When Things Get Squirrely............

.....share your nuts!!!!!

This little feller has been frequenting my bird feeder. He's awfully cute and I actually enjoy his antics on the front porch. My husband has offered to shoot him with his Red Ryder BB gun but I don't want anyone shooting their eye out. So for now, Squirrel and his nuts are safe at my house!

The idea is that there is a kind of memory in nature. Each kind of thing has a collective memory. So, take a squirrel living in New York now. That squirrel is being influenced by all past squirrels.
Rupert Sheldrake

Well, I don't know about that. If this squirrel were being influenced by the squirrels of MY past, he'd be scampering away screaming, "NO! NO! No squirrel pie!" LOL 

Best Beagle In The Class!!!!!

Last night Jelly and I began our Advance Obedience class with Cathy Crawmer. The class is held at an indoor venue, The Pet Lodge, in Clifton Park. The room we were in was long and narrow and a bit cramped once all the dogs and handlers got there. I wasn't sure how Jelly would handle it all - at least 20 dogs/handlers, big fans whirring, the microphone speakers squealing, dogs barking, etc. but she did a great job and I was very proud of her!! At one point we were broken into 2 groups. Group 1 was told to have their dogs sit and they were to stand beside them and visit with the other handlers. Group 2 (our group) was told to put our dogs on sit/stay. Then Cathy opened a door and told us, "Now, leave your dogs. Good bye." My first thought was, "Yikes.....!!!" But I went meekly along with everyone else. I was worried that Jelly would come running after me. Cathy let us each peek thru the door one at a time to check on our dogs and, low and behold, there was Jelly, still sitting where she was told to stay, little beagle butt firmly attached to that cold, cement floor!! She was looking around at all the other dogs and handlers but she didn't move! It was a very proud moment for me! 
As you can see from the photo above, Jelly was quite proud of herself when we returned home. She's clearly saying, "Look at me! I'm the best beagle in the class!" (SSSHH!!! Don't tell her she's the ONLY beagle in the class!! LOL) Go, Jelly!!!

"Linus: You know what you and Snoopy should do? You should go to an obedience school!
Snoopy: Why should we go to an obedience school? He already does everything I want him to!"

Donkey Cam

Jingle is the cutest donkey ever and I love to TRY to take her picture! But she's so curious that the second she sees the camera in my hand, she just has to get as close as possible to see what it's all about! If I back away, she follows me. I'm usually only successful if I stand outside the pasture or paddock fence so that she can't get to me but then, of course, there's always that pesky fencing in the photo! I tried to get some pictures yesterday but, true to her little donkey self, she just couldn't stay away from the camera:

 See? A nose and an ear. Maybe next time, I'll get the whole ass..........LOL!!!

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept." Ansel Adams
(Well, I guess we got that covered! LOL)

Mom & Dad?

My husband asked me a shocking question last night - one I never expected to hear from him! (And no, it did NOT involve Fredrick's of Hollywood.....sheesh!). He was petting our beagle and suddenly turned to me and said, "Do you REALLY believe that our pets can come back as people we've known? Do you think it's possible?" I was shocked! I never thought he'd become so enlightened! I said, "Well, sure, why not?" "Well," he continued. "The cat reminds me a lot of my dad and he did show up the weekend after Dad died. And this beagle reminds me a whole lot of my mom and you know how she loved her beagles. And look at the relationship between GrayKitty and Jelly." He paused to chuckle. "Jelly takes no crap from GrayKitty and she's the only animal who can make GrayKitty cringe and skulk away quietly." HA HA HA That's absolutely true!! GrayKitty IS like Harry - taciturn, prone to small hissy fits when things don't go his way, determined to always get his way, thinks he's totally in charge! Jelly's a lot like my mother-in-law, Nellie.....she welcomes everyone lovingly into our home, she's short and a little stout, she's very strong - physically and emotionally - she's forgiving, and she puts GrayKitty (Harry?? LOL) in his place with nothing but a dirty look or a short bark! Oh, and she had a GRAND sense of humor and certainly would have worn the reindeer antlers pictured above! She would have plunked them on her head and struck a few funny poses while laughing uproariously! John and I got laughing as we talked about the similarities between the animals and his parents. Sorta makes me wonder...........................

"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew - it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

She Shoots! She Scores!

