Blogless Sharon suggested I went off to learn to whisper to horses. Hee! What a fun thought! And I admit,I did occasionally whisper in the ear of a handsome 25 year old flea bitten gray Arabian named Lyftoff. But whispering to horses, as fun and sweet as it sounds is not what I did yesterday. What I did was indeed way cool and full of potential and just so dang satisfying. Most of yesterday was devoted to talking about how horses think, how they interact in the herd, and what motivates them. Much of that I already knew. Years and years ago, I spent two years earning a junior college degree with a major in horse management. I fortunately chose to go the year the college switched from a couple of old t'baccy chawin' cowboy teachers to a far more refined and advanced teacher. I was not fully prepared to learn as much as I could from her, though, and yesterday really brought into focus much of what I could have learned more fully those two years so long ago.
My instructor yesterday was Judith of Horse and Handler. She has a small back yard type horse farm, where two Arabians live. Lyftoff is the older, and Heather, his daughter. Lyftoff is Judith's primary teaching horse. He knows what is expected of him, so we humans can practice and refine our equine communication skills with him. He was a perfect gentleman yesterday, willing and patient, turning to face me when I confused him, telling me so clearly that perhaps I should try again. Quite quickly, he had me "talking" with him in a soft and lovely sort of dance in the round pen. In the round pen, it is a herd of two: horse and handler. The exercises I learned to do are designed to allow the horse his natural inclination to accept someone else as herd leader. That involves letting the horse learn to trust the handler. If the handler is not strong enough in communication skills, the horse will retain the role of leader. I advanced enough with Lyftoff that Judith then put me in the round pen with Heather.
Heather is more of a challenge. She's a mare. In a natural herd setting, a dominant mare directs the herd. When she wants to graze, the herd grazes. When she wants a drink of water, the entire herd goes for water. A stallion's herd function, besides siring the foals,is protection so he brings up the rear of the herd. But it is the lead mare who is out in front, directing where they go when. Any mare is prepared, in the absence of a stronger candidate, to take on the role of leader. Further, due to the horse's status as a prey animal rather than a predator, all horses need to test all the time to see who is still both inclined to be and capable of being the leader. All of this means, in the round pen herd of two, the mare expects to be leader. It was my task to take over that role. I stood in the center of the round pen, Heather out along the perimeter. No halter, no lead rope, no longe line. I had a lariat coiled in my hand so that I could get bigger and more emphatic but it was not attached to Heather. She instantly gave me attitude, snorting, kicking out and bucking a bit. Nope, she was not in the least inclined to cede the leadership role. So using only body language, no talking at all, I sent her moving forward simply by placing myself in line with the point of her hip and moving toward it. Her natural response is to move away and that's what she did. The next step is to silently ask her if she can give me an outside turn, which is to turn her shoulder towards the round pen perimeter and change direction. In horse thinking, that is making her leave the herd. Horses do not want to leave the safety of the herd. By repeating this exercise, I asked her to trust me as leader. Signs that she was doing just that included her body relaxing, ears flicking forward, head dropping closer to the ground, and licking and chewing actions with her mouth. It took about 10 minutes of asking for outside turns and then she was ready for an inside turn. An inside turn means asking her to bring her shoulder toward me as she changed direction of her movement. That's a much more trusting behavior. And she did it! No more attitude! She was soft, supple, relaxed and responsive. Of course, she's been through all of this before, so she knows what's going on. One big challenge before me now, of course, is to teach this to CC. And then, of course,there is much more for me to learn as well to further the trust which will enable training. Oh, the fun I have before me!
Gromit is the immediate reason behind Kelly leaving. Gromit is neutered, has been since he was 6 months old. But he's still allll male. And Kelly's presence here just pissed off Gromit when he came to visit. But Gromit will be coming here for 
overnights on occasion. Stashing dogs here and there to prevent fights is not fun, and often not enough. I couldn't risk it, which meant Kelly had to leave. And Gromit arrived this morning which makes Molly ecstatic. Her submissive puppy wiles gets the old guy at least briefly back into puppy mode.
described by my 
DD so far away in NC, a tacky bit of smiley fun not intended as fine decor. And Dolphin Droppings. Yummy! Aka chocolate covered pralined peanuts.
Now why does that deer head have it's brain carved out? To hold my glasses, of course. Certainly got me grinning! 
on the second. And maybe figure out where the missing needles went. Yeah. Five dpns per package, I knit with 4. So when one slipped out of the knitting to disappear into thin air, I thought, no real problem. I've got another one. Can I figure out where I put the package with the extra needle? No, of course not. So now I'm using 3 metal knit picks and one crystal palace bamboo. It's getting the job done.
