A New Member to the Family?

(no, not what you are all thinking)

Today, I saw this terribly sad article on cnn about the wild horse recapture program. Basically, the article said that the program was lobbying to kill certain horses who hadn't been adopted in a specified period of time (or to sell them to buyers who would kill them... essentially the same in my book). I'm an animal lover, so my immediate fleeting thought was 'I wish I could adopt one of these horses.' Then common sense took over, and I thought of the fact that these were wild horses, I have no idea how to train a horse, I haven't ridden a horse since I was in elementary school, the massive horse poo, the fact that my suburban neighbors wouldn't like it too much, that it most certainly would be a violation of my lease, and that it was probably against the zoning laws here in the city.

While Brandon and I were sitting eating dinner tonight, he turned and said to me 'I want a horse.' My response was a quick 'You read that article today too, didn't you?' Brandon, however, didn't just read it - he went ten steps past me. He looked into adoption requirements, lodging costs for a horse, boarding costs, and even found when the traveling program would be in town (Lakeside, of course). When I came back with all of my arguments above, Brandon was like 'Boarding, duh', plus he pointed out that we trained our dogs, and horses aren't too different. Adopting a horse is also SO inexpensive - $125 dollars. Cheaper than adopting a dog. The boarding is a bit more, of course, but I was astonished to learn that there is boarding out in the San Diego nether regions (east county, escondido, etc) where you can pay under $200 per month, including boarding, exercise, basic care and food.

So... we're considering it. There is a visiting tour the weekend of July 26 (the program managers are trying to get word out and get more horses adopted) that we are planning on checking out. I don't know that we will actually do it this year, but I could consider doing it next year. Even if we only visited once every week or two, its better than the poor horse being euthanized for cheap dog food.

And because I am feeling a little extra love for my animals right now, a couple of pictures of Bandit and Moosey:


Bandit's 'Dad, make her STOP' look (Brandon is just off to the side)
Moosey is always the happy camper though!