Well, not really, but Jelly is really catching onto our soccer ball game!! After she got the hang of touching the ball with her paw, I began withholding the treats in order to encourage her to offer another behavior. Naturally, she went to the ball several times, touched it with both her nose and paw and returned to me for a C/T. She would cock her head and look at me, asking, "Well?" I waited until she "batted" the ball with a paw and then clicked and treated her. Of course, as round objects are wont to do, the ball rolled away. This provided an interesting scenario! Once she received her treat, Jelly returned to where the ball WAS, looked perplexed for a second, then ran back to get her treat! LOL I was wondering if she'd figure out that she had to look around for the ball but apparently she hadn't made that connection and she continued to turn around and look at the spot where the ball had last rested! I finally went to the ball and nudged it with my foot so that she could see where it was and then returned to my spot by the counter. Jelly looked at me, looked at the ball, and then went to the ball and pushed it with her paw! C/T! From then on, she knew she was to find the ball, go to it and bat it with her paw. This has been a fun game and one that Jelly seems to really love! Her tail starts wagging and she has this big, ol' beagle grin on her face! I'm not sure what our next game will be but my daughter's fiance asked me yesterday, "Could you ever teach her to bat it into a little net like a goal?" Hmmmm..........Well, of course!! I'm thinking I could cut the bottom out of a box and make a square goal...........
100 Things To Do With A Box...and a ball!!! Clicking really allows us to use our imaginations. If we can imagine it, we can click it!

"I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs." James Thurber

Yeah.......me, too!!! 

Pony Manners

The other day I decided to clean the stall area of my barn while Split and Jingle were enjoying their meager handful of hay pellets. Split's pellets always go in the old wooden manger; Jingle's go in a little rubber tub on the floor. For some reason, Jingle will only poop and pee on Split's side of the stall.....right in front of his manger! Some sort of statement? Who knows........Anyway, while Split was tuckin' into his pellets, I grabbed the manure fork and started scooping up the piles in back of him. He turned and looked at me, clearly saying, "Seriously? I'm eating here." Ooops. I guess I wouldn't want the waitstaff vacuuming around me while I was dining, either. "Sorry," I apologized. What a funny pony! He shook his head as though saying, "Geez. Humans!" And he turned and walked away and stood in the stall doorway with his butt to me! I started laughing and he turned and communicated, "Please. Just get on with it so I can get back to eating." I quickly finished the job at hand, stepped aside and called to Split, "Ok. I'm done." He looked at me and I bowed slightly and motioned toward his manger. "Your pellets, Your Majesty." Without a word, he walked politely back to his manger, snorted slightly, and resumed eating. What a hoot!!!

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Perhaps that's true of horses as well?? 

Watching The Paint Dry..........

Yeah, that's pretty much what clicker training is all about.....watching the paint dry or the grass grow. Ho-hum....at least to the casual observer. To those of involved in the process, it's really exciting to see those little, tiny steps toward success. And sometimes they're so microscopic you think, "Did I just really see that?" Take Jelly and that soccer ball........
So...I bring the soccer ball into the kitchen and place it on the floor in front of Jelly. She glanced at it, walked around it and sat in front of me. I nudged the ball with my foot. Jelly gave it a cursory glance and went on staring at me. No interest whatsoever. I got out my treat-filled fanny pack and suddenly those little beagle eyes lit up like high-beams and her tail started wagging "to beat the band" (my grandmother's expression!). She knew then that she was in for some fun! 
Jelly hadn't yet associated the ball with the treat at that point so I gave her a little help. I nudged the ball with my toe again and when Jelly looked at it, I clicked and treated (C/T).
It took several minutes for her to associate "look at the ball" with getting a treat but once she got it, you could see the wheels start to turn. She looked at me, cocked her head, glanced at the ball, and then looked at me again, clearly asking, "Is that it?" I then added lavish verbal praise. (I tend to be quiet when I'm clicking for a new skill because I don't want to confuse or distract the animal. Occasionally I will add a quiet "good, good.") When "look at the ball/CT" was established, I stopped C/T for looking at the ball and simply waited to see what Jelly would offer once she figured out that just looking wasn't working anymore. She looked at the ball and then at me several times - not receiving a treat - and then stood up and looked at the ball - C/T! She remained standing and looking at the ball. We repeated this loop several times. Because Jelly was clearly enjoying the game and wasn't frustrated by it, I decided to add another criteria - would she go to the ball and put her nose on it? I helped her out a bit by pointing to the ball and saying, "Touch it." As soon as she did, she got a small "jackpot" treat (3 treats instead of 1). She caught onto that right away! I probably could have gone right to "touch it" from the get-go since Jelly has targeted a box before but I thought I'd try starting at the beginning. Anyway, after 10 successful nose touches, I again extended the period between clicks, wondering what other behavior she would offer. She touched the ball with her nose several times and returned to me for the treat. She never gets disappointed when the treat is not offered.....she simply stares at me (and one must have a lot of patience at this juncture! LOL). I smile and wait, hands behind my back, smiling and waiting, smiling and waiting.......She finally went to the ball, touched it and tentatively put a paw on it!! Exciting stuff!! I immediately clicked her and gave her lavish praise and a jackpot. When she had completed 5 successful paw touches (being C/T after each one), I called it quits for the day. I have no idea how long that all took us. I've discovered that when you're first teaching or wanting to shape or capture a behavior, you should take off the watch and just allow things to develop on their own. If I'm pressed for time, I find I WANT IT NOW and that just makes things more difficult so I choose a time during the day when I know I have "all the time it takes."
We're doing more with that soccer ball and I'll fill you in as we go along.
Remember.........

