Shiloh Horse Preserve

Sunday I went with my receptionist-friend from work, Lisa, to the Shiloh Horse Preserve in Sandy Valley. It was an experience for sure. We stopped off at Sam's club to by some carrots and apples for the horses, we ended up walking out with 11 bags of carrots and 3 big bags of apples. I was like, "ya sure that's enough?"

When we began our lil adventure the thermometer in her car said 88, by the time we left Sandy Valley, or as I call it now "hell on earth", the thermometer said 106. Yeah, that's right. We were in the middle of the desert in 106 degree weather!! We are SO pretty. You would think that seeing the people who work there say "it's too hot we're going home" would have tipped us off, but no.

There were so many different kinds of animals there. Goats, Burros, llamas, mostly horses though. Ok, ALOT of horses. Lisa kept telling me to beware of the goats, that they tend to charge atcha. I only saw one goat as we walked in, and it must of been way too hot, because the poor thing never left the shade. I felt bad for him, because he wasn't acting like he felt too good, but at the same time I was like phew!!! Lisa had talked some of the ranch hands into driving over our "feed" over to the shed, but they thought it meant inside the house next to the refrigerator, LOL. So she was like yelling at them going, "where the hell are they taking my feed??" I couldn't help but laugh, it was so funny. We finally made our way there and just outside was a baby burro named Salsa. Who was big, and playful and just the cutest thing ever! Here's a picture of him on their website:
Isn't he just the cutest??

We grabbed as much as we could carry and headed out. The first stop we made was over to a few stables that housed the owner's horse. The horse was HUGE. The last time I was even around horses was when I went horseback riding when I was 10 or 11, and the horse I went on was suicidal. I don't remember them being that big. He was gorgeous, and a little scary. Then as I was feeding one of the other horses, who frankly didn't look so good, Salsa came behind us and was trying to get at all of our "feed". Lisa ran right over like a pro, and was like No Salsa, no, bad baby. So he dropped the bag of apples and went after the trash instead, LOL it was kind of funny because she ran after him again and they like ran off behind the shed and then she came back holding the piece of paper in her hand. I was cracking up because it reminded me of those movies where the heroes take the villians behind the bush and beat 'em up, and then walk out and get on with the plan- that's what it was like, only it was this 90 pound woman and a 250 lb. burro. Hehehehe.

We left and ventured out to the mass of horses that were out behind some metal gates. Their conditions varied, it was a sad sight. But, we managed to get to everyone. Next thing we knew Charlie, the little pony came in. We had first seen Charlie in the barn, but when he started to bite at our bags and try to kick Lisa in the face, we booked it. He was really cute, but awnry. He wouldn't go away, and he just kept making us give him more and more food, or there was threat of gettin kicked. LOL Lisa kept trying to tell him to be nice, or settle down. I was like, screw this!! If he comes near me I'm just going to throw a carrot near him, and run off. Which I did like 3 or 4 times. We made our way down to the end of the preserve and all of a sudden it felt like we were surrounded. Apparently they let some of the horses run free, and ahem, Lisa forgot to mention it. I was like, "Ugh, I think we got some strays," I thought somehow we had let them out or something, but she assured me we hadn't. I fed them a carrot and then, they'd come back for more, and they just kept coming. I started to get a lil freaked out so I ran away from them, and luckily they didn't follow, but then OF COURSE Charlie came back. He wasn't like walking behind me following, he was like charging. It was not ok.

After the threat of death and making sure everyone got some treats and had enough water we started to head back to the car to get some gatorade because we we're both getting pretty tired, and thirsty. We got about half way and Lisa was like, I think I'm going to faint. I was like let's just go home. She started to get really quiet, and later she said it was because she was having trouble breathing. I was like why don't you stay here and I'll go get us the gatorade, she was like no, it's fine, I can make it. "What should I do with the rest of the feed," I asked and she said, "just give it to me". So here's this 90 lbs of nothing girl carrying like 5 bags of stuff and obviously about to have a heat stroke, and I go "What the hell are you still carrying all that stuff for?" she was like "I dunno." We finally got to the gate and as she started to open the rest of the bags and dump the food out I was trying to unhook the latch on the gate so I could run over to her car and grab a gatorade, but I couldn't do it. I started to feel myself panic and I too started to feel like I couldn't catch my breath. So I opened the gate just wide enough for her to fit through and said "here, you crawl through, get yourself a gatorade and come back to get me." Does she? No. She crawls through and unhooks the gate from the other side and then walks over to the driver side door, opens it up and begins to take her shoes off. I of course run straight over to the trunk and grab us gatorades and watch as she takes the next 2 minutes to chug the damn thing. Note to self: DON'T GO OUT INTO THE DESERT WHEN YOU THINK THERE'S A CHANCE OF IT BEING OVER 90 DEGREES!!! Soooo pretty!!