It's Obvious,Oblivity is rampant..

and Blogger won't load my picture.
GEEEEEZ. oh, wait, never mind..
Stupid computers, they think they are soooo necessary.
hah.
I can still hold a pen. It hurts, but I can do it.
Why...

It's sooo OBvious. To Me, anyway. I gasperate, exasperated, exacerbating my own exiguous existence. Anyway.

Why..

Why do people get animals to ignore?

Just WHY??
Okay, I'll move on.

AddendumBs.

OSPCA? Kudos on your handling bungling of the TorontoHumaneSociety Cruelty "case". What the hell is wrong with these organizations? I give up.

On the one hand, the OSPCA is all for the proper standards of care. On the other, the OSPCA cannot make you have any standards at all. The OSPCA are not politically affiliated, yet they are so proud of Bill C50.

But they don't think there's anything they can do about the current laws, which don't do much more than ensure that death is a semi-bad thing. It's really weird. Sure smells like government to me. There is nowhere else to turn, is there. Yeah, not a question.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of politically incorrectable things going on.

I had a wee temper tantrum up at the OSPCA Office last week, and I still couldn't get a straight answer about what they are doing to make the laws better.


If the neglect I've reported isn't the politically correct idea of neglect, what standards do the OSPCA/ORC care to uphold in the shelters/at the tracks?? My mind boggles.

Here's a thought, though. It might be nice if the Ontario Racing Commission was a teensy bit more stringent in their licensing requirements for grooms.

I received a breathless OSPCA mailing for extra donations, saying that they needed to learn more about infectious/fungal diseases. Jeepers, two words. Bleach, Work. Remember when I went up there in February? My contact seemed blasé about the problem they were having. There were foot-baths between the office/kennel areas, but they were used perfunctorily. I know how hard it is to keep animal areas clean. REALLY clean. The place didn't smell bad, which made me happy. Guess the OSPCA is still learning how to do it properly too. I have to pay for that?? Bleach has been around for a long time, as far as I know. Aseptic technique, now that goes WAY back.

What is the point of having animal welfare standards at all? The standards are all voluntary. So, you don't have to worry, if you run a puppy mill, or keep any animal in it's own shit 24/7/365, or transport an animal for days upon days without water or breaks. That's A-Okay. We have standards, we will distribute those standards in printed form, we just don't think you necessarily need to read them, if you don't want to.

Just don't beat the animal (where we can see you), or starve it to death. We might fine you some money!

I'm utterly flummoxed. It's an Ontario thing, I guess.

What Have We Learned So Far?

I realize I'm approaching an "anniversary" of sorts, my first official blooglie typings were in late August, 2008. 2 years, wow. Blink. I was completely kicking the coffee habit, and my temper was ready to type.


It's been fun, huh? Okay, maybe not fun, fun. Peculiar fun.

I'm stone-cold sober/decaffeinated, which can come across as "the schizophrenic old aunt, mumbling away in a corner".
I learned from that comment about my writing! How true, really. I'm split right down the middle, with where I live, and what I do. I'm a city worker, and I run away from it as soon as I can, every day. I crave quiet country. I've been very lucky to be able to enjoy our rental property. But even here, my one refuge from the madding crowd, has become haunted by a horse.


I hope we've learned something along the way, I sure have. How to insult people, without even trying.
Go OnLine, and talk about horses! Heck, you can upset, piss off, annoy, anger and downright infuriate some people, just with a few picks of the fingers. PoWeR, with a capital R. or GrrrRRRRrrr.

Watch this, for example...
I'm for humane treatment of ALL animals. I believe slaughter-bound animals have the same right to a dignified life as we do. I would love to see a truly humane slaughter method always implemented and always enforced, and humane care mandatory, for all animals. But until we start caring a little harder about them all, farm animals included, the anti-slaughter horsie set will just have to keep tsk-tsking.

sigh. Broken record, I'm skipping this part for a change.

I feel like getting funny.

Have you noticed that the most played TV/radio/media ads everywhere/anywhere are for any type of procreative act, or the prelude to said act, or the results of said act? Can we not understand that by letting procreation permeate us like the stink of a mephites mephites, we just keep getting dumber?

I mean, some old skinny broad walking around, playing a ukulele and singing about when she gets it, is kinda warped, don't you think? Especially for TV's PrimeTime! Is that what we want our daughters/nieces aspiring to?
Hasn't ANYone noticed the planet's getting a teensy smitch crowded?

I read a cool article in Discover, about how our brains are shrinking, which gives me hope that this large head of mine holds extra brain matter, as I obviously do need more just to function.

I liked the idea mentioned in the article, not held by all, that we are increasingly domesticated, just as we've domesticated our animals. Royal we, here, don't get your panties all bunched. We've become like the silver foxes that turned into collie dog types, just by selecting for the tamer ones. Tamer animals brains shrink. You need more brain matter when you're afraid for your life, is the logic behind this line of reasoning.

