A horse of Course

My beautiful niece and her horse Tahoma.

My sister and her husband live on a 300 acre ranch in Humptulips (pop. 212) They are caretakers of the land ever since my cousin passed away. My sister has always loved horses and now her dream has come to a reality. She has acquired 6 horses or is it 7. I lose track. They have a quiver full of horses and most of them are rescue horses. The recession has hit hard and so many people are trying to give away their horses because they just can’t afford to keep them. It’s an expensive endeavor to keep horses fed and healthy and all the vet bills, shoeing, and trimming it adds up big time.

She has a dream to some day operate a horse camp for native American children. Our native tribe; the Cowlitz is trying to bring back our native culture to our young. Horses were a big part of our heritage so it’s fitting that my sister wants to have such a camp. I’m very excited about this but I know that there is much work to do in order to open such a camp. My sister is even trying to get some kind of grant.

We had a trial camp this past summer and it was a hit. Only 5 girls but these girls really enjoyed themselves and I could just see them glowing with self esteem and pride.