I have been wanting to post for some time now, but have lacked anything new and interesting to write about. Summer has proved to be slow, boring, and uneventful. However, I do have some progress on my project to share.
Last week I attended the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation Grand Opening celebration in Santa Rosa; the foundation is located on the corner of Occidental and Sanford Road. At this celebration there was a local man and his wife providing carriage rides with their huge percheron horses. Their business is called Stonehorse, if you want to look them up. They use draft horse power to plow and harvest on their farm.
I was kindly directed to this event by Shepherd Bliss, who owns Kokopelli Farm in Sebastopol, where he grows delicious Boysenberries! Yum! Anyhow, I talked with the couple of the Stonehorse business, Stuart and Denise, and have been invited to volunteer for them in exchange for learning how to drive horses! This will probably be starting in July or August, so I will keep you updated on that as the summer goes along.
I have been so excited by the prospect of learning to drive horses this summer that I have been watching Youtube videos on the subject to gain a preliminary understanding. This has been very interesting, as I have found that driving is both very different from and yet very similar to riding.
In addition to the horse driving, I have contacted a sonoma county horse rescue, SAFER, in the hopes of doing some volunteer work for them. This has less to do with my trip, but it feels good to help animals in need and it has the added bonus of getting me more in touch with the local horse community. I should be meeting with the volunteer coordinator tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.
This summer has brought me back to the horses, and I am so grateful!