I mean, I don't LikE the idea, it just makes sense. Just look at how people drive, for heaven's sakes. All they seem to be thinking about is getting it/not getting it/looking around to see if they can get it/hell maybe even getting it while driving. I made that mistake once. I was YOUNGer. Good old Dick Hill. That's the town. The car was a VW Rabbit. Ironic, eh?

My eventual, murky point is, why do we even have to be told not to talk on the phone while driving?
The wonderful new law against cell phone use while operating vehicular machinery hasn't curtailed anybody, as far as I can tell. So, yeah, the fact that so many have no idea of the laws of physics, and yet are driving around, AnD yabbling to their friends, whom they'll see in a half hour, tightens my grip on the steering wheel. My hands are getting tired of it.

Isn't there anything else we could also be good at doing, besides virtual games, "partying" and procreation? Talk about aspiring to nowhere.

I dunno. I felt the same way in my youth. What was the big deal? I mean, okay, nice feelings yadayada, but, then you eventually/inevitably end up with kids. That's generally a bad thing in a teenager. Just sayin'. The movie Juno notwithstanding. LOVED that movie..
No surprise that we have animal over-population, when we seem to be breeding our own selves...
Never mind.

I guess I'm apologizing. (shuffles feet.) Not sure what for, but I'm sorry, anyway. It's a Canadian thing. if you feel funny, apologize. You probably aren't.

What does any of this have to do with horses?
Nothing. I'm just haunted, is all.

Ready, Set, HEAD..

CRAP, I hit publish again.. Jeeesh.
2010 has been my y2K, brain wise..

Okay, Ready, Set The Head. No, no, no. Full stop. It's backwards, this whole idea that the head position is where the horse being broke starts. Nope, it isn't.

I Know that's where you lead them from. You don't want to be pushing them around by their large, dangerous arses, do you? Hard to find a halter to fit those big butts. Imagine giving them a rectal twitch.. Yeah, the head is way easier for leading, less prone to flatulence, although goobers are always in the possibilities. Halter classes would certainly be more exciting, if we always pushed them around by their bums:)

However, did you ever notice that's what you firstly do when training babies to lead? Recalcitrant types? Horses with no go?
"No, I don't want to" usually becomes "forward go", if you push them from behind. Usually, I'm saying, you people with exceptions just TRY to be quiet for a minute, and think about it..
Hmmm, eh?

You do NOTHING with the head position, for the first several months/years of a horse's training. Okay, sorry, too much bold there.. NOTHING. If you do your early "stuff" correctly, the horse will naturally learn to relax through his top-line, and allow his back to swing, and voila. Horse's head will be in his very own right place. THAT's crucial too. Every horse is different, and each has a "sweet spot", where he can carry you comfortably, and still give you the roundness and softness and throughness we all like to ooooh over.

So, in answer to a question I received from Liz, don't worry about head set. Actually, Liz's little bay has a lovely natural head carriage. Red Mare is high-headed, and again, no need to change that, at all.

It's the wrong way to think about horse-or-any-animal training. Step one is getting them going forward consistently. Step two is being able to change speed and tempo. And those first two steps are the backbone, the foundation, for everything else that you do. It's that simple.
(No, it's not.)
Yes it is.
(No, it's NOT.)

Yes, it IS!!
(Stomps foot.. Hah!)
Sorry if I sound grumpy, I kinda am.
Post isn't finished, I wanted to ramble about spacing between trotting poles. See, even there, it depends.
But 4' is a good general rule. If your horse can take three trot strides betwixt, you need to buy an actual life-sized horse:)
I'll be baaaack.

NoWords

No words needed, here.

Recipe for Horse Hoof Destruction, 101

Take a sound horse, with well-tended feet. Place in a concrete garage pen, with very little food, and, (yesterday and this morning), no water. Do not remove any manure, for four months. Oh, sorry, just enough manure so that the horse won't outgrow his cage. Never add any clean fresh bedding. Ever. Don't fix the leaky roof, so that as much moisture and urine as possible can accumulate. Enclose the bottom of the cage entirely.
Do not muck out, nor add fresh bedding, until Wednesday night, July 28. SURPRISE, OSPCA will come and check your horse July 29, and will say "The horse has clean bedding and food and water". The flies are merciless now, and the horse's constant stomping on freshly bare concrete will split the hooves quite nicely. End result, a ruined foot, a mostlikely lame horse, and a heartbroken GoLightly.

Exhausted, I am, from lugging water to him yesterday, and today. I should NOT have done so, of course, because then the horse could have had a lovely colic, and voila, cruelty charges could have been laid.
Ever seen a horse die of colic? I have. Not gonna happen on my watch. Dang, probably blew the insurance claim, eh?

Isn't my nightmare looking well...

This fictional drama brought to you by the truth,  in a cage.