Monday, January 25th, 2010

Day Thirteen




This is the barn, there's a little shed thing along the side of it where all the tools and hardware are kept. The logo is of one of my mentors first horses, Khali.











This whole area is pretty much clear of all the horses because of the rain. This area was a potential flood zone, so everyone's moved.












This is actually the inside view of the barn, it's rather large. They had to move a lot of the horses here because of the rain.


I worked with Audrey, one of the volunteers and boarders there, to let a few horses in after turning them out for a few hours.







This is one of the rescue horses, Gracie. Right now her leg has a little cut on it, hence the hot pink bandaging. XD

To find out more about who rescued her and others who have been rescued from slaughter, please take a few minutes to visit:

http://www.savinghorsesinc.com/






This is the corral where she and another rescue horse, Nuuki, are kept. She loves to chew the boards, as you might be able to tell from this picture...Haha, I think it's a slow escape plan...O_O










This is one of their turnouts. The horse is Patch, one of the boarded horses there. Every once in a while a volunteer will let her out to run around. When she first got in the turnout she was bucking and galloping all over the place. =]










This is all of the ice on the ground. It's cracked and broken appart so now it looks like glass. It's very slippery to walk on, especially with sneakers on.











This is how I travel around the ranch when Audrey is there. Yeah...It's a new style...Everyone is envious.

No, haha, just joking...










This is the outdoor uncovered arena, and as you can see, it did not fare so well with the rain. It's still got a lot of water in it right now, so that should actually be staying for a while.


In the background you can see the covered arena.








Giant lake in the middle of the path...I have fun walking horses around this...Not...

Slipping and trying to find your footing while leading a giant horse behind you is slightly terrifying...









This is just a picture showing more of the uncovered arena. I wanted to kind of try and show how large it is. Which, it is rather giant.












This is a corral which has Nuuki and Gracie in it. They're both bonded with each other and very close friends. Buuuuudies...













In the course of one typical workday, how many different people do you directly work with?

Well, depending on the day, I work with between 3-7 people. Mostly just feeding, suppliments, turnouts, shots sometimes, grooming, and lunging. On occasion I work with my mentor on her design business, but very very rarely.


How many people are indirectly affected by your work.

Seven.

Describe your direct collaboration with others—how does it go & how does it influence the work?

I work with Audrey to feed and turnout, sometimes lunge and give shots or meds. This usually just makes things go faster and easier. The more hands you have around the horses when you know what you're doing the better.

I work with Stephanie to do the one page website and so on, researching where they can place ads or put up some kind of link on horse sites.

When I work with Ryan usually it's to groom, saddle, and listen to what he has to say about the horses and dressage riding...Which is usually a lot, and I find it very interesting.

Describe your indirect impact on others through your work—there are probably many people you never actually see who are affected by your work. How does this happen? How does this influence your work?

I would say a few of the people who board their horses there are indirectly affected by me because I let their horses out and groom them sometimes, so they get exercise and cleaned. It just means their horses get some time to run around and play for a bit instead of being cooped up for such a long time until their owners come decide to let them out. (Which in some cases they don't even come to let them out, they just pay the board fee)

How might people work differently in your job in the future?

I don't really think it wold change much because it's the same basic thing. Taking care of horses there is pretty simply, so nothing would really change.

How might a different manager or mentor want people to work?

All ranches are different, so I've been with ranches that are very strict and others that are very laid back and carefree. Horse of the Sun is a little in between the two, but more towards carefree I would say. It's surprising how many boarders there don't come to see their horses, so I think another manager might try to get them to come in more or something. It's kind of sad that they don't visit their horses.