miscellanea

Last week I had the camera on my desk but no cord, and this week I have the cord but no camera. I will eventually add some photos and video, but if I keep waiting until I have both necessary parts to that process, it might be awhile before a new post goes up!

Lots of little stuff going on here, though.

Saturday I went and met three Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies and ended up putting a deposit on a tri-color male, firstborn, big, cute as can be, called Bear by the breeder. Bear has a certain presence and self-assurance that I think will mix well with Kyra Corgi and the five felines here. Not to mention the donkey boys, who are going to get well acquainted with this little guy right from the start so there is no question that he is allowed in the barnyard.

Bear (who will get his permanent name soon) will be coming home in 3 weeks and I'm very happy we've found the new Corgi family member. I did not take photos, but you can bet there will be a ton once he gets here.

Thanks to Catherine who sent me the photos!

We've had rain daily since Friday, and the grass is growing at an astounding rate. Today was fairly mild at 90, but we're back into the upper 90s starting tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. July is when I wish we had a mountain farm to escape to, although I'd surely be a nervous wreck transporting every one of our animals at once to anywhere, much less up the side of a mountain. The thought of that makes the heat a little more bearable.

My son started driver's ed today, and was there for one hour before my cell phone rang and he said I needed to come back and pick him up. Apparently they spent the one hour being lectured to about cell phones and the fact that the teacher feels they are unnecessary. Until someone came in to the classroom and informed him that the water pipes weren't functioning, class was canceled, and the students would need to "get out your cell phones and call your parents to come get you."

Needless to say, my son is not all that enthused about his very first experience with the public/formal school system!

And finally, I have done a bit more work on my very important project, something I care a lot about, and something you'll be hearing more about as time passes. For now, if you're intrigued, head on over to November Hill Press and see the little bit that's there. Slowly, but surely, another lifelong dream is coming to fruition.

chris irwin tosses a gauntlet?

I don't know anything about Chris, but I found this intriguing. Anyone know more?

no drama here, just a peaceful July evening on November Hill

I actually have video! But can't find the cord for the camera, so will have to add it later.

Horses and donkeys are transitioning from back field to front, so in the evenings they go to the front for a few hours, until dinner tubs are served, and then they go to the back field for the rest of the night. The first few days of the new field they are very intent on grazing, and yesterday there were lots of equine jaws in action, along with tails swishing away whatever insects were out and about.

The setting sunlight made sections of gold in the front field, and periodically a horse or donkey would pass through, utterly illuminated for those moments in the light.

Sometimes I think "I should be riding" or "the back field needs harrowing asap!" But yesterday, no thought of any chore intruded, and even the idea of riding was an intrusion into the moment. The horses and donkeys were doing their own work, grazing and sampling, walking and swishing, enjoying a new patch of ground, and keeping track of all the herd members as they reclaimed the front field.

My job was to stand there and share the moment. Rafer Johnson made sure I knew I was wanted. You'll see, when I find that cord!

when big name trainers get too caught up in their own egos: Pat Parelli and Catwalk

I keep hoping someone with better footage will post it online, but even though the quality of what follows is poor, it's plenty clear enough: Pat Parelli will go against his own philosophy to accomplish his goal in front of an audience, and if it takes ropes on legs and twitches on gums, so be it.

These are his words about working with an ear shy horse (here, and in all Parelli quotes, I have left the typos as they were):

EAR SHY? By Pat Parelli
Can you touch your husband's ears? What about your best friend's, your child's or your mother's?
If you couldn't then there's probably something wrong with the relationship! This is how I want you to think of your horse's so-called 'problem'. If he doesn't like his ears to be touched its because deep down inside, he does not trust you. There is a flaw in your relationship.
When I talk about the solution here I am going to give you the natural approach, the one that consider's the horse's point of view. To effect a 'cure' you have to gain his trust and permission. The normal way is often to force the horse to accept it, twitch him, tie him, throw him…. In my mind (and in the horse's I'm sure) this is akin to rape and I won't use it.


I guess all that goes out the window when you're in front of a paying crowd and your ego is on the line.

The idea that this went on for several hours is horrific. I can't believe the owner of this horse allowed Parelli near him the next day.

This is an example of what I meant in my comment on the recent Edward Gal post: when a trainer comes to believe his own hype,  he'll do almost anything to protect it, even when it proves to be wrong for the horse he's trying to help.

IMO, the Parellis are way over the line at this point. There is no way either of them would get anywhere near any of my animals.

