billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
Friday, April 27, 2012
nice perspectives on working with horses
http://thecognitivehorse.com/2012/04/21/equine-welfarewellness-a-critical-review-of-the-natural-horsemanship/
Thursday, April 26, 2012
week winding down
We've had a busy week here and finally, today, things have slowed down enough that I can sit and dash off a post!
First, thanks to everyone who downloaded claire-obscure during the recent promo on Amazon. 10,000+ downloads took her to #14 overall in the free Kindle book store and to #1 in suspense! It was a wonderful weekend and I am grateful for all the support for my books and my publishing venture.
I also have an update from the director of the Triangle chapter of the United Equine Rescue League:
billie,
Someone let me know of your generous post and I wanted to let you know how much USERL appreciates your thoughts on this case, and your contribution via book sales.
This has, indeed, been a difficult case, but light is at the end of the tunnel for them! The pregnant mare is bagging up again with milk, so hopefully has had enough time to regain strength to produce milk for her foal (her body score is now close to 5!). The colt, now named "CJ" is doing great with his foster in training and weight gain is steady. The stallion, now gelding, is a sweetie who will make a very willing mount (he was quite manageable as a stallion). And the filly is slowly improving (she was the other one with marked blood results). The colt that was humanely euthanized is in a better place, no longer suffering and leaving a legacy (NC Veterinary Assoc. donated funds for a Large Animal Lift and electric hoist for cases such as Taipa's!).
We couldn't do a group such as this without the wonderful support of people in the community! It is a large responsibility to take in 6 horses, 4 of which were unhandled. It has been a challenge to fund it in these poor economic times.
Thank you, again, for your thoughts on this case, and your endorsement through your book sales. The caretaker was charged earlier this month by Durham County for animal cruelty and the court case is pending next week.
Gratefully,
Jennifer Malpass
USERL
Board Chair
NC - Triangle Regional Director
www.userltriangle.org/DurhamCountyCase.html
Someone let me know of your generous post and I wanted to let you know how much USERL appreciates your thoughts on this case, and your contribution via book sales.
This has, indeed, been a difficult case, but light is at the end of the tunnel for them! The pregnant mare is bagging up again with milk, so hopefully has had enough time to regain strength to produce milk for her foal (her body score is now close to 5!). The colt, now named "CJ" is doing great with his foster in training and weight gain is steady. The stallion, now gelding, is a sweetie who will make a very willing mount (he was quite manageable as a stallion). And the filly is slowly improving (she was the other one with marked blood results). The colt that was humanely euthanized is in a better place, no longer suffering and leaving a legacy (NC Veterinary Assoc. donated funds for a Large Animal Lift and electric hoist for cases such as Taipa's!).
We couldn't do a group such as this without the wonderful support of people in the community! It is a large responsibility to take in 6 horses, 4 of which were unhandled. It has been a challenge to fund it in these poor economic times.
Thank you, again, for your thoughts on this case, and your endorsement through your book sales. The caretaker was charged earlier this month by Durham County for animal cruelty and the court case is pending next week.
Gratefully,
Jennifer Malpass
USERL
Board Chair
NC - Triangle Regional Director
www.userltriangle.org/DurhamCountyCase.html
Now it's time for me to remind everyone that I will be donating 100% of royalties from sales of Jane's Transformation, book one in my Magical Pony School series, not only through the end of April, but ongoing.
It's also time to announce that as of today, Thursday, April 26th, 10 copies have sold. That's a donation of approximately $20. for this month. I had hopes to give so much more! I posted the story on three of the blogs I maintain, on Google+, on Facebook, and on Twitter. I also posted on two local horse groups.
My hope is that folks who wanted to contribute did so directly to the rescue group via the links I posted with the story itself. You can still do that RIGHT HERE.
I hope you'll ALSO consider spreading the word about Jane and this opportunity to get a nice read while donating to a great cause. The 10,000 free downloads that happened this past weekend for my adult novel did so because a lot of people saw the book featured on a popular e-book recommendation site called Pixel of Ink. I'll certainly be trying that route with Jane's Transformation but there's no guarantee they'll select the book during Jane's next promo weekend. Meanwhile, help me do the same thing Pixel of Ink does - TELL people about it. April's royalties come through in June, and I'd still like to make a nice donation from this month's royalties to help the painted horses that are in rehab.
