SnakeHerdingDay!

whoooootHOOT! A sunny, mild, non-windy day:) Heaven, thank you. Everyone needs a shot of pure Vitamin D once in a while. Helps fix all kinds of things, it does. Spent the better part of the day walking and picking up debris from the winter, keeping a wary eye above me, around the trees standing dead. Flip was no help, at ALL.

Four snakes were in the the middle of the lawn, close to their burrow, sunning themselves. So, Flip had something to do. She loves bossing these poor creatures around. She'd like to really stomp them, but I won't let her anymore. So instead of sheep, she herds snakes.. Flip drools on them a lot.


While Blaze and I threw FrisBee and cleaned up sticks, Flip carefully herded each one, every which way. Two headed straight for the pond, one went into my AppleTree Garden, and the fourth is still whereabouts unknown, lucky for HiM.

Flip's little buddy at work, the jack russell/yorkie cross, Sega, absolutely worships the paws of the mighty Flip. Sega will pick a fight with any other dog, I'm told. Not my girls. Sega knows a true predator-dog when she sees one:)

That's a picture of Flip visiting Sega, while we were at work. Since Flip got her little sister Blaze, Sega is kinda beneath Flip. Why play with something that is pretty much stuffy size anyway?? It's sad to see Sega get rebuffed by her only good friend, but it kinda looks good on her too, snooty little thing:) Sega submissive pees, a LOT. In my office, hey ThankS. I know, it's not her fault. Typical training of a small dog went on, with Sega.

Sega was there, the day my old dog died. Little Red Dog insisted on going to work that day, and it was Sega who licked my face, as I held my old girl on the lawn in front of work. So, yeah, Sega's my buddy, anyway:).

I finally quit with the pictures, the darned snakes kept slithering towards me for help. Oh, it's almost time to shed the first layer of clothing (rubs hands together, not even for warmth!!) Just like a snake:) Then Flip decided to dig out a chipmunk burrow, under some tall evergreens, right in front of me, took me a while to find her! Darned black dogs, they have a cloaking device, I believe..

Okay, now for the rant, because I'm way overdue. It seems I was incredibly lucky in my life with horses, earliest days excluded. My teaching days with "my boys" were wonderful times for me. They all had something to teach my students. At the previous School Barn I'd been at, the Schoolies were not nearly as uniformly safe and sound. Many had next to no schooling, and a few were not safe, at all.

I remember refusing to use one pony in a lesson, because he was unbroke. Kids flew off of him at every lesson. I felt it wasn't much of a learning experience for the students I had. But no, use him I did, throw a kid, he did. Scared the crap out of said kid. Annoyed the hell out of me. These were beginner rider kids!

At "my" School Barn, I had the luxury of knowing "my" School horses would be there for me. Working with me. Except, of course, for my RainDance. He was my gift to my advanced students. Oh, if only he'd been taller. RainDance was a 14.3 hand QH/Arab Cross. Arab Mommy. Rainy was a little tough for my taller riders, they had to jack their stirrups right up for schooling sessions over fences. Rainy wasn't popular bareback, as he had a lovely sharp topline:)


Rainy!! If you said it just the right way, he'd whinny right back at you. Rainy's name was his voice, he loved that. What a funny character he was..

Rainy was part of the dissolution of the original barn's fraud problems, and after the assets i.e. GoLightly et.al. was settled, RainDance just fell into my lap. Peter didn't want him, and was kind enough to let me "have" him. Rainy was just four years old, and even with his short neck, and twisted body, he was still a lovely jumper, and a fancy enough pony. Rainy had been reasonably well started. All my advanced riders got to ride Rainy, and we had a blast teaching him his job. Not that he wanted to WorK all that hard:)

Oh, Rainy. RainDance was pure white, when he was euthed a few years ago. A lovely dark dapple gray in his earliest years with me. I was so happy when a dear student family bought him, and gave him a forever home. I couldn't bear to visit him, of course. I'd betrayed his buddies, after all.

Pony. Say it to Rainy, in the right musical tone, and he'd sing right back at ya. High/low tone,POneee, Sweetie pie. A kind pony is nature's way of making up for the little hellions scattered among them.

Hey, where did my rant go? I think, maybe, Hawaii.
Or it melted, with all this warm sunshine. I wish the same to all of you. Warm Spring Sunshine, and Warm Winds to You All:)
Have a great time, Mel!! (She's kinda guaranteed of ThaT.)

The book "Lads before the Wind" was written by Karen Pryor, chronicling her work with dolphins, while in Hawaii. Okay, totally distracted now:)
Great book, anyway.

RIGHT, dressage and it's connotations to us all.
It's the snoot factor, that my vet mentioned today. My dog vet, she isn't horsie:) My dog vet said she's thought for years, that I am still working in horses now. I do look pretty horsie, it's a curse:) Probably the green rubber boots are the give away.
It's such a fashion statement.

FYI, Canadian Horse Whisperer Chris Irwin is doing a clinic again, through CADORA, up the road from me.
Here's to extra sales this month, so I can go!

To Toronto. Feel better, that's an ORdeR! My transmitter hasn't tweedled in weeks!

To lots of Vitamin D, in our futures, and oh, that pot of gold, too.

To RainDance, and more about him, to follow.
and again, Hawaiiiiiiiii.
Oh, YeaH!!