PressurePoints

As a staunchly true-red (faced) maple-leafed Canadian, I wish to apologize for the fizzling of the last post. Jeeesh, I did have a point, it evaporated. Many different parts of my life pull me away from my "own" life, such as it be. I've been hurried, harried, and wearied, as I watch my Dad struggling to breathe, looking forward to his next smoke.

Dad's in hospital again, the only place where I can feel that he's safe, at this point. He's not terrorizing the nurses and orderlies this time, at least:) His GP TOLD him to go to hospital. If I had told him, he wouldn't have gone. What do I know? Dad's always been a Man's Man, ya know? I had the nerve to tell him he shouldn't smoke anymore, how could I? His Doctor's been telling him for 50 years...

sigh.

Okay, so the last post totally reeked. Why?? I didn't give ya the "Legend"!! The explanation of those weird boxes might have been helpful. I'd still like a whole bunch of side shots of english/western. It would be AWEsome if I could get the same horse wearing first an english and then a western saddle, for totally accurate comparisons/engineering confabulations.
hint, HinT, HINT.
cough, cough... Sooner would be good. Who knows how much time I may have left??? Not as much time as some, I'll tell ya. (wheeeze)

OH, the explanation..
The Coloured Lines/Boxes
are exactly the same height
and width, in each picture...
I used the Western “Box Set”
and placed it on the Jumper
& the Dressagerererer,
then sized those horses to line up
with Ms. EnglishWesternBritish.

RED=>A=> wither to rider hip
BLUE=>B=> rider hip to horse hip, for interest only:)
YELLOW=>C=> shoulder/hip/heel
WHITE=>D=> proportions of horse/rider are approx. equal(in case you thought I was just making it up..)

I just found it really interesting to compare the Western to The Dressage to The Hunter/Jumper/Heck-quitation. The balance amongst all of them, and where and how the influences were the most important.

You see, the jumper seat shown can look like it will get you dumped, but I'm hear to tell ya, not necessarily. Not if you stay in the center of the horse.......... Remind me. Tad and the Mach-9 180 Turn...

I'll come back to this, when my eyes aren't quite so tired.

Dogs!

Flip, trying not to drown. I mean, swim. Same thing for her.

Have you been missing my dogs? Buddy Cathy Gillespie, the artiste genius listed over there >>>>>, sent me the totally coolest link for doggie stuff! The Bark!

Patricia McConnell, the writer of "The Other End of the Leash", a book that I've epiphanied all over, had an interesting post on fear and soothing. The current dogma (teehee) states that soothing/petting makes the dog worst, when he's scared. It's another example, and a good one, of how every training/life situation will need dealt with as it's OwN unique set of variables. Shortened sentence: Every dog is different.

My first sentient experience with a fearful dog was my dear neighbour's darlin' StandardPoodle, Mon Ami. I was just starting to look at dogs as I'd looked at horses and cats, for years.
Mon Ami was a happy, springy, funny puppy, with no obvious qualms about anything, well socialized from early days. Mon Ami, the first time he met my brother (who loves dogs), inadvertently jumped up into brother's hand, hard. Ami immediately cowered, and I cooed and ohhh'ed and carried on like an idiot.

Ami was petrified of brother for the rest of his 14 odd years, and his resolute fear carried to brother's wife, and child. Ami was never in danger of being a fear-biter, but he'd try to flee, and he'd cower, until brother or any of his entourage had left. I tried EVERYthing I knew, but it obviously wasn't enough. I wish I'd known more about fear in dogs then.

My latest epiphany from Dr. McConnell's post was this. You can't "remove" the fear. The fear is there, live with it and through it.

I'm generally jolly now when either of my girls shows fear. If they are hurt by an ooops from me, I apologize. Flip is a weather barometer, and nothing I do will remove her fear of storms, so we just live through it. I pat her and reward her for any signs that she's not completely closed up. The bad storms we've had? I don't much blame her. Flip will eat her meals through a storm now, she wouldn't when I first got her.

Blaze, on the other hand, will happily play FrisBee through almost ANY storm, except when her Mom jumps at a particularly loud crash. Blaze still has fear of crinkly plastic bags, the fear I instilled in her as a puppy, BAD mommy:(
Blaze just has more fear IN her, though. Her first instinct when she arrived as a pup was to hide, not meet and greet. She's the Chicken, whereas Flip is The Brave One.

Flip practically knocked us over at our first meeting:) Flip is such a unique individual, her aggressive obsequiousness a behavioural rarity, according to Dr. McC.
I always find them, though, don't I?

All dogs are different. DuH.

Brother should have apologized to Mon Ami, and I should have stfu, too.

I had to laugh at the girls this weekend, on our first walks through heavy wet snow after the melt began. Sloooshing/sloshing/OOooooooHhhhhh, EWwww, my tummy is getting WeT! Hind-Legs trying to lift higher and higher, while the cold wet keeps slapping their bare tums from their wet toes, they were practically doing hand-stands as we reached the edges of the deepest white slop.

Blaze is again mincing her dainty way through mud of any type. She HATES mud. Flip digs mud:)