Finals Are Over!

I just finished my last final yesterday (chemistry) and now I'm free to work on the site (it hasn't been updated in a long time, and I know the boards have gotten a bit... out of control. Shame, shame on you evil spammers and bots. You suck.).

I probably will be buying a digital camera soon too, and taking more pics for the site... I am trying to plan out a trip this summer to some place where I can see and photograph mustangs in the wild, since I've spent so much time doing mustang research for my WR 123 research paper, "America's Native Horses", in which I argue that wild mustangs should be considered a native species (I will be posting on the site soon). If you know of any cool places to hike and view wild mustangs, let me know... preferably in Oregon or California, although I might be able to go to Nevada or New Mexico.

My research essay (it's pretty informal) is 23 pages long, and although I tried not to "romanticise" it too much (instructor's orders, lol), don't worry, I did include stories and bits of interesting info and stuff. And I found an awesome book, "Mustang" by Anthony Amaral (I considered stealing it from the library but then I decided that was morally wrong. And I might get fined.)

I learned some things while researching-- that American baskir curlies were bred from wild nevada curly mustangs, for example. What curlies are doing running wild in Nevada, I don't know, but I thought that was really interesting.

I tried to leave out the "but horses are so pretty and I like them so we should protect them" silly arguments, although I can't deny that horses have benefited from the fact that we find them beautiful, romantic, etc. Most people feel more emotionally toward a wild mustang than they would toward, say, coyotes or wild pigs or pigeons. But I don't think that's a bad thing, especially considering our long relationship with the horse. No animal has been more helpful or important in our history than horses have. And mustangs, specifically, helped shape American culture and history. Wild pigs didn't.

Besides updating the website which needs to be done badly, I will probably be doing a lot of riding and training this summer too, maybe some showing, I might blog about it later. I might show my appy Zippo if I can get him into shape, and I'll be working with our 2-yo stallion Blaze to start his training. Right now, as I type, a farrier is working on the horses, they are all getting new shoes so we can start riding them.


And the beach, which is too cold and windy and wet most of the year, is a paradise for riding in the summer. I am definately going to go on some long rides on the beach, in the summer nothing is better than galloping across the sand on an endless, isolated beach. When the fog is coming in it's a bit eerie and all you can see is your hoofprints behind you and the gray haze all around. When it's a nice sunny day, the ocean breeze is nice and cool and it excites the horses and makes for a fun ride. I miss it!