THE BEST WHISPER IS A CLICK!!!!!!

100 Things To Do With A Soccer Ball

Jelly and I attended our final agility class for 2011 last Thursday. It was a MOST WONDERFUL experience thanks to the warmth and positive attitude of trainers Cathy and Glenn. We'll resume again in mid-January, somewhere inside - place to be determined. But what do we do til then????? 
Neither Jelly nor Lucy have ever shown a bit of interest in dog toys. How odd. The first time I presented either one with a squeaky toy, they literally shrunk back in horror! "GAAAA! What IS that thing? Take it away!" No amount of fooling around, tossing it, or even holding it in my teeth and growling could get them interested. I was used to my old yellow lab who, when presented with a new toy, would virtually turn herself inside out! "For me? For me? YAY!!! I can toss it and bite it and gut it? YAY!" 
My theory about Jelly and Lucy is that they spent all their "formative years" in cages as part of puppy mills - their lives were to produce litter after litter. They don't know what toys are or what to do with them. In fact, they were afraid of lots of things when they first came into our lives - snow, grass, loud noises, TREATS! Yep, the first time either dog was presented with a hand-fed treat, they pulled back, then stepped forward and sniffed cautiously. They nosed it, licked it, and finally - reluctantly - took it in their teeth. They spit it out and walked around it suspiciously. Once they actually ate it, however, they were HOOKED! LOL But I digress.....(what else is new?)
So here we are - Jelly and me - with no agility class for 2 months. What to do? Karen Pryor has an exercise she calls (I'm paraphrasing) "100 Things To Do With A Box" and it's about capturing and shaping behaviors with the click. I was in the garage the other day and spied a soccer ball left over from the days when my kids tried (and failed miserably) to be soccer players. ("A speeding ball? AAGGH!! Get it away from me!") I had a light bulb moment - we could play with that ball! 
I brought the ball inside and set it on the kitchen floor in front of Jelly. She looked at it, looked at me, and then went off, sniffing the floor in search of crumbs. Well, clearly this was going to be a challenge! I donned ye olde bum bag full of treats and thought, "Well, let the games begin!" How's it working out, you ask? I'll let ya know..................

"Men cannot think like dogs.... [There exists] a sharp difference in the mental capacity of humans and canines. For example, a human who is given an intricate problem will spend all day trying to solve it, but a canine will have the sense to give up and do something else instead."

Corey Ford

Yeah.....ain't THAT the truth??

Under where? UnderWEAR!!!!!!

I found this very strange creature in my laundry basket! Is it a rat with mutant ears? Is it a zombie dog? Is it a grannypantsasaurus?
Oh, wait! It's just Lucy the minichi! LOL
I love this picture and just wanted to share with you. Lucy loves to burrow down into my laundry basket when she comes for sleep-overs and sometimes I even forget she's here until I go upstairs into my bedroom and notice that the laundry is....aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive! Sometimes I bring laundry up from the cellar, warm from the dryer, set it down in the hallway and leave it. Imagine my surprise when I go to pick it up and fold it and instead of grabbing hold of socks or shirts, I reach in and grab..........Lucy! ha ha She always gives me THE LOOK - "Excuse me. I'm trying to SLEEP HERE, MADAM!" I'm way past worrying about a little dog hair on my clothes. It's a given around this place.