Head over to Amazon to buy/gift/see more RIGHT HERE.
OUR painted pony says THIS is how handsome we are when we get good food and good care:
In other news on November Hill, Cody had what I think was a mild colic episode on Monday morning. We'd had an overnight shift in weather - rainy and then suddenly quite cold for this time of year. He came in for breakfast, ate 2/3 of his tub, and then started lying down and getting back up again. After figuring out that he wasn't simply trying to get some sleep time while safe in his stall, I let him into the barnyard to see what was going on. He started running around - bucking and tossing his head - which initially I thought was him feeling good, but then realized that something was wrong when he began to lay down again, then leap up and buck/run. Repeat a number of times.
I opened the arena gate intending to direct him into that safer area and he ran past me into the arena, and suddenly did a huge buck/kick that was so close to me I threw up my arms to protect my face - a good thing, as his left hind hoof clipped my elbow. First ever horse kick on my part, and I was immediately both in pain, upset, and offended - daughter reminded me that it was not intentional on Cody's part. He was in pain himself, and had that slightly panicked look in his eye that indicated he was in flight mode. After a few more circuits of running and bucking, he finally went down into a quieter mode and laid down for about 20 minutes.
He wasn't sweating, pawing, or biting at himself - but did occasionally turn his head to his rear as if trying to figure out what hurt. In the midst of the running, he did one very normal poop. My husband came home to help - I had a goose egg on my elbow and daughter is still not wearing close-toed shoes due to her toe, and I was still wary of trying to halter Cody and get a dose of Banamine in him. Husband had no problem doing both and Cody spent the rest of the afternoon in his own stall/paddock where we could monitor manure and urine output and where he could rest/graze/walk at liberty. He's been fine ever since.
We had a shorted out well switch that night, which meant a night of no running water. By the time yesterday rolled around and I had my perio appointment, going to the dentist seemed like an actual vacation compared to Monday and Tuesday! I'm happy to say that not only was the cleaning tolerable, my six-month post-surgery report is great. The sun came out, equines are happy, and a very hectic schedule has now quieted down so that my days in the next few weeks look blissfully empty.
My only complaint at the moment is that my external hard drive is churning and not working quite right. I think I can live with that!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
buy an e-book ($2.99!) - help a herd of rescued painted horses
This morning I read a story that touched my heart. Our local equine rescue league plus a very dedicated animal control office have partnered and worked hard to not only rescue an emaciated herd of painted horses, but did the additional painstaking work to bring charges against the owner for cruelty to animals.
When an entire herd has to be taken in, the resources of a rescue group are pushed to the limits, particularly in this case: all but one horse was emaciated and suffering from long-term lack of nutrition. A mare is pregnant, so her in utero foal is suffering too. The stallion had to be gelded. Several young horses had never been handled. They have already had to humanely euthanize a handsome but extremely weak medicine hat paint because he went into liver failure.
As many of you who visit here know, we live with a wonderful, spirited, smart as can be painted pony named Apache Moon. He brings such joy to our lives, every single day. It broke my heart to see these painted horses in such need of what all of us would consider the very basics of horse life.
Starting today through the end of April, I will donate 100% of the royalties earned on my middle grade (but a wonderful read for adults as well) e-book.
Jane's Transformation (book one in the Magical Pony School series) is available on Amazon. You can click directly to the product page by looking over on the sidebar to your right and clicking on the cover.
If you have a Kindle you can buy it immediately. If you have a smart phone, a computer of any kind, an iPad or other tablet, you can quickly and easily download the FREE software on Amazon that will enable you to purchase and read this e-book (and any other e-book).
I have Jane priced at $2.99, which means my royalty per sale is about $2. What happens, though, is when the book sells on Amazon, it rises in rank. As it rises in rank, especially if sales are concentrated, it goes onto various bestseller lists based on its genre and subjects. When this happens, more Amazon viewers see the book and more of them tend to buy it. By participating in this it is entirely conceivable that we could create what my writer friend Dawn calls "the perfect storm." I would LOVE to write a big fat check to the NC Triangle USERL to help with expenses for these horses.
