Raspberries

When L gets mad she makes raspberries. It's hilarious!

Here she wants her hay.

Turn up the sound!
I really wish I could get her to do that on command. But she only does it when she's mad.

---

Speaking of raspberries. Stuff some chocolate chips inside fresh raspberries sometime. They're a great treat.

From the archive

This picture reminds me of something we always had going for us.

May 2004
We had lots of issues in the early days. Mostly dominance issues and while I learned a lot, I've said it a hundred times, I thought I'd never get it. But look at the picture and look at her ear. We were *always* engaged. Never ever not once did L "disengage". And that was just about the only thing I had going for me for a long time.

Training with L made me think hard about the business of dominance. Most people think it's about being a bully, but it isn't, not at all. And it's clear I'm not faster than L and I'm not stronger than L. It finally dawned on me. L has to believe I'm smarter than she is. The concept really is that simple. But she's a very smart horse and convincing her I'm smarter than she is continues to be a challenge. Sometimes I think she just humors me. It's good that she's a good horse.

Not long after that picture was taken I recall one of our very first milestones. And no, it wasn't our first show.

June 2004. L's very first show.
Very funny story. I was free lungeing L with her herdmate M. She was messing with me. She'd give me the "look" and allow her hip to drift in my direction by just a couple of inches. I was encouraging them with a lunge line in my hand. Things would quickly deteriorate if I allowed this to continue. So. I decide the next time she does it I'm going to let the line pay out and I'm going to just touch her hip with the end of the line.

I'm clumsy sometimes and I don't always get things right. She made her move and I went to let the line out and.. I just let go of it. And here this rolled up 30 ft. lunge hit her square in the flank.

It was more timing than anything else. It provoked an immediate "oh crap" reaction from her. It was the very first time she realized maybe she hadn't ought to be messing with me!

My comedienne

My trainer has been giving me some crap about L's manners lately. Seems she doesn't think twice about snatching up grass when she's being led to pasture and back. I swear she hasn't given me a whisper of a problem.

Then Sunday I'm leading her out to pasture and ... she drops her head and starts snatching mouthfuls of grass! So I whacked her. She ignored me. Completely. So I'm whacking her as fast as I can and I finally get her attention and she lifts up with a mouthful of grass. So I backed her up a few steps and she's staring at me with this mouthful of grass and a really hurt expression. She won't even chew her grass. I almost feel bad.

Now this grass has a root ball attached to it.

So I step in to continue leading her and...she starts knocking the root ball off of her grass. On my *shoulder*. She's just doing this whacka whacka whacka thing with the root ball on my shoulder. So I'm screaming at her and I'm whacking her and she stops and she's looking at me like she's thinking "what?".

By then I was laughing too hard to do a satisfactory follow up so I just finished leading her out and turned her loose. I'm sure she was thinking I was just being temperamental.

When handling L she has to believe you know what she's thinking. Oh, that's true for most horses but especially so for L. I'll go deeper into this when I chronicle some of our training - we're not near "finished" with our training, but basically, if she thinks you're not paying attention she'll be real quick to take advantage. And if she makes her move before you notice you're already at a big disadvantage.

It was very frustrating for a long time.

Not now, I'm having a "issue"

Here. An unrelated pretty L picture:


We were out lapping the eggplant today when I heard a Harley turn into a nearby street. And of course he (she?) stepped on it. I felt a tremble ripple through L and she got all kinds of anxious. She got all woofy and spun around and she started spooking at *everything*. She leaped and spun and she almost landed in the eggplant when, horrified at the prospect, she leap frogged back outta there. I put a little extra leg on her - telling her to stop being stupid - and she snapped her head around and bit my leg.

I laughed so hard I almost fell off of her.

It's nice to communicate so well. I told her to "cut the crap". And she told me "Not now! I'm having an *issue*. Duh.". It's like when she kicks my feet. We have conversation. Sometimes she thinks I'm an idiot. Horses really are very funny animals.

We had a lovely ride. Although L does take advantage. There's something wrong if she doesn't.

Mares aren't for everyone. Some find that kind of behavior disturbs them. But I swear I wouldn't take a million dollars for my L.

Broccoli?

My crazy cat:

Hanging around the shed...

...is really hard work.

That's L on the left, and her little half sister P on the right. P is 6 years old. They share the same mother and I often call L's little sister "Baby Huey". P is *huge*. P is of course also 100% Canadian. Canadian Horse registration requires a DNA test.

They'd stay inside in this kind of weather if they didn't have their shed. They love their shed. And it's really quite hilarious. We'll bring them inside a little later and they'll be exhausted. No really. I mean like they were just given a sedative. They'll turn in their stall, heave a deep sigh, get all wobbly and droopy and just snooze away.

Yesterday the only place the bugs weren't ferocious was the round pen. So after lapping the hay field we went into the round pen and schooled for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. We really don't work hard in the heat. We were bugged by one bug that whole time. L was most awesome. She's had this "work ethic" going since she was maybe 3 and half years old and she takes her work very seriously. So much so it's really rather funny. This being a horse thing is serious business.

Product Review!