USERL - Hearts for Horses

Well, I recently spent a few hours on a cold Saturday morning working at a barn here in Statesville. This particular barn houses around twelve horses, all of whom seem perfectly content to be there. But this barn, owned by Teri Crosier, is not just another barn. The twelve horses living there are all rescue horses. Some of them are personal rescues that belong to Teri, and others are foster horses waiting for adoption.

Teri runs a foster barn for the USERL - the US Equine Rescue League. The USERL is a wonderful organization that is dedicated to the compassionate care of equines. According to their website:

• Our mission is to save, protect, and rehabilitate equines in need. We rescue abused, neglected, or abandoned equines; provide them with care and rehabilitation, and finally find them a compatible, loving home. We believe that education is the long-term solution to improving the lives of equines.

The USERL has horses available for adoption in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Iowa. Some of their horses are able to be ridden, some are barely saddle trained, some can only be trained from the ground, and some are meant to be adopted only as companion horses. I worked with several of these rescues at the barn, and they were all very sweet horses. Here are a few of the USERL horses I met:

Summer:

- 20-year-old mare

- Saddlebred/Quarter Horse mix

-Ground training only

Summer is in excellent health, has good temperament, and moves with incredible grace. I was amazed to see how well she was still able to move in spite of her age. However, she is still restricted to ground training only due to her age.

Brandi

- 31-year-old mare

- Quarter Horse

- Companion Only

Brandi is another companion-only horse because of her age. She is in overall good health, but she does have slight arthritis that can be easily treated with proper care.

Star

- 12-year-old mare

- Quarter Horse

- Companion only

Star was found wandering on her own in Love Valley, NC. Her front legs are slightly disfigured, so she can't carry a rider. However, she is a very sweet horse (and my favorite to work with), and would make a good companion horse. 

-Most of these horses have small adoption fees, usually ranging from $250-$500 depending on how well-trained the horse is. However, most companion-only horses don't have any adoption fees. Donations are still appreciated.

For more horses available for adoption, visit: 

USERL - Horses for Adoption (NC)  (from here, you can also see horses available in other states.)

USERL also has several Facebook pages:
USERL - NC Triangle Region
USERL - Central Piedmont Region
USERL - Focus Recovery Fundraising
USERL - Triad Region
USERL - Richmond

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Now, on to the Hearts for Horses Campaign. 

USERL is hosting a Valentine's Day campaign to raise money for their organization. All proceeds go directly to caring for and rehabilitating the rescued horses (seeing as USERL doesn't own any property that requires maintenance fees or property taxes.) 

With any donation of $25 or more, you can either receive a Valentine's Day card for yourself, or have one sent to someone you love to tell them about the donation you made in their honor. 

For more info on the Hearts for Horses campaign or on USERL in general, visit their website:

USERL Home Page

"Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account?" --Jean Paul Richter

Photojournalism: A Photograph and its Story

Old Salem. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

This is one of my favorite photographs. I took it in the basement of one of Old Salem's historic houses. The room was lined on both sides with windows like this - probably 6 or 7 windows on each side. Each window was perfectly symmetrical. Somehow, the sunlight was shining through each window the same way. I couldn't pass up the chance for a picture. At first I shot with a wider lens, hoping to get all seven windows to show the striking symmetry. But as I looked through the shots I took, the one with just these two windows struck me the most. So that was the one I worked with. There is very minimal editing on this one - just a desaturation filter and some slight adjustments to the contrast to better show the light on the walls.

This particular shot is a personal favorite of mine. It reminds me of a poem by T.S. Eliot. The poem, "Morning at the Window" is beautiful within itself, but it also fits perfectly with the location of this shot. For those of you who don't know, Old Salem is a historic Colonial town. The homes, shops, and other buildings have been staged as they would have looked during the Colonial age, and the workers dress like men & women during that time while doing jobs that would have been done then. It's definitely a place worth visiting, if you're within the area and have a free day. 

And now, the poem:

Morning at the Window

They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

--T. S. Eliot

Welcome to my World

Time for the awkward first blog post...

Selena Auverin. That's my name. 

Sometimes I need a place where I can gather everything I do. This blog is going to be a little bit of everything I do: photography, poetry, short stories, book reviews, and my musings on a variety of topics. Occasionally, I might bring in a friend for input on certain posts. 

(At this point, my friend tells me to point out that I am a 5' 4" sexy ninja and he's a super genius. Ladies and gentlemen...meet Stephen. He'll probably make several more appearances later on.)

Let's see...what else is there to say here?

If anyone is wondering, I'm not always sitting in front of the computer blogging or whatnot. I like to get out of the house, ride horses, read, go running, meditate, do yoga, and hone my music skills.

There's more, but I won't babble too much, for now.

I'm thinking about putting a quote at the bottom of each post I make. Why not start now? 

"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." -Burt Bacharach

Tschau.