I have always loved equine...all equine and have had the privilege of owning many for several years of my life. I must admit I have had some fat years. I finally got to the point of "this is not fair to my horses" and started an elist at www.yahoogrouops.com called Does My Butt Look Big in the Saddle It grew very quickly and I began to loose weight. As a result of the large group of folks that joined the list I came up with the idea of this website to further help myself and others loose weight.

I have had horses for several years of my life and enjoy them very much. My first mount was a Shetland Pony I received as an eighth birthday gift. My first horse was a 15.2 Barrel Racing Champion Bay QH that I received for my 13 birthday. My dad always told that my first words were "I want a horse" and I did not stop saying them until they bought me one.

I am lucky to be married to a man that makes my dreams come true and knowing that I wanted horse in my life, he made that happen, PLUS the donkey I own and love.

Deron and I ride each and every morning that weather will allow us (really only rain keeps us home) out on the open prairie we will on. We own Paint Horses, Quarter Horses, a few "Grades" and Abby the Donkey. Grades are no less important to us, because you can not "ride the papers" and many times the grades will get a job done faster or better then a registered horse.

We ride a round robin with our riding horses (some of our "guys" are still young and unbroke to ride as of yet) so that each and every equine gets to go out for the ride....and they love it. They also enjoy the long groomings we give before and after the ride.

The groomings are good for not only the horses, but also the humans!! Grooming not only uses your muscles, it keeps you out of the kitchen and away from eating. I like to believe it also helps get the chicken fat or bat wings off your arms too.....is has helped me.

Deron and I have trained some of our own horses from colt and even do some trick training....ok, I have mostly. LOL Deron sticks more to the serious training, like desentizing and the like.

We have done a little Team Penning and I have tinkered riding in the show ring. We have even been on real live Cattle Drives riding our own horses to do it. Our first love with horseback riding is trail riding. Mainly Organized Trail Rides. We did many of these when we lived in Northern WI with the RRR Riding Club GREAT group of folks!!

I have written articles for a couple of Horse related magazines and enjoy hosting a few equine related sites at the Yahoo Groups site.

Please also visit our other equine related sie at www.bibledonkeys.com or www.biblicaldonkeys.com You might find yourself looking differently at donkeys after reading it.

My husband is really good about my love for animals. We met because we both are mushers and each had several dogs. When Deron and I hooked up he had more dogs then most people will own in a life time. The joke is I married the guy with the dogs and he married the Harness Maker. I am a sled dog harness maker by trade.

DogStar Kennel www.dogstarkennel.com is/was Deron's kennel name when he and I got together. I always used Marna's Menagerie www.marnasmenagerie.com for my animals, rabbitry, aviary, cavery, kennel, Harness Shop, everything. We kept and we use both names. DogStar Kennel is for our kennel, Marna's Menagerie is used mostly for our fun and functional animal items we have for sale as well as my Rabbitry name.

We have "dubbed" our place Grasshopper Ranch. We use the name Grasshopper Ranch more for the Horses, Goats www.workinggoats.com and Llamas www.workingllamas.com that we also work here in SD.

We called the place Grasshopper Ranch because we would rather play then work... we both have made our livings out of what we love to do or "our play". Deron is a computer Programmer and has a desk top publishing program he has had and sold in many countries since 1985 which you can see at www.pagestream.org. I have been a sled dog harness maker since 1986 professionally, but have made animals equipment most of my life. I make all kinds of items including but not limited to goat harnesses, goat packs, llama packs, rabbit harnesses, rabbit, guinea pig, rat, hamster and even mouse clothes, dog coats, llama tassles and much more.

Deron and I do all sorts of things with our animals. We have the sled dogs and we also backpack with them. Although it is not Deron's favorite sport, I enjoy weight pulling and have done well at competition. I have dogs that do frisbie www.upnorthdiscdogs.com and I used to compete. We have horses we horse pack with, as well as the goats and llamas that both pack and pull.

Deron breeds all sorts of snakes and reptiles, and I have small animals as well. I even do agility, but not just with dogs. I found out about Fancy Rat Agility www.theagilerat.com enjoy it and when I heard about rabbit agility and rabbit hopping, well, I had to give it a whirl. Deron, being the great guy that he is made my agility equipment. Rabbit Hopping is also known as rabbit jumping or showjumping or even rabbit show jumping.

At DogStar Kennel, as far as dogs, we mostly have AKC Siberian Huskies that we own, raise, train, race and backpack with. Deron and I are so proud of the lines of our dogs that we also have a website called Seppala News www.seppalanews.com. We also have Labrador Retrievers, English Shepherds, St. Bernards (only one now) and a few Cocker Spaniels....yes, they pull, pack, weight pull and many, including the Sibes, do a few tricks. I am learning to groom my Cockers (good thing we live way out).

I have been spinning with a drop and or a Navajo spindle, so the llamas, sheep and angora rabbits are also considered working animals. LOL