Hey, you finally made it! Welcome to my blog, settle in, have a look about, leave a comment or two.... I'm full of imagination, so you may find journaling, humorous things, poems, sarcastic observations, movie reviews, ect... and always lots of things about my animals! I can't help it, I my pets.
Oh, and if you get dog or horse hair on you whilst visiting, just consider it part of the charm of my blog.
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I've been seeing a few other bloggers do alphabet posts. I think these are interesting posts and I've decided to participate as well. So once a week I will make a post based on whatever letter I'm on.
This week begins my posts and as you can see it's about ART!
I've been reading this book ever since Sun died, which has been 2 months ago today I now realize. In missing him I had wandered into the horse section of Hastings (book/movie/music store) and found a book called, "The Soul of a Horse -- Life Lessons From The Herd" by Joe Camp. Joe Camp trained the dogs in the famous Benji movies.
In this book he describes his journey into horse ownership and searching for the best possible ways to train and care for his own. He wisely questions many tactics commonly used with horses (for example, why do horses need shoes? They don't in the wild.) Much of his questioning is so obvious, I found myself wondering why I hadn't thought to question some things. Through this book he teaches what I believe is called "natural horsemanship" meaning the human 'thinks' like a horse and therefore communicates in a way the equine is able to understand, thus making the animal much more cooperative and willing to perform tasks. There is no forcing, hitting, or yelling at the (soon to be traumatized) creature. So many people feel they must beat their horse into submission - I've seen it so many times. I've never agreed with it and the older I got the less willing I became to hit mine. (I was taught to hit them when they misbehaved when I began riding at age 8 but always felt it was wrong somehow.) Fortunately, I tended to naturally follow the natural horsemanship method before it was popular and before I even realized what I was doing. I love horses, not just riding them. I've spent so many hours of my life just hanging out with them, sometimes grooming, sometimes just sitting near them in the pasture. (Sun and I became very closely bonded this way. )
So anyhoo... if you love horses, whether you own one or not, I would absolutely recommend this book!
A couple of excerpts: "A well-known clinician was asked to respond to a question from a woman who wanted to enter jumping competitions with her horse. It seemed that whenever she went to such a competition, her horse refused to jump. She wondered if it could be a negative reaction to being around so many horses or just being inside a big noisy facility. "Please tell me what to do," she begged. I never saw the clinician's response but I hope he told her to begin by evaluating whether or not her horse liked to jump. Before being asked to do extreme competition, shouldn't a horse have some inherent desire to do it?
Like the new Benji. She enjoys performing, reaching, figuring things out. We have other dogs who could care less. And one who would be totally intimidated by it the workload. To put that do through a movie production would not only be a disaster, it would mean massive stress for the dog." (in reference to keeping horses confined in a stable...) "There lies the toughest part of entering the world of what is truly best for the horse. Us. We aren't horses; and if that's true, it stands to reason that horses aren't us. So we mustn't treat them as if they were. We must be able to rise to the occasion and accept the facts: What is freezing to us isn't to them. What is safe and comfortable to us isn't to them. What is warm and cozy to us isn't to them. What breeds trust and respect for us is different for them. There are folks who believe that the best care for the horse is the safest care, no matter how miserable the horse's days and nights might be, no matter how many years are being cut off his life because of a sedentary, stress filled lifestyle -- in short, no matter what."
Hermit and I spent the day snowed in. We were unable to travel, as you know. We did have a pleasant day though. I made a yummy dinner of Elk loin, roasted potatoes, gravy, rolls, spinach, and cherry crisp. The dogs got their gifts -- new toys. They had fun with those. I trudged through the snow once in the a.m. and again in the p.m. feeding and watering the horses and Ollie. I got quite the workout!
I took some pictures of the "day after" of our blizzard (which happens to be Christmas Day).
It seems much tamer now without the sideways snow and near 0 visibility!
Yep, two days ago I was wearing a tee shirt outside. Now the windchill is about 5*F and will drop more over the night. We are in a blizzard warning and the highways and turnpikes are closed. There was a 50 car pile up in the city (an hour away). I can hear the wind howling outside as it blows about 45 mph. Our power went off for about 3 hours earlier, and we were surprised it came back on that quickly. We were cozy around our wood stove in the living room, expecting to make it an all nighter.
Not surprisingly we did not go out of town to visit our families (who live 3 hours away) as we usually do. Oh, we'll make that trip up soon but it's still sad that we are missing Christmas with them.
I took a few pics today about 4:45pm when I went out to feed Lucy, Ollie, and Lance (neighbor's horse, she wasn't able to get here today to feed so I'm doing it ). The blizzard warning continues until dawn. The snowfall should end in a couple of hours but then we will have ground blizzards until morning. It's not so much the inches of snow we've gotten as the fierce North wind blasting it sideways and causing large drifts.
My neighbor and I were chatting today after I took her the not-so-homemade Christmas yummies I had for her. I was behind this year, on everything! We decided it would be fun to let Lucia and Ollie have a play date before they "officially" move in pasture together just to be sure they'd play nice. Naturally I was too entertained by all the friendly frolicking that followed to think to video it, but did get around to videoing this bit. Ollie won't be coming to stay until after Christmas but I think Lucia has approved her new pal.
my pets. 
I think these are interesting posts and I've decided to participate as well. So once a week I will make a post based on whatever letter I'm on. 
In missing him I had wandered into the horse section of Hastings (book/movie/music store) and found a book called, "The Soul of a Horse -- Life Lessons From The Herd" by Joe Camp. Joe Camp trained the dogs in the famous 
It's not so much the inches of snow we've gotten as the fierce North wind blasting it sideways and causing large drifts.
I was behind this year, on everything! 
And I'm too lazy at the moment to take one. 
WIDGETIZE