Full disclosure: Of course you can donate directly to Triangle USERL and that is definitely a good thing to do, especially since their Paypal button will get the money to them immediately. My royalties for April will be paid to me in June, so that is when I will write the check to USERL.
My suggestion is this: donate some directly and buy the book so they get a second donation later. By buying the book AND spreading the word, you make it that much more likely that we can together create a perfect storm and give a larger donation in June.
I also stand to gain if the book kicks up high and then STAYS high after the end of this month. All I can say is, if that happens, I will work on a way to continue donating, whether it be a percentage per book sold, or more 100% chunks of time. My intention with this series is to get more of the books written and published so that I can donate all the proceeds from this first one on an ongoing basis. I love the idea that Jane and the Magical Pony School ponies could be an ongoing source of funding for some needy equines.
READ THE STORY OF THE RESCUED HORSES HERE.
If you scroll down you'll see the Paypal button to donate.
GO TO JANE'S TRANSFORMATION ON AMAZON HERE.
The current ranking is #313,510. You can track how we're doing by looking at the ranking. As sales happen, the number will get smaller as the book rises. The lower the number, especially if we get into the top 100 of paid sales OVERALL, the better. If we get Jane into that top 100 of all paid sales list, you'll know we are getting the exposure needed to make a very generous donation indeed.
I will post a screen shot of my sales page along with the check I write to the NC Triangle USERL group in June. Please help make it a big one.
Remember - on Amazon you can buy the e-book as a gift and send it to anyone you know. But the biggest part of making this go viral is spreading the word.
I realize this is one small herd among many who need help. But this is the herd that grabbed my attention today. A backyard breeder thought he/she could make money by breeding painted horses. Now there are a number of young horses who have not been handled, a pregnant mare, and a recently gelded stallion to show for it. All were starving. One has been put down. Maybe this case can be a lesson to anyone even thinking of breeding. There aren't homes for all these horses! There is no reason to think you can make money doing this. And even if you could, is it really an honorable profession?
Addendum as of Thursday at 8:08 p.m. - Jane is cantering up the charts!
When an entire herd has to be taken in, the resources of a rescue group are pushed to the limits, particularly in this case: all but one horse was emaciated and suffering from long-term lack of nutrition. A mare is pregnant, so her in utero foal is suffering too. The stallion had to be gelded. Several young horses had never been handled. They have already had to humanely euthanize a handsome but extremely weak medicine hat paint because he went into liver failure.
As many of you who visit here know, we live with a wonderful, spirited, smart as can be painted pony named Apache Moon. He brings such joy to our lives, every single day. It broke my heart to see these painted horses in such need of what all of us would consider the very basics of horse life.
Starting today through the end of April, I will donate 100% of the royalties earned on my middle grade (but a wonderful read for adults as well) e-book.
Jane's Transformation (book one in the Magical Pony School series) is available on Amazon. You can click directly to the product page by looking over on the sidebar to your right and clicking on the cover.
If you have a Kindle you can buy it immediately. If you have a smart phone, a computer of any kind, an iPad or other tablet, you can quickly and easily download the FREE software on Amazon that will enable you to purchase and read this e-book (and any other e-book).
I have Jane priced at $2.99, which means my royalty per sale is about $2. What happens, though, is when the book sells on Amazon, it rises in rank. As it rises in rank, especially if sales are concentrated, it goes onto various bestseller lists based on its genre and subjects. When this happens, more Amazon viewers see the book and more of them tend to buy it. By participating in this it is entirely conceivable that we could create what my writer friend Dawn calls "the perfect storm." I would LOVE to write a big fat check to the NC Triangle USERL to help with expenses for these horses.
Full disclosure: Of course you can donate directly to Triangle USERL and that is definitely a good thing to do, especially since their Paypal button will get the money to them immediately. My royalties for April will be paid to me in June, so that is when I will write the check to USERL.
My suggestion is this: donate some directly and buy the book so they get a second donation later. By buying the book AND spreading the word, you make it that much more likely that we can together create a perfect storm and give a larger donation in June.
