Like, totally gnarly lines!

Chris flew out less than 24 hours upon landing in SLC and Brandon, Jenny, and I headed up to Snowbird for another day of riding.

Yeah Dude, Hey!

My friend Brandon and his buddy Chris flew out for a weekend of boarding. They flew in and we (Brandon, Chris, Jenny, and I)jumped the UTA bus up the canyon for some night riding at Brighton. It snowed all weekend and there was a ton of powder and not many people.

Nutty Putty Caves Pics

Desert Ride Pics

Desert Ride

Since I can not ride Dollar for 2 weeks, my friend James let me ride his horse Kate on our “Saturday Ride.” We rode out to the desert in Santaquin, Utah. It was amazing! Once we got out there I suggested we go caving in the Nutty Putty Caves, since we were a couple miles from them. We rode the horses up to the cave entrance and decided it sounded too fun to resist, so we put the horses in the trailer and hiked back up on foot. It was pretty cold outside, but warm air blew up out of the cave entrance. You down climb about 15-20 feet into a small dark cavern. When I turned my flash light on I saw about a 100 beetles crawling around me. After a deep breath, I got on my stomach and army crawled through a tiny passage into the cave. Unlike my previous trips to the caves, the water level was low and I didn’t have to hold my breath, I just got a little wet. Once inside, the cave opened up. The caverns would open up and close over and over again and there was a lot of down climbing. Luckily there were ropes set up (no ropes in the past). We explored for a couple hours and had a ton of fun. When we got out of the cave we were really wet, and it was pitch black outside. We hiked back to the trailer, cold and wet, through the snow. Exploring the caves makes me feel like a little kid again and I love it!

Poor Dollar - Poor Me

Dollar got really sick, and was having trouble breathing so I rushed him over to the vet where he got a check up. Strictly for horses, I’ve never been to a nicer vet facility. The examining room was so spotless (and heated), I felt like I was at my doctor’s office. I could see Dollar looking around wondering where he was; I doubt he’s ever been inside, much less in a heated room. The vet sent us home with a prescription to open up his lungs and we are to report his condition in two weeks. Diagnosis: Bad cold/virus due to his sudden change in climate OR a lung condition brought on by allergies to hay, dust, and mold which causes chronic lung problems which build scar tissue in the lungs and restrict air passageways. Let’s hope it is just a bad cold. He already is much improved, so my hopes are high. I know I promised a more uplifting post, so keep checking…it is on its way!

Payson Canyon

I went riding up in Payson Canyon and it was amazing. The horses took us to the top of a mountain pushing through snow sometimes chest deep. We would rest them every 100 ft or so on the really steep sections, but they were champs! Dollar is built for this kind of riding. Being a Morgan, he has more energy and power than any other horse I've ever ridden.

I've gotta Dollar, I've gotta Dollar, I've gotta Dollar Hey Hey Hey Hey!

Last weekend my friend Andrew took me down to Fredonia, AZ to pick up my horse Dollar. We made a weekend of it and his friend James came along. We hauled their two horses down and then enjoyed riding in the desert. (much warmer than Utah Valley!)

Back to the Real World, well kinda

Of course leaving SC was hard and the first few days of work were hell, but I fell back into my little routine without much resistance. The positive aspects of my job are that my responsibilities are always increasing and changing (too bad the pay is not following the same trend as of yet). My job titles now include customer service, technical writer, company trainer, marketing mind, etc. Well, if nothing else, I'm gaining experience. Right?