My Days With Horses In Oregon | An Amazing Horse Story

By: Shannon Hooten

A few years back on a beautiful summer day I was on my grandmother’s farm up in Grants Pass, Oregon. Here in Arizona it’s anything but beautiful in the summer. But, that’s enough about that. Gamma’s farm, back then, had seven chickens, two Rottweilers, a Queensland Blue Healer, two sheep, five cats, and five horses. The horses are the main part of my story. There’s an Appaloosa named Harley, an Arabian called Justice, two Rocky Mountain horses named Bastian and Moonshine, and a mix of horse breeds named Dakota. To shorten it even more, this story is about Dakota & Moonshine.

[private]After a long day of working around the farm, it was finally time for dinner, social time, and bed. In between all this is putting the animals to bed. First are the chickens. Kayleigh, my sister, and I round them up into their hen house, and then we cuddle with them. Next are the horses, which we just have to take the fly masks off of. I was very short back then, making it very hard for me to reach the flymasks on certain horses. Justice is fairly easy; he is probably the most intelligent horse on the farm. He just bends down so low that you can take his mask off. He can also pull in his food dish if it’s not in his stall, and if it’s empty he’ll pick it up to indicate that it needs food in it.

As for Harley, Gamma does him. Bastian’s not hard, but he’s not easy either. Moonshine is harder than Justice, but easier than Bastian. That day, I almost had Dakota’s flymask off, but then he started jerking away from me, making it difficult for me to get it off. Then Moonshine came and picked up a little corner, lifting it up and dropping it on the ground. She then realized that I needed to pick the fly mask up off the ground and picked it up her self while handing it to me. Maybe there is a horse as smart as Justice now.[/private]