the sanctuary and in the quiet, he's been on the couch snoozing most of the time...Haha! He needed a rest!

Goodnight everybody! :)

Yay Ponies!!!

Today, I spent the whole day with horses. YAY!! :D

Well, most of the time we were scooping poop, but I did get to interact with some really cool horses in their pastures, including one 17.2 hand horse I kind of fell in love with....But anyways....

It was awesome.

But aside from all the poop and pony scratching, I also got some time all by myself with the goats and sheep!!

The goat whose picture is on the top is hilarious, she loves to get scratched and if you stop scratching her she...makes a goat noise at you...I have no idea what that's called. If you're my facebook friend there's a video of it on there (hopefully, if it ever uploads...)!

The guy who I worked with all day was one of the coolest guys I have ever met. Also one of the nicest. His name is Ron, and even though we were scooping poop all day, we had a blast. He also took us to all these really incredible sites, and I took lots of pictures. :)

 There's Ron!

 This place is incredible, behind me there is a hidden lake in a cave!!

Kanab Creek

Pretty awesome day. Now Kitzi and I are relaxing on the couch, considering going to bed early so we can get lots of rest. Goodnight!

My baby girl.

So not much has happened in the last two days cause I had them off, but tonight I have my project dog (or as I like to call her, my baby girl) home with me! This is Kitzi! (Or again, as I also like to call her, Miss Kitz :D)

She pretty much rocks my world. She definitely has some work to do though! She is picky with other dogs, so we will be doing alot of work to make her less reactive, and if she sees a lizard (which are waaay common around here) she goes nuts. She knows sit, but that's about it! It's actually really fun to have a dog that has alot to learn. Tonight is my first night, so I took her for a walk, and within a half an hour she was walking on the leash way better than when I picked her up! She's smart, and I hope in the next four weeks she's gonna learn tons, and get adopted. (If I don't adopt her first....)

Tomorrow is my full day in horses and I'm really looking forward to it, and then at the end of the day Miss Kitz will come home with me again! :)

Sorry!

I know, I know, I didn't blog last night. My millions of avid readers are so pissed. :P

ANYWAYS. The last two days have been crazy. Crazy awesome. Yesterday I picked my project dog! Or I should really say she picked me. We were going through all the dogs and they were all awesome but none of them were really striking a chord with me. Then they brought Kitzie down from another run on a leash to meet us all, and she went around and met everybody, but she just kept coming back to me. Finally she just smashed her body up against me and laid down, and our intern coordinator Leesa said "Well Stephanie, I don't think she's really left you a choice!" and she sure didn't. She's my girl!! I'll have tons of pictures of her, I'm sure, but I haven't had a ton of time with her yet so none so far. She needs lots of basic obedience, but she is so sweet. I can't wait to spend more time with her.

Then today I worked in cats all day, and I'll be honest, I wasn't really very excited. I like cats and all, but I've been dying to spend more time with the dogs and horses. The morning shift with the cats was alot of cleaning, which is fine, I can totally clean. But the afternoon was pretty awesome. I could only be there a little over an hour because we had a meeting, but I absolutely fell in love with this cat. His name is Montana.

In case you can't tell, he only has three legs, and his one back leg is pretty deformed. But he cruises around like you wouldn't believe. He is SO COOL! I want to take him home with me....But I can't. But man, I want to. You can't see cause he wouldn't look at me for the pictures, but he has these really sharp blue eyes. He's so cool. If you're facebook friends with me you can see the video I posted of him.

The other thing we did today was go to the Parelli Natural Horsemanship demo at horse haven, and it got me really excited to work in horses at Best Friends. It was really cool, I've always kind of joked with all my show buddies about stupid crazy natural horsemanship people and how they're hippies or something....But it's actually really awesome. Horse friends, make fun of me all you want! I'm excited to learn alot more about it, and I'm also really excited because on Monday I am working allllll day in horses!!!!!! 

Ok, I'll try not to miss another night of blogging, since I know you all wait patiently in front of the screen constantly refreshing until I post again. Although this weekend won't be too exciting since I have it off, but I might get some time to hang with my Kitzie girl. :) Goodnight!

Too much cuteness for one day.

The days just keep getting better. Today we went on a few more tours, and then....we went to puppy class. Oh man, the cuteness was mildly overwhelming. We got to work on basic obedience with them and they brought out some stuff like vaccuum cleaners and umbrellas so they could get used to it. It was really cool to see how fast they learn!! Another intern and I had one little guy running back and forth through a tube thing in like 10 minutes. He was super smart, and super adorable!!

The rest of my day I spent in a place called Wild Friends, which is home to many wildlife who are unable to go back to their natural habitat, usually because of injury. It was really quiet and peaceful, and I got to see some really cool wildlife, and go in some enclosures with geese, ducks, roosters and lots of pidgeons. The staff member I worked with was a really awesome guy named Abe, he was alot of fun to work with. Tomorrow we pick our project dogs and I am working in dogtown, so it's gonna be a canine kind of day. Totally my kind of day. :D