“Even the tiniest Poodle or Chihuahua is still a wolf at heart” Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Yep, that's true! That little Lucy.....she's all wolf! Well, until she sees the cat staring at her and then she runs for the hills...............and hides. Under where? UnderWEAR of course!

OOPS.....A Daisy!

Kathleen Kelly: I love daisies. Joe Fox: You told me. Kathleen Kelly: They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?

I love the movie "You've Got Mail." And I love daisies! In mid-summer, the entire perimeter of my paddock is covered with daisies! It looks like I deliberately planted a border of thousands of daisies. And they ARE the friendliest flower - they're always so sunny and bright and they make me smile every time I go out to the barn. I miss them, especially at this time of year. BUT.........I was riding in the paddock last week, just 2 days after the big snowstorm, and I looked down and THERE WAS A DAISY! I took a picture of it because I thought, "No one will believe this!" I got down on my hands and knees and just relished looking at its bright, yellow, smiling face! I thought, "What a wonderful gift!" This little daisy popped out just to brighten my day! It was only there for a day or two and then............gone again. I'm sure he'll come back next summer. Maybe he missed me, too!

"Daisies are like sunshine to the ground." Drew Barrymore

Soccer Ball Training

I never realized just how hard dog agility is! As you can see by the photo above, most of the time it's the handler getting the exercise and many times we have to give our dogs a little "boost" to help them understand what we want them to do! The secret to success (besides "practice, practice, practice") is for the dog and handler to be able to read each other's body language. I realized that Jelly and I were sadly lacking in that department when I'd point to an obstacle and she'd go off in the other direction. One afternoon when we were practicing, I decided to try to block her with my feet as she skittered off in yet another direction. She would dodge to the left and so would I. This made her stop and think. She dodged to the right and so did I. We continued this way until suddenly Jelly found herself directly in front of the jump. "Hmmm...." I'm sure she was thinking. "This is interesting." She looked at me. She looked at the jump. I was pointing at the obstacle and saying, "Over, Jelly, over!" She thought about it for a second and then over she went! I immediately clicked and treated her. I pointed to the next obstacle (the tire) and said, "Tire, Jelly, tire." "Boring," says Jelly and off she went in another direction. Again I blocked her with my feet and I thought at the time, "This is like playing soccer." Of course, my goal is not to kick Jelly over, thru, or onto an obstacle, but rather to guide her to where I want her to be. As we practiced this over the weeks, I began to realize that were anticipating each other's every move. She now watches my feet and ankles to see where I'm going and I've become much quicker at anticipating which way she's going to scoot! We've become much more successful at negotiating a course of obstacles! Does that mean we're ready for competition? Uh....I don't think so. But we're getting closer. And it just reinforces what most of you know already - body language is SO important when we're communicating with our animals! I have to be very clear when communicating with Jelly. Of course, she still sometimes sits down, glares at me, and then sticks her nose in the air, and gazes off in the other direction. THAT body language clearly says, "I'm thinking about it!" She's a funny beagle!!!

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." - Samuel Butler

Permission Granted!