I also stand to gain if the book kicks up high and then STAYS high after the end of this month. All I can say is, if that happens, I will work on a way to continue donating, whether it be a percentage per book sold, or more 100% chunks of time. My intention with this series is to get more of the books written and published so that I can donate all the proceeds from this first one on an ongoing basis. I love the idea that Jane and the Magical Pony School ponies could be an ongoing source of funding for some needy equines.
READ THE STORY OF THE RESCUED HORSES HERE.
If you scroll down you'll see the Paypal button to donate.
GO TO JANE'S TRANSFORMATION ON AMAZON HERE.
The current ranking is #313,510. You can track how we're doing by looking at the ranking. As sales happen, the number will get smaller as the book rises. The lower the number, especially if we get into the top 100 of paid sales OVERALL, the better. If we get Jane into that top 100 of all paid sales list, you'll know we are getting the exposure needed to make a very generous donation indeed.
I will post a screen shot of my sales page along with the check I write to the NC Triangle USERL group in June. Please help make it a big one.
Remember - on Amazon you can buy the e-book as a gift and send it to anyone you know. But the biggest part of making this go viral is spreading the word.
I realize this is one small herd among many who need help. But this is the herd that grabbed my attention today. A backyard breeder thought he/she could make money by breeding painted horses. Now there are a number of young horses who have not been handled, a pregnant mare, and a recently gelded stallion to show for it. All were starving. One has been put down. Maybe this case can be a lesson to anyone even thinking of breeding. There aren't homes for all these horses! There is no reason to think you can make money doing this. And even if you could, is it really an honorable profession?
Addendum as of Thursday at 8:08 p.m. - Jane is cantering up the charts!
-
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#68,713 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #48 in Kindle Store Kindle eBooks Children's eBooks Animals Horses
- And at 9:08 p.m.!
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#43,647 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Animals > Horses
Sunday, April 15, 2012
baby steps with the LIttle Man
Just have to take a moment to jot down what I did with Apache Moon
today. I went and got him in from the field a little after breakfast and
spent a fair amount of time with him in the barn aisle - doing some
targeting with the clicker, then working with him to stand while I
groomed him and tacked him up.
The wind was gusting through the barn and there were various mowers and things running in the neighborhood, so I was extremely proud of him - he stood nicely without being tied for about 90% of the time and the other 10% entailed a few half-hearted attempts to walk away, no more than one step each time. He really did a good job.
The big thing we did that made me really happy today was our first baby steps in ground driving. My husband was out doing chores and able to help me just to make sure nothing wild happened. I got the long lines hooked to his bridle and through the loops on his bareback pad, and husband stood at his head so I could make sure the lines touching him behind and all down his hind legs didn't spook or upset him.
He really could have cared less.
We did three little sets of walking and halting with the lines in the barnyard, with me in full control and husband at his head just in case. I really wanted to do more but on the other hand really wanted to stop with a very solid success and not push him past his limit today.
But based on how it went I'm extremely excited about what we have to look forward to as we learn more and do more together. The wonderful thing about the pony is that he is small enough that I can easily see his entire body, including head and neck, from behind him, which will be such a great learning tool for me as I get further into this kind of work.
Bravo, Apache Moon!
The wind was gusting through the barn and there were various mowers and things running in the neighborhood, so I was extremely proud of him - he stood nicely without being tied for about 90% of the time and the other 10% entailed a few half-hearted attempts to walk away, no more than one step each time. He really did a good job.
The big thing we did that made me really happy today was our first baby steps in ground driving. My husband was out doing chores and able to help me just to make sure nothing wild happened. I got the long lines hooked to his bridle and through the loops on his bareback pad, and husband stood at his head so I could make sure the lines touching him behind and all down his hind legs didn't spook or upset him.
He really could have cared less.
We did three little sets of walking and halting with the lines in the barnyard, with me in full control and husband at his head just in case. I really wanted to do more but on the other hand really wanted to stop with a very solid success and not push him past his limit today.
But based on how it went I'm extremely excited about what we have to look forward to as we learn more and do more together. The wonderful thing about the pony is that he is small enough that I can easily see his entire body, including head and neck, from behind him, which will be such a great learning tool for me as I get further into this kind of work.
Bravo, Apache Moon!
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