outside my sunday morning window

There is a red tree, a red bay, fallen acorns, a big chestnut, tobacco brown leaves on green grass, and a painted pony whose upside-down V is, today, an arrow pointing up to a clear and beautiful sky.

don't forget - Hempfling on Sunday

For more info, go to:

http://www.dressagedisgrace.com/live-teleseminar-klaus-ferdinand-hempfling

sojourn from the storm

Yesterday morning I opened the curtains to our front windows to find a small flock of birds taking refuge from the rain.

They were on the chairs, on the porch rail, and even lined up on the threshold of our front door.

The cats were lined up begging to be let out there, as it was the day of the big rain from Hurricane Ida and the front porch is a way to get outside without getting wet. I made them wait, though, because the birds were obviously trying to find a place to sit and dry out.

Today most of the rain has gone and now we're weathering gray skies and big wind.

As I did my daily check-in on Facebook, to see what news there might be in the rollkur debate, I found a reference to a book called Empowered Horses by Imke Spilker. Further research yielded THIS, a blog post that looks at Spilker's philosophy and work with horses.

I've ordered it, my own little sojourn from rollkur and the insanity in the dressage world.

Gerd Heuschmann and Joni Bentley - EXCELLENT article

READ IT HERE.


And please make sure you scroll all the way down to the photos of Anky and Patrik Kittel riding in Windsor 2009.

I don't think anything I could ever write on this blog can express the horrors of rollkur better than those photographs.

And the fact that judges give them ribbons speaks to the insanity in the sport as a whole.

we have redtails and donkey races today

This morning I went out with the intention to get all the barn chores done early, as we are expecting two days of possibly heavy rain associated with Hurricane Ida. I fed breakfast tubs and then stood in the little barnyard while the horses and donkeys ate.

The redtail couple came out together for the first time. I've only seen the male, in a series of close encounters written about previously, and although I assumed there was a female close by, had never seen her.

Today, beneath the gray sky and still brilliant autumn color, including that rich tobacco brown of leaves past their prime, the redtails carried on a lovely conversation, pinwheeling along from fence post to fence post, while I watched.

As equines finished up their tubs, we opened the arena gate in hopes that the donkeys and Salina would go in and get some exercise, but the way it ended up was that Rafer went in, was quickly joined by Redford and Salina, and then Rafer decided he wanted to play, but on his own terms.

So he went through the arena fence into the paddock where he could face off with Redford through the fence. The two of them played a new donkey game today, in which they played hide and seek from either side of the fence and the mounting block. Redford would peep out at Rafer, then paw the ground. Rafer would prick his ears and Redford would gallop a full circle of the arena, return to Rafer, roll, and then they would start it all over again.

At some point Rafer decided he wanted to race. The dirt paddock is a long rectangle that parallels the arena, and since we're using the back field this week, Rafer was able to run down the paddock, through the back gate, and around the outside of the arena all the way around except for the short side by the woods.

He and Redford raced like this for about 15 minutes, and at some point Cody joined in from the back field and he and Rafer were neck and neck on the outside, while Redford kept up inside the arena.

I have never seen anything quite like it. I began to have visions of building a race track, and having our own donkey derby in the spring. We could drive the truck into the center of the arena and have our own private tailgate party!

As quickly as it began, it ended. I'm not sure who the winner was, but they got quite a work-out this morning and should be all set to enjoy the rainy part of the day when it rolls in.

For now we have a slight wind blowing and leaves gliding and then cascading in groups as the wind picks up. The longer the rain holds off the better, but we're ready for it when it gets here.