Despite our early snowstorm on Saturday night, it's shaped up to be a beautiful autumn week here in upstate NY. Daytime temps have been in the upper 50's and it's been sunny every day - perfect for some bareback rambles around the paddock. Those of you that know me or have been reading this little blog for a while know that my Welsh pony, Split, is a real gentleman. For a variety of reasons, I haven't sat on him since sometime in August yet I hopped aboard on Sunday and he was as well-behaved as if we'd been riding every day. Yesterday, tho, he gave me a most amazing gift!
Because I am short of stature, I have a mounting block (yes, I even need it to get on a PONY! LOL) and I usually lead Split over to it and line him up. He never protests. He just stands quietly while I shinny onto his back. When I first got the mounting block, he wasn't sure what that big, green plastic thing was and wasn't too keen on getting near it. However, we clicked and clicked and he finally figured out that a) it wasn't going to kill him and b) he got a treat every time we stood next to it! But the treasure eluded me. I was hoping that at some point Split would INVITE me to ride, i.e., I would love to have him - at liberty - walk up to the mounting block on his own and "invite" me to hop on. Haltering is easy - I show him the halter and 9 times out of 10, he will walk up and simply put his nose into the nose band, letting me know he's willing to play or ride. But he never walked to the mounting block of his own volition.
Yesterday I carried the mounting block out into the paddock and plunked it down in the mud. Then I fiddled with the halter and lead rope (I don't use a bridle), straightening everything out and as I was doing that, I noticed Split moseying over from the other end of the paddock. I assumed he was going to come to the halter. But NO.........He walked over with a very peppy step, ears up, nickering. He walked to the mounting block, lined himself up perfectly, then turned to look at me, clearly saying, "OK, Mom! Hop on! Let's go!"
I think my heart actually stopped for a second. I was speechless, that's for sure! I was totally gobsmacked - completely over-whelmed with emotion. A little gesture from a little pony, to be sure, but it meant the world to me! You can have all the championship ribbons gathering dust in my closet. They pale in comparison to the "award" I got yesterday - my pony INVITING me to go riding! There are no words............................

To understand the soul of a horse is the closest human beings can come to knowing perfection.

Author Unknown

Poor Man's Manure

This is our garden. This is our garden with snow all over it on October 29!! My grandfather and father-in-law always referred to these late autumn/late spring snowfalls as "poor man's manure." There are any number of explanations for this, including some that are very scientific - adds nitrogen to the soil, etc. I'm not sure that my farmer relatives were into the scientific reasons for it - they just knew what they observed and, as farmers, they had to be very observant when it came to weather patterns! Today we have satellites and doppler radar and computers to keep us apprised of what's ahead weatherwise but "back in the day," it all came down to being in touch with the earth - the old-timers observed the sky, the wind, the animals' behaviors, plant growth........I'm thinking that, as wonderful as all the new technology is, perhaps we're losing those senses that once served us so well as hunter/gatherers.
There was an old farmer in Arlington, Vermont who, back in the '50's and '60's, based his haying on whether or not the Detroit Tigers were able to play home games during the summer. He loved baseball and would listen to it on the radio and read about it in the paper. He realized that whatever weather Detroit was experiencing would reach Vermont within 48 hours. If the Tigers were playing a home game in good weather, he put down the hay! No doppler radar or pretty weather girls for him!
"Poor man's manure." I love that expression. I wonder how many people (excluding farmers) today even know what that means?

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization."

- Daniel Webster

We're BAAAAAAACK!!!

Well, here it is the very end of October and I can't believe I haven't posted anything since July. September and October went by in a blur.........September found me down and out with Lyme Disease (there were days when I was literally unable to get out of bed) and October brought the death of my husband's oldest sister. On the up side, however, October 22nd was my oldest daughter's wedding - a truly joyous occasion! She and her husband have known each other for 11 years and our families are like "one big happy" whenever we get together! So congratulations, Colleen and Trevor O'Neil! I wish you a lifetime of happiness - you deserve it!
I have lots of thoughts whirling around in my head and stories about my beagle and pony and donkey to share so I'll be sitting down and writing more often. Stay tuned! Until then..............

Quit hanging on to the handrails . . . Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day.

Melody Beattie

We're On Our Own!

Jelly and I have now completed 4 agility classes and have earned the right to train on our own at the trainer's facility! For me, this was the ultimate gift because we can go to the field and practice, using our clicker and breaking down each obstacle into small steps. During the class we usually have at least 5 other dogs and handlers in our group and naturally the trainers would like to keep things moving. They offer a lot of help and always give positive encouragement and suggestions but in the end, we must move along quickly. Those of you who understand clicker training can imagine how that makes us feel. But I know what the trainers are up against and they're doing an excellent job! The last words Glen said to all of us Wednesday night were, "You're doing fantastic, all of ya! Great job, everybody!"
Jelly is still reluctant to approach the obstacles at any pace other than a walk and she will often stop just before the obstacle, or mid-way over/thru/under, and stand there THINKING about whether or not she wants to continue. If we were on our own, this would be perfectly acceptable and I would simply let her figure things out. It's harder when you have 5 other teams waiting their turn behind you.
So yesterday morning - before it got too hot - we went to the field to practice our agility.
I began by C/T Jelly for approaching the first little jump with a happy attitude. Then I stood on the other side of it and called her name. I held the line and just waited. Jelly looked at the jump, "thunk" for a second, and then hopped neatly over it! Yay! C/T. We did this with every single jump. The next time, I C/T every 2 jumps and in the end, she was trotting and jumping beautifully over all 8 jumps - with no hesitation and a happy expression on her face. We then practiced the "catwalk" which is 2 steep ramps with a "catwalk" in between. The catwalk is pretty high and can be intimidating for small dogs.
Jelly did some hesitating when she got on the catwalk but again, I simply waited while she looked around and considered her options. I made sure my hand was ready to grab her harness if she should decide to jump down (not a good idea!) but other than that, I just talked to her and encouraged her. Finally, she simply trotted the rest of the way along the walk, down the ramp to the bottom. She immediately sat for her treat, grinning as only Jellybean Beagle can do!!!
Thank goodness for the power of the click! Here's a quote from my grandfather's favorite author. I think it rings true for many of us:

“Change your thoughts and you change your world” ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Have a great weekend, everyone and stay cool!! Oh - and look for new photos here soon because I just bought a CAMERA! Yay! Click and treat for me! Get it? Camera? CLICK? Oh.....never mind! :0)

Animals Do The Darndest Things

Anyone remember the old Art Linkletter show, "Kids Say The Darndest Things?" (Yes, I'm old. We've already established that fact. LOL) Well, I've discovered that animals DO the darndest things! (They also SAY the darndest things but that's a subject for another day.)
Tuesday Split and I went for a walk around the property (on line) and he was very interested in everything as always. He discovered some things on the lawn that shouldn't be there like my brother-in-law's bright green cooler that had suddenly "sprouted up" on the lawn or my husband's pitching net.......He walked right up, sniffed them, licked them and then turned to me, asking, "That's not supposed to be there, right?" So were moseyin' along, la la la, when suddenly Split snorted, jumped 3' sideways (away from me - he's a good boy), and stood there, neck arched and nostrils flared because there it was.....the big, the rusty, the faded green, hole ridden, black-tired monster.......THE WHEELBARROW!!!!! Dear lord, that horse has seen that same wheelbarrow every single day for 5 1/2 years and suddenly it's out to kill him. For a nanosecond, I too, was startled because I couldn't figure out what the heck had caused such an intense reaction and then..........I saw the wheelbarrow. I had to burst out laughing! I marched over to it (still holding the lead rope), touched the side of the barrow and said, "TOUCH IT!" (Targeting - don't leave home without it!) He trusts me so he tippy-toed forward, snorting slightly, and grazed the edge of the wheelbarrow with his nose. He drew back in surprise, snuffled, and stuck his nose right back on it again. I clicked and treated and then Split - clever boy that he is - figured, "Aha! The wheelbarrow! I got clicked and treated for THAT? This is gonna be good!" And he proceeded to touch that wheelbarrow with his nose over and over in rapid succession, each time looking to me - the vending machine! - for a treat. ha ha ha I c/t him a few times and then said, "Alright. Enough of that." The rest of our walk was great fun. We played, "Can You Match This?" I would walk slowly and see if he would match me; I'd speed up, stop, back up, etc. Great fun and it puts us both in the mindset of "I'd better pay attention here" so we really tune in to each other's body language.
Animals........they do the darndest things!
I googled quotes from Art Linkletter and found the following. For those of us who are clicker trainers, it's PERFECT:

I've learned it's always better to have a small percentage of a big success, than a hundred percent of nothing.
Art Linkletter

