Incredibly Ellie

The day has finally come and today was my first day of work! It was early start with lots going on throughout the day. First of all, every day will start almost the same. Wake up and head to breakfast before breakfast is over. For work days, we head to breakfast at about 7:30, eat, and head up the road for work. We started by bringing in the horses, putting on their halters, lining the up then feeding them. We then started working on the fences that surround all the fields where the horses can go. We had to repair and replace sections of the fence. After repairing the fence, my boss, Bode, starting me in on my training. It first starts with getting all the horses' names. Right now there are about 23 horses, in June we will be almost doubling the amount of horses we have. So that means more names to learn. I have a list right now of the current horses, so I have been studying their names, but it is still harder than you think. Then there is getting to know their line up, how the...

I arrived at Harmel's in the early afternoon. It's been ten years since I have been here and it was interesting to see how it compared to my memories. Once I found someone to check in with, I was shown to the bunk house I would be calling home for the next four months and starting settling in. After getting settled, I met the other females wranglers that were already up here. They invited me to go out on a hike with them and another wrangler to go check the condition one of the trails we ride on. We were able to bond a little bit and get to know each other on the hike. The hike was beautiful. It was up on a small ridge that lined the river that is the heart of the ranch. It had snowed here just earlier in the week so the trail was pretty muddy, but that made for excellent conditions to see bear prints. Yep! A bear had walked the same trail that we were on probably earlier that day. I wasn't too concerned since it was early in the afternoon and we were traveling in gr...

Welcome to my first post! I will be doing my best this summer to keep this blog up to date and share what I am up to at Harmel's. I'm so excited to get this going, so let's get started! I left the house yesterday morning at around 9:15 and actually left Flagstaff at 10am (I drove passed my usual gas station, so I had to drive back, then go to the bank, then I went to Starbucks for breakfast and it was really crowded, but I was really hungry). The whole drive really wasn't that bad. I went to Gallop, NM for my first gas stop (no offense to anyone, but that place was weird and sketchy), then I went up the 491 through Native American Reservation, up to Cortez, CO, and then made my way up to Telluride, which is where I stayed last night. It was so beautiful there! It had snowed there the night before and so it looked like winter in the little valley and there still could of been skiing on the mountain. But, I checked into my hotel/Inn and it was so ...