Random Rant

Today's rant brought to you by the Parelli Kool-Aid drinking folks at my boarding facility.

I can't STAND Parellied horses. The ones belonging to the Kool-Aid drinking owner of the farm are rude, pushy and spoiled to the point of being somewhat dangerous. I have been working with one mare belonging to one of the acolytes of the Kool-Aid, and after 6 months finally have a somewhat normal horse that behaves, surprisingly, like a HORSE. Not like an over sized dog. When I started with her, she would literally knock you the hell off the mounting block every time you went to get on. She would frisk you for cookies and always had her face all up in your business. I am NOT a scratching post and made that very clear to her. She would also turn and nuzzle and chew on your foot while you were mounted, I couldn't figure out why until I saw one of the other folks doing it and praising their horse. It is not a sign of affection, and it turns into biting. She gets caught, groomed, saddled and ridden, and if she is a VERY good girl, she MIGHT get a treat, one, when she is minding her own business.

Exhibit 1 - We will call him the Fuzzy Little Jerk or FLJ for short. I have had this horse come at me with his little ears back and his evil little eyes narrowed more times than I care to count. Thankfully, I moved my mare to a different pasture. I was told to shake my finger at him and shoo him away. Yeah, right. He just looked at me and flattened his ears MORE. A fellow boarder overheard the owner telling a girl that was riding him not to try to make him mind, he didn't feel like doing something that day. Excuse me? Last time I checked, the horse doesn't really get an opinion on that unless he is sick or in pain.

Exhibit 2 - This one is known as the Big Pushy Moose or BPM. This horse has NO ground manners. He won't pick up a foot for his owner for anything. We have watched her tug and beg and he just stands there. Myself and the other non-Kool-Aid-Drinking boarder could walk over, grab his chestnut, twist slightly, and volia, hoof lifted. Hmm. He will run you the hell over, he will swing his big ol' head around and knock you down, he will walk all over you and push you around. He is ALWAYS looking for cookies or candy in your pockets. No sense of personal space or respect for the handler.

I don't get it. I just don't.

The Gift Horse

She is gone. She passed on to where the grass is ever green on Sunday, March 13. She was 30 years old. She went peacefully and was buried in the pasture she ruled for 15 years. I feel like a huge piece of me has gone with her. I have her daughter, known as the Silly Red Filly here with me, so a part of her lives on. She changed my life, she made me understand how to communicate with horses and how to be patient and understanding. Her wisdom, strength, speed and stamina were endless. She was still competing and winning in the months before she passed. She was with me through everything, victory and defeat, joy and despair. She has always been there, a constant anchor, ready at any time to remind me that I couldn't fix everything, and that I didn't know everything. Run free my old girl, I will see you again, wait for me at the gate like you always have.

These photos were taken in Oct. of 2010, she was 29.

Boudreaux

I swear, I must have "Sucker" painted on me and only animals can see it. I need help finding a home or foster home for a dog. I found this fellow in the middle of Chenal Pkwy in Little Rock. He is young, probably less than a year, he is still entire, and super cute and friendly. He looks to be a Rottweiler mix. He is around 40lbs at the moment, though he may well grow a bit more. He gets along well with my dog and seems no more than slightly interested in the cat (who does NOT approve). He seems to have a bit of an injury to his right hind leg, but it seems to be minor. I plan to get him to the vet this week to have him checked out. I cannot keep him, my apartment is too small.

4 Months Old!!

He is almost 4 months old!! Growing like a weed and entering into the akward phase that will probably last till he's 4.

Baby Pics

Photos of Dyna's foal Threat's Screamin Eagle (pending).

Striking a pose...

Running with Uncle Thor...

Inspecting the chicken coop with Eeyore...

Don't worry, it is not a metal roof and he cannot cut himself on it.

Recent pics of the Gift Horse and her offspring

Fatima, her last foal.



"Get that dang camera out of my face!!" Grouchy old girl says!




Looking pretty!

Not bad for 27 huh?

Dyna

Dyna is a special horse, and yes, I mean that in the short bus kind of way. It is not her fault, she is the result of bad breeding decisions on the owners of her ancestor's fault. She is VERY inbred, it almost looks like they were going for linebreeding and took a wrong turn. She has one stallion 7 times, one 5 times and another 3 times in a standard 5 generation pedigree.

I purchased her several years ago as a riding horse for myself. She was a blast when I test-rode her, just very sensitive to the bit. Of course that could have something to do with the massive TWH bit the sellers were using (honestly, aren't 11 inch shanks a bit much?). She came home wiht us and after a few months proved that she really did not like women much. She loves men though.She cannot deal with a dominant "mare" on her back.

She has 2 brain cells, and if they disconnect, just give up. She goes to pieces. It is difficult to train her to do something new, she gets so agitated and confused. You have to go over things S-L-O-W-L-Y, or the brain cells disconnect.

That being said, once you finally get something installed in her brain, asking her to change or adjust the behavior is near impossible and has a high probability of making her disconnect. Case in point, this past weekend we took her to an SCA event, her first in a couple of years. The week before we really worked on remembering how to neck rein and weave through poles to do Saracen heads. It never occured to us to practice just walking a straight line through 2 sets of poles like in a reeds course. At the event, the course consisted of the Quintain (oooh, SNORT, scoot to the side, even though we have seen one before) a target to throw a javelin at (SNORT, scoot, wiggle, "Cm'on it's a HAYBALE you moron!"), rings (oh, no problem), a ring to throw a javelin through as you gallop (or in our case, running walk) past, catching it (in theory, she had never done this and when she saw the javelin coming past her head she swerved) as it comes out the other side, and last but not least, a reeds course. We got to it, lined up and started the course (Oh, poles standing up, I weave through these! "No, go STRAIGHT goober! Straight!") and she proceeded to attempt to do exactly what we taught her. Weave. We got through it, but she was SO confused. When she did the course the second time, she tried to weave again, and the third time she did a bit better according to my husband who was riding her. She is an odd creature, once something is ingrained in her little brain, that's it, that is what she does. I guess in some instances that is a good thing, but it can be frustrating.