Rottweiler Wednesday

Boots and I are off to the Farmers' Market again today to tend the booth for Equine Voices.  We are there every Wednesday from 10 -2pm.  I finally remembered my camera last week to get a picture of Boots in the booth:

She's my secret weapon to lure people over to our booth!  Not many people can walk by this face without at least stopping to pet her:

A lot of people bring their dogs to the market, also.  Boots has met lots of new friends.

I love that she is so friendly with other dogs.  She really has never met one that she didn't like.  Big, small, it doesn't matter to her, she just wants to play.  :)

We've been enjoying our Wednesdays at the market.  We get to be out in the beautiful weather, meet lots of very nice people and talk about the horses (and of course, Piper!).  So many people have no idea about the plight of the PMU mares and foals....  Boots and I are happy to help educate people and bring some awareness.

If you are in the area, the market is located in Green Valley off the Esperanza exit just west of the freeway.  It runs from 10 -2pm every Wednesday.  There are quite a lot of vendors with a nice selection of goods.  Our booth is located toward the back of the market.  Stop by and visit!  I do have my jewelry on display and, as always, will donate a portion of each sale to Equine Voices to help the horses.

Happy Rottie Wednesday!  I

Piper's Big Day

This Saturday, Equine Voices (the PMU rescue that I adopted Piper from) is having their annual spring fundraiser (check out the details here). They will have food vendors, a raffle, silent auction and dessert auction (mmmm), a bake sale, information booths and equine related demonstrations through the day. I baked up some goodies for the bake sale and a red velvet cake for the dessert auction. I also donated a bracelet for the silent auction.

But, the most exciting part of the day is that Piper will be one of 4 featured horses that have been adopted from the rescue! We will have our 5 minutes in the spotlight, to show off for the crowd where she is at with her training, tell a little bit about her history and how she came to be with us.

We've been working with her everyday, figuring out how best to use our 5 minutes. Lee is going to narrate while I demonstrate basic groundwork with her, flexing, bending, backing up, leading and stopping. I will also do a little bit of round pen work, sending her off and turning her back, having her face and then walk to me (even though we won't be in a round pen, but at the end of the arena near the crowd). That could prove to be interesting... with all that space, I hope she will cooperate with me!

We might also use a tarp and some other items to show the desensitizing training we have done. This picture was taken last summer... Piper has never been afraid of the tarp and will walk around with it covering her like this! We drag it around the round pen and she will chase after it, jump on it and "kill" it. And then bite it.

Piper is still very young, she'll turn 2 in May. We've had her almost a year and she has been so much fun to work with, she's very smart and quick to learn. She knew nothing when we brought her home. It took me about 45 minutes to get her from the trailer to her stall the day I brought her home... she didn't even know how to lead! We've come a long way with her since then.

This is her in May of last year. She was so little! It's amazing how much she has grown in almost a year.

I'll be sure to post about our experience on Saturday. We're really looking forward to it!

Christmas Shopping!

This morning I went out to Equine Voices Horse Rescue & Sanctuary (I had some jewelry to deliver to Karen, the founder) and I ended up doing about half of my Christmas shopping! No, I didn't adopt a horse for everyone on my list (but wouldn't that be a great gift?) but I did end up finding a lot of things in their awesome gift shop.

Gulliver, the rescue mascot, makes his way on to all of the clothing, including sweatshirts, hoodies, t-shirts, denim shirts and tanks. Gulliver is a Clydsedale-cross who is just as cute and sweet as he is HUGE!

I wanted to add some pictures from the shop, but I wasn't able to download them. If you love horses or have people to buy for that do, Gulliver's Gift Shop offers a nice selection of clothing, art, home decor and jewelry to choose from. You can feel good knowing that the proceeds of your purchase will go to care for the many rescued horses at the sanctuary.