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Today the horses were soggy
One of them at least.
Felt even better today so got a lot of things done in and around the house, including a bit ofvegetation slaughter gardening to take advantage of the sunshine. More sun! More! To the stables! I knew there were usually a lot of volunteers around the stables on Saturday but I went down anyway because for the first time in aaaaaages thought I could possibly be useful for the end of day jobs. I need rugging practice. And who needs an excuse? Actually I think I was originally encouraged to come in on Saturdays to provide some maturity *snort*.
The place was indeed crawling with the usual teenage female suspects, plus one possibly very clever teenage boy. It's true there wasn't much work left to do, but I helped to the spread the evening hay and watched a new horse get washed and walked and buffed and groomed and walked some more in an attempt to get him dry without letting him roll. Soggy horsie. I think his name was Barry.
Barry was an excitable horse with a really weird near fore action that made him stagger slightly every now and then. He sort of rolled his elbow around but it's not lameness - apparently he's "not the most co-ordinated horse in the world". Given that and the half rears, kicking, pawing and stamping he hardly seems like the RDA type, but he's new and being given a chance to settle in.
Fortunately the RDA training for a new horse quite legitimately includes me as an extra body hanging about and handling him, according to the trainee coach, so no sacrifices were required. Perhaps the most important thing I can bring to the table is that I can hang about without running and screaming if a horse kicks or is generally restless, and I'm prepared to stand my ground and take an irritated nip or two without panic - I laugh at your puny concept of pain! Kicking is another matter, but I've escaped thus far. Perhaps not very sensibly I don't flinch when horses make sudden moves. This comes as rather a surprise because in other circumstances I am easily startled. Spiders. Mice. Don't talk to me about spiders and mice.
Let's get back to the horses shall we?
(Spiders and mice? Did someone say spiders and mice? Where? WHERE?)
Given the site smack bang in the middle of suburbia there are plenty of mysterious and alarming sounds to distract a nervy horse: dogs barking, babies crying, and sounds of distant hoonery. This horse was not about to fall asleep under my ministrations so it wasn't the usual scritching session. This was another new type of educational contact, as I had to be firm and steady rather than quiet and soothing. I even delivered a disciplinary thwack to the chest area and some stern growly noises when he pawed the ground. Of course, this was pretty mild compared to actual equine panic and I hope in the future I'll be able to make the right decisions if things do get dangerous. There are a hell of a lot of *potential* intermediate behaviours between displeasure and fight+flight, but the situation can change very quickly.
At some point, walk away. At another point, run away!
I also got to see Vallie, the grey who was given reiki treatment yesterday. She seemed much brighter and equally keen to use me as a scratching post. More stern words and head shoving were required as this behaviour can be dangerous around small or fragile children. I'm getting better at this being stern thing. Grrr!
In other educational news I picked up some stable gossip and/or bitching. I find it somehow reassuring that the girls were not put off by my advanced age and seemed quite willing to chat and share *with* me, not just rudely *in front* of me. It looks like horse handling confidence translates to (female horsefan) teenager handling confidence :-) You'll excuse me if I don't take up a new career as a high school teacher.
BTW the Pedro/Pancho/Pablo mystery has been cleared up now I hope - it's definitely Pablo.
And remember Nemo, the enormously cute Shetland pony who looks just like his clownfish namesake? The one I've been avoiding because tiny ponies scare me shitless? He's taken to biting kneecaps. Evil pony. I think I shall maintain my avoidance strategy there and screw the gap in my education.
I'm such a fraud.
Felt even better today so got a lot of things done in and around the house, including a bit of
The place was indeed crawling with the usual teenage female suspects, plus one possibly very clever teenage boy. It's true there wasn't much work left to do, but I helped to the spread the evening hay and watched a new horse get washed and walked and buffed and groomed and walked some more in an attempt to get him dry without letting him roll. Soggy horsie. I think his name was Barry.
Barry was an excitable horse with a really weird near fore action that made him stagger slightly every now and then. He sort of rolled his elbow around but it's not lameness - apparently he's "not the most co-ordinated horse in the world". Given that and the half rears, kicking, pawing and stamping he hardly seems like the RDA type, but he's new and being given a chance to settle in.
Fortunately the RDA training for a new horse quite legitimately includes me as an extra body hanging about and handling him, according to the trainee coach, so no sacrifices were required. Perhaps the most important thing I can bring to the table is that I can hang about without running and screaming if a horse kicks or is generally restless, and I'm prepared to stand my ground and take an irritated nip or two without panic - I laugh at your puny concept of pain! Kicking is another matter, but I've escaped thus far. Perhaps not very sensibly I don't flinch when horses make sudden moves. This comes as rather a surprise because in other circumstances I am easily startled. Spiders. Mice. Don't talk to me about spiders and mice.
Let's get back to the horses shall we?
(Spiders and mice? Did someone say spiders and mice? Where? WHERE?)
Given the site smack bang in the middle of suburbia there are plenty of mysterious and alarming sounds to distract a nervy horse: dogs barking, babies crying, and sounds of distant hoonery. This horse was not about to fall asleep under my ministrations so it wasn't the usual scritching session. This was another new type of educational contact, as I had to be firm and steady rather than quiet and soothing. I even delivered a disciplinary thwack to the chest area and some stern growly noises when he pawed the ground. Of course, this was pretty mild compared to actual equine panic and I hope in the future I'll be able to make the right decisions if things do get dangerous. There are a hell of a lot of *potential* intermediate behaviours between displeasure and fight+flight, but the situation can change very quickly.
At some point, walk away. At another point, run away!
I also got to see Vallie, the grey who was given reiki treatment yesterday. She seemed much brighter and equally keen to use me as a scratching post. More stern words and head shoving were required as this behaviour can be dangerous around small or fragile children. I'm getting better at this being stern thing. Grrr!
In other educational news I picked up some stable gossip and/or bitching. I find it somehow reassuring that the girls were not put off by my advanced age and seemed quite willing to chat and share *with* me, not just rudely *in front* of me. It looks like horse handling confidence translates to (female horsefan) teenager handling confidence :-) You'll excuse me if I don't take up a new career as a high school teacher.
BTW the Pedro/Pancho/Pablo mystery has been cleared up now I hope - it's definitely Pablo.
And remember Nemo, the enormously cute Shetland pony who looks just like his clownfish namesake? The one I've been avoiding because tiny ponies scare me shitless? He's taken to biting kneecaps. Evil pony. I think I shall maintain my avoidance strategy there and screw the gap in my education.
I'm such a fraud.
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There are a handful that do not.
Do not be fooled. Those are the ones that are in cahoots with the others, trying to lull you into a false sense of security.
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