My favorite recipe - Oct. 15, 2009

Jana Mathia | Oct 15, 20090

Meet Shelly Feldner, Colfax

Much of Shelley Feldner’s life is about horses. She now owns eight, mostly ponies that she trains and serves as a leader of the Saddle Pals 4H club and an officer in the Pony Club.

Shelley adds her job at Tick Klock Pharmacy in Colfax is also about horses.

“I have the job to support the horses,” she explained with a smile.

Shelley grew up in Albion and attended school at Pullman. She went to Washington State University and graduated in 2003 with a degree in pharmacy.

“I wanted to do something in health care,” she noted. An interest in how drugs can help people led her to pharmacy. She worked at Tick Klock as an intern and was hired in 2004. She said she liked the independent pharmacy setting, mostly because of the people.

photo by Jerry Morse

“That’s the fun part, getting to talk to the people.”

When Shelley clocks out of work, she goes home to her horses on the 75 acres she owns with her parents, Curtis and Janet Feldner, along the North Fork of the Palouse River upstream from Colfax.

Half of the horses she owns have Connemara bloodline, an Irish pony breed. She also has a Welsh pony and a grey Fjord mare which is a Scandinavian breed.

“Being of Norwegian descent, I always thought it would be neat to have one,” she said. While dun brown is the most common color of Fjords, Shelley liked the grey better. She has trained her Fjord to do jumping and pull a cart.

“I’m five feet tall, I don’t need to be riding big horses,” she commented.

“The thing I like about ponies is they’re intelligent,” Shelley said.

Spending so much time and energy on her horses comes naturally to Shelley.

“I was on the back of a horse before I could walk,” she said. When she was five years old she started barrel racing.

While in high school, Shelley joined Pony Club, a national organization that promotes horsemanship and sportsmanship. It was through the club’s local branch, Palouse Hills Pony Club, that she got into English riding, jumping and dressage.

Of all the styles of riding and competing Shelley has done, she wants to focus most on dressage which calls for a horse to execute maneuvers in response to barely perceptible movement by the rider. She likes the dressage because she can always improve and keep progressing.

“There’s always some place to go. There’s always another training level, ” she explained.

During the summer Shelley spends a fair amount of time with Saddle Pals 4H club. She was a member in her youth and has been the leader for four years.

“They’re a very enthusiastic, great group of kids to work with,” she said. The group’s main focus is horses, but Shelley encourages members to try other projects.

“I learned an awful lot in 4H,” Shelley recalled. People skills and public speaking are some of the general skills she learned, but she also has retained and uses some of the more specific project skills. For example, the weeds project she completed now helps her identify and control poisonous weeds on the property.

Shelley is also active in the Pony Club as the horse management organizer for the region which covers several states. She helps with the on-the-ground education of the members which includes stables, tack and horse care.

Finger Cookies

(just in time for Halloween)

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup softened butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

sliced almonds

red decorator gel (if desired)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl combine sugar and butter, beat until fluffy. Add flour and cornstarch, mix well.

Shape dough into fingers, about 3 inches by 1/2 inch (fingers will get puffier when cooking); using a butter knife, put three marks in for knuckles, press a sliced almond in one end for a fingernail.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and cook about 10 minutes until lightly browned.

If desired, after allowing to cool, the almond can be lifted and red gel placed underneath.

Shredded Pork Sandwich

Medium sized pork roast

Medium onion

Large container of BBQ sauce

Place pork roast in crockpot with sliced onion, cover with water.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove roast, discard water and onion.

Shred pork roast with fork and place back in rinsed crockpot.

Stir in BBQ sauce and cook on low for 1-2 hours.

Serve over rolls or hamburger buns.