Hooves & Snouts

I'm wrapping up Internship week 2 and 3 in Horse Haven and Piggy Paradise (they are combined areas) and got the chance to give the pigs and horses their own photoshoots. The staff here are unbelievably awesome and have even been posting my work on each area's respective Facebook page! You can see my photos for the pigs here and the horses here.

I've always loved horses as most of you know, I have been riding for almost as long as I could walk. However, I have a new found respect for pigs. I've always liked pigs and have never been a huge pork eater but spending time with them on the day to day made me realize just how smart and social they are. The horses and pigs here are trained in Parelli Natural Horsemanship which focuses on positive training methods and building a positive bond between horse and rider and the pigs learn this way as well. It's something I haven't really gotten a chance to experience yet but I'm hoping to learn more about it before this week is over. 

I encourage everyone to do a little more research when it comes to pigs. There is no such thing as a teacup piggy, these small pigs are starved to keep them small and are even explained in their contracts to underfeed the animals to keep them small and these poor pigs experience many health issues because of it. Pigs also turn vicious when kept in homes if they don't have another pig friend which is why Best Friend's adopts them out in pairs. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, I've tried and failed many times, but I have so much respect for people who are and I have definitely cut down my carnivorous ways since I've been here.

If you get a chance to volunteer at the Sanctuary, make sure you spend some time with the pigs and horses. It's a really great time feeding the horses and giving pigs belly rubs. 

If you want to know more about the pigs at Best Friends, one of the other interns is running a blog specifically about them called Friends With Pigs! She also makes the cutest pig cozies as well as other animal cozies so be sure to check her out!

An unmemorable Memorial Day.

This was not exactly how I expected my Memorial Day to go. I've noticed that as my friends and I get older, we don't do as much as we use to. The summer of 2010 was the best of my life despite the fact that it lead to the end of my engagement/wedding because we did something every single day. BBQ's and pool parties, there was always something going on. Today, being lonely without my significant other, I desperately hit up my friends because someone MUST be bbqing somewhere... It's Memorial Day after all! However, it seems everyone is just being lazy with their boyfriends/husbands/girlfriends/wives. 

That's nice for them, sucks for me. I didn't really realize till today that I don't have many single friends these days. Singles tend to be more up for anything and while I'm not single... It would be nice to have more friends available for these lonely moments when I'm wishing that I could just be lazy with Kris. Instead, I swam and got my tan on by myself. I ordered a pizza... for myself. I think I'm going a little stir-crazy spending all this time alone. Granted, I did hang out with some people Saturday night but I'm going on long stretches of days without my friends and I'm not the kind of person that can be a hermit forever.

So, dear blog friends, I see your bbq posts today and I'm jealous! I wish I could party with you guys!

If only I could at least be doing this today...

I actually miss my parent's place. I miss Gunnar and my mom's horses, Dakota (above) and Stealth. Even though it is awkward being an english rider on a western horse... At least I could do what I loved every day... Ride. I'm overdue for a lesson at the barn since I've been back.

I only have a week left for myself before 2 months of summer school start, only 4 more classes to go before graduation once it's done! I have tons of books to catch up on, including the ones I need to read for my book club, but it's so hard to read when it's so warm and sunny outside! I need sangria and conversation people!

Even though mine isn't going as planned, I hope you all enjoy your holiday. My Veteran grandpa and my dearly departed cousin, who was in the Marines, are absolutely in my thoughts today.

Guess who's here!

My boyfriend's here! 

I got uber lucky by finishing all the photography and school projects literally a few hours before his plane landed so I can just focus on having a good time together. Since I want to spend as much time with Kris as possible before he goes back to Oregon, my blogging might be a little sparse this upcoming week. 

That's ok though, we have many adventures planned!

For now, check out how we spent our first reunited night together...In style!

I'll throw a little local city love in this post and tell you guys if you want a really nice and inexpensive place to stay in Las Vegas, you need to stay at Rumor Boutique. Not only do they constantly run promos to get a great room (king size with a jacuzzi tub) for really cheap but they also allow pets! You guys, they even have a "Yappy Hour" for dogs. I might need to take my boys one of these days. The rooms are also totally stylish (everything is purple!) and I really want to do a photoshoot here in the near future.

Our promo came with a free bottle of champagne, score!

It's also located right across the street from the Hard Rock. You can't see it in the picture, but at night the changing guitar casts a kaleidoscope of colors over the huge jacuzzi tub which made for a romantic evening. 

Of course, Jasper is extremely pleased to see his dad.

Since it was my last class of the semester and I had my riding lesson today, we have taken today pretty easy. Furious D was so good during our lesson, we did some overdue cantering flat work which mellowed him out.

By the way, I'm extending the Fox Five Photo Challenge to next Saturday so you guys have an extra week to meet all the prompts. 

And just in case you haven't seen enough pictures of us yet...

What? I look good!

Workaholic.

It is 1 am here and I just finished editing the 2,000 pictures from the horse show. I... am... exhausted. I don't even have time to relax and be proud of myself just yet. I still need to get all the show pictures up on the proofing site and I can't do that till I receive the list of riders (hopefully I'll be getting that first thing in the morning). I also still need to finish editing the images from my 3 month session, I need to clean and get things in order for Kris's arrival on Wednesday night (I'm sooo excited to see my boyfriend!), I still need to finish my last school project before the 12th when the semester wraps up, and I need to prepare for a shoot on Saturday! It's never ending and my brain can't shut down. It doesn't help that my  window of time to finish all this is so small but I'm determined to get everything done in time so I can enjoy my boyfriend's visit. Oh, did I mention that the day he leaves... I'll be joining him at the airport and hopping a plane myself to Tulsa, Ok to see my family? My dad's not doing very well, he possibly has lymphoma, and we are still awaiting results to see the course of action. My job while I'm out there will be riding my mother's horses of course.

Since I did accomplish such a big task, my lovely readers get to see a few pictures from the horse show before the riders do! These are just a few of my favorites...

There were so many amazingly talented riders and gorgeous horses, watching them all got me pumped to build up the courage to start seriously considering competing myself for the next show! If you are ever looking for an amazing place to start riding in the Las Vegas area then you really need to come check out our barn, Hunter's Edge. My trainer (and owner) Denise is a badass when it comes to riding and it's been great learning there. Thank you again Denise for giving me the opportunity to photograph this show! I love my barn family!