Buck - A Movie Review

OK. I used to watch Siskel and Ebert. I can do this. I mean, how hard can it be to watch a movie and then report your thoughts to your adoring public? Well, harder than I thought....
My daughter Katie and I treated ourselves to a matinee yesterday and went to see "Buck" the bio of Buck Brannaman. I'd read a review in the "Preview" section of our local paper and it included a brief interview with Buck himself, talking about the movie. According to that article, Buck is pleased with the results of the filming and editing and has seen the movie 4 times himself! That seemed like a pretty good indication that it was a movie worthy of my $7.50 so off we went.
Three words: I LOVED IT. Is Buck Brannaman perfect? No, but then who among us is? (Well, there are those who THINK they're perfect but I don't like them and they're no longer my friends! LOL) But I found myself hanging on his every word because they rang very true to me. He talked about how the horse is a mirror of ourselves and sometimes we don't like what we see lookin' back at us. He talked about mutual respect, about how anger shuts down communication between horse and human, and - wonder of wonders - he told the people in his clinic that it's NOT JUST ABOUT THE HORSE!!! People interviewed for the film included Buck's family and friends, the riders in his clinics and - may I say one of my favorites - Robert Redford. At one point Buck was faced with a disastrously difficult horse and I won't give away what happens but when he lit into the owner about taking responsibility for her own life, telling her that she should take a good, hard look at HERSELF, I found myself biting my fingernails to keep from crying. Because I know how that human felt but I also realized that Buck was being 100% honest and I've had to take a hard look at MYSELF - much closer than I wanted to - in order to become the person my animals love and respect.
There's some very disturbing footage of "horse training" from the 40's or 50's and it's not pretty and I wanted to stand up and scream, "STOP IT!" How far we've come!
Go see this movie and take away from it whatever you will. The quote I most remember is from a woman who was talking about "horse whisperers" in general. She said that most trainers like Buck Brannaman are, as human beings, more sensitive than others; many of them are "tortured souls on some level" and that's why they identify so deeply with the horses. I intend to go see this movie again!

Your horse is a mirror to your soul. Sometimes you might not like what you see… sometimes you will. ~ Buck Brannaman

Typos......Free Entertainment!

I love a good typo! I have this uncanny ability to find them and they always make me laugh. It's like free entertainment. I've decided to start sharing them with others and if you find any, please share them with me!!
From the internet today:
While the nation's third largest city was recovering from the sudden storm, much of the rest of the country was experiencing stiffing heat
Do they mean "stifling?" I thought you only got stiff if you were really cold....or dead...or..... (don't even GO THERE, you perverts!! LOL)
The other day WRGB on line ran an article about swimming pool installation scams. They ended with the line, "Many home owners have seen their planes end up in the deep end."
I couldn't resist....I had to email them and ask, "Were they PONTOON PLANES?" I never got a reply. Not even a "thanks for pointing out our error." Apparently they don't share my delight at finding others' mistakes.
Because I'm hearing impaired, I rely heavily on closed captioning to understand what's being said on TV. My favorite, all-time typo occurred during Hurricane Katrina. The reporter kept talking about "buckling asphalt" (I could hear that and the photos helped) but the closed captioning kept scrolling "bucking ass fault." I finally had to change the channel for fear I would pee my pants laughing!!
Send me your favorite typos!

The wastebasket is a writer's best friend. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

I guess these days it would be the delete key, huh?

