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Aug. 9th, 2006 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI went and played horse today after work.
The grey gelding (name of Phantom -- people should really let me name their horses instead of trying to pick stuff that sounds cool. After you've been around horses a while, you kind of can tell the cool names and... well... everyfuckingbody names their horses stuff like that. Look. Your grey horse should not be named Silver or Ghost or Phantom or Shadow or Cloud. Your black horse should not be named Midnight or Spade or Ace or Blackjack. Try for a horse name that other people have not heard a gazillion times before. Be slighly original, please.) was fine again today. He recalled everything we'd been over two days ago and added some new skills. All four feet pick up and he's not goochy about being sacked out. Also, he's quite smart and fairly willing to try new stuff. He zipped right over the evil black tarp o' death in under two minutes. (It took the IRH about half an hour to manage this after three months of work.)
One of the interesting things about working with horses other than the IRH is that it really illustrates how fucking insane she is. Other horses get it so much faster and with so much less bullshit than she does. She's a goof. I think the IRH is short-bus material. If she weren't pretty, there'd be no hope for her. Also, working with other horses is rewarding because they reinforce the fact that I'm not totally fucking incapable. I am very capable. The IRH is just a fruitcake, is all.
On the agenda for tomorrow for Phantom: saddle, bridle, general standing-still for all of that plus possibly hobbles and/or mounting practice if he does well with the rest of it. (We're on a timeframe here -- if we have him broke and riding by the first week in September, he can probably be sold back to the people who claimed that he stompled women... at a profit. I do not foresee this being a particular problem -- he's given absolutely no indications of being a bad horse.)
On the agenda for tomorrow for Nick: being caught without running away, eating feed in a bucket next to a running vehicle while the engine is being gunned. I did this today and it was freaking hysterical. Horse would put her head down to get a bite of feed, I'd step on the gas, my sorry-ass cavalier would rev insofar as a four cylinder can rev, Nick's head would jerk up and she'd look around while the engine wound down... she'd settle down and go for a bite of feed, I'd hit the gas. Serious fun, for sure. The IRH did eventually manage to eat all her feed in spite of the car engine noise and she didn't pull back on the rope (not tied, just held in my hand), not once. She was not HAPPY, but she didn't move her feet. We're going to do another day of this with the car sitting still and then I'm going to start moving the damn car back and forth in front of the feed bucket. I have a twenty-foot lead that I can tie to the existing lead, so she can stand in one place while I move the car forward and back. I think it'll be all kinds of fun for everyone involved. One way or another, I'm going to get this fucking horse to ride in traffic.
The grey gelding (name of Phantom -- people should really let me name their horses instead of trying to pick stuff that sounds cool. After you've been around horses a while, you kind of can tell the cool names and... well... everyfuckingbody names their horses stuff like that. Look. Your grey horse should not be named Silver or Ghost or Phantom or Shadow or Cloud. Your black horse should not be named Midnight or Spade or Ace or Blackjack. Try for a horse name that other people have not heard a gazillion times before. Be slighly original, please.) was fine again today. He recalled everything we'd been over two days ago and added some new skills. All four feet pick up and he's not goochy about being sacked out. Also, he's quite smart and fairly willing to try new stuff. He zipped right over the evil black tarp o' death in under two minutes. (It took the IRH about half an hour to manage this after three months of work.)
One of the interesting things about working with horses other than the IRH is that it really illustrates how fucking insane she is. Other horses get it so much faster and with so much less bullshit than she does. She's a goof. I think the IRH is short-bus material. If she weren't pretty, there'd be no hope for her. Also, working with other horses is rewarding because they reinforce the fact that I'm not totally fucking incapable. I am very capable. The IRH is just a fruitcake, is all.
On the agenda for tomorrow for Phantom: saddle, bridle, general standing-still for all of that plus possibly hobbles and/or mounting practice if he does well with the rest of it. (We're on a timeframe here -- if we have him broke and riding by the first week in September, he can probably be sold back to the people who claimed that he stompled women... at a profit. I do not foresee this being a particular problem -- he's given absolutely no indications of being a bad horse.)
On the agenda for tomorrow for Nick: being caught without running away, eating feed in a bucket next to a running vehicle while the engine is being gunned. I did this today and it was freaking hysterical. Horse would put her head down to get a bite of feed, I'd step on the gas, my sorry-ass cavalier would rev insofar as a four cylinder can rev, Nick's head would jerk up and she'd look around while the engine wound down... she'd settle down and go for a bite of feed, I'd hit the gas. Serious fun, for sure. The IRH did eventually manage to eat all her feed in spite of the car engine noise and she didn't pull back on the rope (not tied, just held in my hand), not once. She was not HAPPY, but she didn't move her feet. We're going to do another day of this with the car sitting still and then I'm going to start moving the damn car back and forth in front of the feed bucket. I have a twenty-foot lead that I can tie to the existing lead, so she can stand in one place while I move the car forward and back. I think it'll be all kinds of fun for everyone involved. One way or another, I'm going to get this fucking horse to ride in traffic.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 12:47 am (UTC)