I hope the huge number of people who follow their work stop and take a good hard look at what's being done to horses in the name of training. Those who walked out on this demonstration are the ones who deserve the accolades.




There are better ways to do this kind of work - with no force and no trauma to the animal. First and foremost, a veterinary exam, a chiro exam, and a dental exam. After all physical reasons for this behavior have been ruled out, proceeding with some work on the issue at hand. And guess what? It doesn't involve gimmicks or being the alpha. It simply involves gaining the respect and trust of the horse, and breaking down the task into small, manageable pieces that build on one another to the end result.

Here's the video posted of the entire 3 days as edited by the Parelli team.  Note that none of the rope restraints show up on their version. A number of people report that the horse was obviously drugged for days 2 and 3.  I don't know. But it's obvious they are hell-bent on getting the bit into the mouth, even if it's the ring instead of the bit itself that goes in. And that Parelli's solution utilizes all kinds of contraptions, lots of drama, and ZERO common sense.



What they said after the Friday session:

Our challenging horse lived up to its billing tonight at the Royal Featival of The Horse demo. Catwalk, an extremely Left-Brain stallion showed us his wonderful spirit and demonstrated that his unwillingness to bridle hasn't been created during the 8 weeks that Robert Whitaker has owned him but is clearly due to many years of fear of being bridled due to the lack of a basic foundation training.
We ran 45 minutes over and a couple of folks were upset at what they think they saw, saying they may post on YouTube. We all have nothing to worry about except misunderstanding. Pat stopped at an appropriate time in the training process when he saw a breakthrough and preserved Catwalk's dignity, which is more important than getting the bridle on tonight. 

How arrogant to blow off all the upset observers - "what they think they saw" - and if this is preserving a horse's dignity, well, I have a very different notion of dignity than the Parellis do.

Vote with your wallet, folks. And if you boycott a horse festival because the Parellis are doing a demonstration, let the venue know why you aren't coming.

a reposted piece of pony work

 I'm reposting the following, which was originally titled "play therapy with ponies" - because it came after a tough spell of riding and training during which my daughter was readying to do her pony club D3 rating, and although the pony had proven his ability to jump the required height (and higher, with balance and beauty) he suddenly became sour and although everyone around her was encouraging her to go through with the rating, she decided not to, because she felt the pony needed her to listen to him and honor what he was telling her.

In retrospect, I believe that was the best decision we've ever made regarding a horse. Since that time, and since the video below, she has focused on relationship instead of ratings. She spent an entire year riding him with no agenda except that of creating harmony and softness. She has taken him to dressage schooling shows and done well, and right now she's riding him bareback on a near daily basis. He's no longer sour to the jumps, and I think the bottom line is that he knows she won't force him into anything that is scary or that hurts.

I've seen him stand at the arena gate and wait for her when she runs inside to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, his eyes glued to our back door. She has a deeper connection with him than she ever would have had she gone against everything he was saying to her and done that rating.

I'll try to get some new video footage today to show the two working together. You'll see a much taller girl and her ten-year old pony.


Reposted portion:

Today, out at the barn, we were playing around and decided to use an old rein as a cordeo to see what Apache Moon might do. He was a pretty good sport once we got him into the arena. She rode him bareback and with the cordeo for a half-hour, walking and trotting and cantering. He kept circling toward a jump in the arena, which was a bit high for today's play, so I lowered it nearly to the ground. The pony was obsessed with that jump. He kept circling right and taking the little jump at a canter over and over again, even though he could have easily trotted over it without breaking stride. It was as though he were working through some conflict about jumping. It reminded me quite a bit of traumatized children in play therapy, and how they will sometimes replay the trauma over and over again. It was fascinating to see Apache Moon choose repeatedly to jump with my daughter astride, no saddle or bridle, when he was in total control of where he was going.

After awhile I encouraged her to hop off and do some ground work with him. What he did was so cute she ran in to get the camera. I was sitting in the arena on the mounting block and when she went inside, he stood at the gate watching the back door of the house for her return. There was grass at the edges of the arena he could have nibbled on, but he didn't even look at it. It was pretty amazing. I wish I had video of him waiting for her - his focus never shifted.

So here's one little piece of what they did together today. It's by no means the first time they've done this kind of play together, but it's the first time we've captured it on video. She is using no treats and has a dressage whip in one hand that is mostly getting in the way. I purposely selected this bit because you see near the end that he intrudes into her space in a rather cheeky way and she holds her hand up and lets him bump into her fingertips. His response to that is very dramatic, but then you see him come right back to their connection.