Ways You Can Help

So, I know this is supposed to be a blog about my life and horses. However, Japan has always been very dear to me, and so I felt the need to post this. Helping in general, not just Japan, is also important to me. So, the following are ways you can either help Japan, and/or nonprofit organizations.

Zazzle has made an official (for their site) t-shirt, that for each one bought, they will donate $10 dollars (USA dollars) to the Japanese Red Cross. There are also community t-shirts, and other items, that are made by other people. If bought, the royalties of these items will be donated.
http://www.zazzle.com/japanrelief

Click-to-Donate sites -these are sites where all you do is click once daily on a certain cause and a small donation is made towards that cause. It is 100% free for you. The money donated through the clicks are made through the advertisements of sponsors.
http://www.clicktodonate.org/clicktodonate.html
^Click on the pictures to donate to the different causes. Save the Children Foundation and The Red Cross are currently helping Japan. This is a pretty new site, so not many people know about it yet.
www.care2.com
^Another great click-to-donate site.

Search Engines:
www.igive.com -sponsored by Bing. Each search made donates a penny to the cause you choose. (A lot of nonprofits organizations are set up for this. A lot of horse rescues, too. You just have to search for them.)
www.goodsearch.com - Same as above but done by Yahoo. This one is strictly for nonprofits though.

Games:
www.freerice.com -For each question answered correctly 10 grains of rice are donated towards feeding the hungry. This is set up by the World Food Programme.

Of course you can always donate directly. I believe you can donate to the Japanese Red Cross through google, there is also the Red Cross, Safe the Children Foundation, and many other organizations to donate to. Just make sure that whoever you are donating to is reputable. I know of many other click-to-donate sites and games like free rice. If anyone wants me to post them in my next post I will. Thanks to anyone who does any of these!

The Horses (Part 1)

On this post I'm going to introduce you all to a couple of my family's horses. They will be mentioned a lot in this blog, and this way you will know what each horse looks like and the story behind them...

Jasper

This is my baby. I usually only call him Jasper when he is in trouble, or I'm trying to get his attention. Most of the time I just call him Pony. He is a very sweet boy, and tries his best to do what is asked of him. He's about 14.3 hh, and is currently 5 years old. I got this guy when he was just over a year and a half. He was a rescue. He was a PMU colt that was at a feedlot in Canada getting ready to head to slaughter. I was able to get him through the United Pegasus Foundation. Every year, around fall, they post, on their website, pictures of PMU horses that need saved. They handle all the transactions and communicate for the broker that you are buying your horse from. United Pegasus was great to work with, and I would definitely consider rescuing through them again.

Lightning

This is my sister's horse, Lightning. He is a 15.1hh leopard appaloosa. My sister started taking lessons on this guy years before my family bought him. He can be hard headed and quite testy for new rider, so, at the time, only experienced enough riders were allowed to ride him. However, there weren't enough at the lesson barn, and so he was sent back to his original owner. My sister and I followed him there about a year later, and started working there in exchange for free rides on their horses. Shortly after we bought him, and I got Pony, we were able to move them both to our family's new place along with my friends two horses (Maggie and Space.) Lightning is a fat lazy horse who enjoys his food and being the boss of the field more than anything else.

About Me

So, I thought I would start this blog off with a bit of an introduction about me. First off, my name is not Jasper. Jasper is my horse's name. And, no, he is not named after a certain fictional vampire. I do like the Twilight series, but he was named Jasper long before I had ever heard of it.

I'm a college student at the moment majoring in animal science. I don't live in a dorm; instead I live with my parents on their 10+ acre horse farm where we board horses. We also quite frequently rescue horses. My horse was a rescue that we got a while ago, and, almost a year ago, my mom got an OTTB (off the track thoroughbred.) We also have been talking about possibly rescuing another horse.

I love animals; my family currently has 3 dogs, 5 cats, 4 horses, and a bird. Very rarely do we actually buy our animals (apart from the horses.) They are usually freebies that people no longer want, strays, and occasionally gifts (our golden retriever.)

This blog will mostly be about horses, my life, animals, and more horses. So, read if you want and enjoy if you can.