It's Not All About Me

Saturday was blistering hot here in the Great Northeast. I've learned to cope with the inevitable......When I work outside, I take out my hearing aides so that when I get over-heated, I can just grab the hose and "water" myself (without killing $4,000 worth of hearing appliances). It's so hot that I dry very quickly and I'm cool for at least 10 minutes. Sometimes I wear nylon shorts and a t-shirt and if I feel like I'm getting over-heated, I just take off my work boots and socks and jump - fully clothed - into the pool! Then I get out, put on the boots and socks and carry on.............
But the heat brings grief and misery to my animals, too. Poor Jelly is mostly black and even when she's in the shade, she gets hot very quickly and soon starts baying, "Moooooom! Let me iiiiiiiiiin!" I turn on the ceiling fans for her and she conks out on the sofa to snooze the hot day away. Poor Jingle the mini donk tends to collect flies on her skinny little legs so I have some wraps I fashioned for her to keep them away. She doesn't sweat the way Split does. She protects herself by scratching out a dust pile with her sharp hooves in the paddock and then she gets down and rolls in it. The dirt protects her body from the fly bites - pretty much. Split, on the other hand, is totally traumatized by flies. He sees them as his deadliest enemy and even when painted with fly spray, he will twitch and kick and swish his tail and bite at himself. Sometimes, he'll even come flying in from the pasture 5 minutes after being let out, whinnying, "HEEEEEELP!" Usually I take pity on him and toss him some hay inside the nice, cool barn.
Saturday the bugs seemed particularly ravenous and as I started to open the gate to let the horses out, Split was biting at his left flank and trying to reach under his leg. He stomped his foot hard and twitched and bit at himself. I could see a huge horse fly biting at his belly and tried to shoo it away but it was very persistent. I finally just opened the gate and Split took a few steps and then stopped and literally stretched his left leg out behind him. He stomped, he turned and bit under his leg again and snaked his head around. Danged fly! My husband had asked me to check the electric tape in the pasture because he'd taken some down in order to mow out back - he wanted me to "eyeball" it to make sure he'd gotten it all back up on the posts again. Split had stopped to graze so I just moseyed past him - as I've done hundreds of times - and continued out into the pasture. A few seconds later, seemingly out of nowhere, he blew past me, bucking and kicking out at me!!!! I was stunned and angry and let out a, "HEY! Don't you EVER kick at me!" This was highly unusual and I was offended! I was pissed off! Split wasn't listening. He was too busy running in a circle, snaking and shaking his head - yikes! And then he stopped and began frantically biting under his leg again. Aha. It was the flies.....It wasn't about me at all. I could see several large horse flies attached to his underbelly, near his sheath and I reckon I wouldn't like that either!! I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And clearly no kick had even come near me but it had startled me to see that left hind coming out in my direction and I took it as a personal insult. I walked over to Split and skritched his withers and reached under to shoo the flies away. He was grateful and nuzzled me. I apologized - several times.
How many times, I asked myself later, have I been guilty of punishing an animal for what I perceived as a personal insult when the animal was simply reacting to stress or anxiety or pain in the only way they knew how? It didn't have anything to do with me personally (unless I unknowingly inflicted the pain!) but I took it that way. I would get angry and blame the animal and immediately shut off any effective communication between us. Split taught me an important lesson on Saturday: IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU, SILLY HUMAN. Did he make a mistake by kicking out in my direction, thereby placing me in danger? Well, I don't know about that. He was in pain. He was trying to get away from it. I'm not sure he even realized I was standing there at that point. Sometimes accidents are just that.......accidents. But I like to think that Split knew exactly where he was when he kicked out - he knew he wasn't going to harm me. He never has.....never will intentionally. My husband told a friend just yesterday, "That pony doesn't have a malicious bone in his body." Sigh.........yeah, it's not always about me. Silly human.
I always look for a quote to stick here or there in my blog and today I found one that I really like but it has nothing to do with the blog. It just made me laugh and think, "Hmmm......If ol Frank were only alive today........" I think I may be one of those "fools."

"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."

- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)

Self-treating!

My husband made me a nice little riding ring a few years ago. There's a hedgerow on each long side. At one end is a little pond and at the other end there is a stand of large fir trees and a small "meadow" which we usually don't mow - it's hard to get the tractor in and out of there. We recently discovered that a doe has taken up residence in that little protected meadow and she's raising two fawns there! They often come out to romp around in my riding ring and we watch them from the hallway window. Needless to say, I'm not going to go down there and disturb them so I had to find some place else to ride and play clicker games. John recently mowed down the big pasture beside the barn, turning it into a perfect play area for Split and me! Mowed down, however, does not equal NO GRASS so of course the first thing Split did when we went out there on Monday was declare, "Yeehaw! More grazing time!" Umm.......no. He's very good a lungeing (because of the temptation of the grass, he was wearing his halter and lunge line) so I thought, "Why not start with something easy?" I figured that would let him know that we were "working" and not "eating!" Good old Splitter. He was like, "Ok. Whatever you want." He walked and trotted and whoa'd like the prince that he is and accepted his treats nicely. But one time when I stopped and clicked him, he quickly reached down to scratch his front leg and discovered that (gasp!) his nose was touching the grass! He quickly snatched 2 mouthfuls. I laughed and said, "Well, I guess that's your treat then!" From then on, every time I clicked Split, he put his head down and grabbed 2 mouthfuls of grass!! He never tried to get more.........He was happy to do that as his treat! What a hoot!
I've learned to let go of that "oh, no ya don't!" attitude (for the most part! LOL) and am much more willing to let my animals be part of the decision making team. I'm always surprised, too, at how intelligent their decisions are!! I don't know why I'm surprised.......
they're often much smarter than I am! Letting Split take those 2 mouthfuls of grass and turning it into a positive rather than a negative allowed him to get the extra grass he wanted and we had a nice play session! When you have animals, that old adage, "Ya learn something new every day" really hits home!

A woman needs two animals - the horse of her dreams and a jackass to pay for it.
Author Unknown

My daughter gave me that quote on a plaque for Christmas. I display it proudly in my dining room.......