Practicing Big
It turned out to be a beautiful day yesterday up here in the Northland. We hit 52°F in the afternoon, which made it delightful to be doing outdoor chores. There is no mistaking that our days are numbered. It is reasonable to expect that we won’t see temperatures this warm again until April of next year. I tried to be mindful of the precious comfort afforded me while toiling away in the warm sunshine.
The forecast for the next 10 days shows a trend headed downward toward daily highs only in the 30s.
Before lunch, I took a break from my fence project to tidy up the paddocks. My appearance seemed to draw the horses in from the big field to check on me. I gathered they knew it wasn’t time for the feed we distribute in the morning and evening hours, from the nonchalant manner in which they arrived.
I noticed that Hunter had come close to where I was standing, but was still on the other side of the fence, so I set down the pitch fork and walked out to meet him. Legacy is always watchful, and when contact is being made, he wants to be there. As he approached, the other two trailed along. With the herd now idly congregating, I wandered back to my task. The horses decided to get a drink of water.
I was happy to see them comfortable enough with the setup to gather around, two on each side, and drink through the sound of the unit flowing as it tried to keep up with their demand. Thinking back to when they first arrived here, that sound was unnerving to them.
After their drinks, they stayed around, occasionally nibbling on some hay, so I had company while I continued to scoop. It was a good exercise for all of us to spend time in close proximity. I had opportunity to practice what Dunia suggested in her comment on my Language Barrier post, and communicated using my big energy to command results when Legacy or Hunter tried to chew on the wheelbarrow or gate chain. They responded appropriately, and I felt as though I was on the way to establishing my leadership with the herd.
With all four of them hanging around, I took several breaks to give them special attention. All but Hunter stood still and let me brush and massage them with my gloved hands for an extended time. In between, I would go back to cleaning up the grounds, moving them out of the way so I could get to the spots that needed attention. At one point, they started to crowd me against the fence a bit too much, so I sought to move on, except the direction I was headed was into the corner.
It was time to practice more leadership. I tried walking out of the paddock, thinking …they showed up here to begin with because of my presence, maybe they will want to be with me out here in the big field. It didn’t work. They didn’t budge. I walked back in to where Legacy was standing, his attention having been on me the whole way. I wonder what he was thinking. I began the exercise I learned at the Epona seminar, and which I have successfully put into practice twice before, walking an arc in front of him, as I encouraged him to follow me with my big energy. His first step was not so much engaging as it was threatening, so I hastily made that my turn and brought my energy around the other direction. At that, he took that step I was looking for, toward me.
I turned to direct my energy out of the paddock, without looking back, as he and the herd followed. I must have looked like the Pied Piper. I got them outside the gate and stepped aside to let them run off with gusto. They all stopped with me.
“Okay, you want me to take you farther?”
I re-energized quickly, to avoid losing momentum altogether, and headed out toward better grass. At this point, they rallied their own objective, and strolled beyond where I had stepped aside. Mission accomplished.
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Missing Katie
For those of you who may have noticed something suspicious about the amount of activity I have been engaged in on the ranch lately, I will reveal that I have stopped going in to the day-job. For reasons beyond just saving gas money for the 65 mile one-way commute, or reclaiming the hours lost to driving, I am on leave from my usual employment.
At about the same time I started my leave, a person I worked with there moved on to a new position at a different company. How do you part ways elegantly when someone you used to see every day disappears from your life? Not a day has passed without me thinking of something that I would normally have told Katie about when we next saw each other at work.
Instead, I now find myself trying to talk with Legacy. It’s just not the same, I tell you.
I am trying to be open about the possibility of finding work closer to home, but my few attempts thus far have been met with rejection, so my inspiration is waning. In the mean time, it occurred to me that I can balance the loss of income by taking on some chores that we would otherwise need to spend a lot of money to get done. Yes, that means building fences.
A year ago, I didn’t know a thing about how to build a fence, but after watching the professionals put in our paddocks and string up the border of the big field, I’ve learned a lot. I thought it took them a long time, but now that I am digging my own holes and burying posts, I have a new appreciation for how much they could get done in a day.
It is very important to Cyndie that we get rid of the barbed wire fencing that is close to the trail where she plans to ride horses. Yesterday, I surveyed the most exposed section and came up with a new idea: Leave it be.
That fence has been there so long that trees have grown around the wire. It will be much less work if we simply erect a new fence, just inches inside the old one, and choose fence material that will serve as a barrier to the barbed wire beyond it. Since that old fence defines the boundary of our property, it is technically shared by our neighbor. Leaving it in place eliminates any question as to the location of the old boundary and avoids putting any burden on them to make changes they don’t need.
We really don’t want to cut down trees if we don’t have to, so putting our barrier up just inside the old fence means we can run inside the trees that have grown up right on the old line. It’s a win-win scenario!
Except I’m slow, …and I don’t get to talk with Katie.
Language Barrier
It appears that I continue to be hampered by my limitation of being monolingual, when it comes to communicating with all our animals, and none of them are showing any signs of understanding a word I have been saying.
I kind of expect that from the cats. They are naturally aloof. Although, I haven’t tried too many phrases on them. Mostly, they just hear me repeat, over and over, “What do you want? What do you want?”
Delilah sometimes responds to single syllable commands, but she is inconsistent about it, so I don’t have much faith that she is actually interpreting the words or sentences I have used.
With the horses, I know I should be trying to move out of speaking just from my head, into trying to use my gut and heart energy more, but sometimes the message feels time sensitive and my words are the quickest tool I have. Most often, it is Legacy who I find myself face to face with, and my words have been eliciting a blank-stare response from him.
He seems as frustrated with me, as I am with him. I expect he is probably transmitting his messages to me loud and clear, but they aren’t coming through in plain english, so I am at a loss as to what he is trying to say.
Yesterday, he showed up at the other side of the fence while I was cleaning the ground in the paddock. For some reason, he started chewing on the fence post above the electric wire. Now, the wire is there to discourage them from chewing on the wood fence, so I was half-hoping that he might get too close and feel a shock that would teach him to leave it alone. He may have been just trying to show me that he could, that he was that good, he could work around our little deterrent.
I didn’t want him to do it, so I was feeling peeved. At first, I tried ignoring him, so he might notice it would gain him nothing with me. My frustration got the better of me, when he continued, so I walked over and told him not to chew on the post, and I slapped my hand on the top of the post a few times, to emphasize my point. When that didn’t alter his behavior, I stepped up again and pounded on the post and then told him I was angry. I wanted him to know in his language, so I put my hands on my head, to mimic horse ears, and I pinned them back, telling him, “See? This is how I feel about you chewing on the post. I am angry!”
He didn’t show obvious signs of reacting, so I brought my ‘hand-ears’ forward, so that he might understand they were supposed to be my ears, and with that, I startled the heck out of him! He pulled his head back, and took a couple of steps backward. I pinned my hands back again and told him I was angry!
It was funny, because the part he reacted to wasn’t supposed to be the threatening gesture. Regardless, it seemed to do the trick. I went back to scooping up manure, and he went back to grazing.
Apparently I know more horse language than I realized.
Beauty
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beauty
indescribable beauty
is freely available
to everyone
who chooses to notice
the way light
paints
every day
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Delilah Again
Delilah stole the show again yesterday. She was a chewing monster in the morning before we went outside. Luckily, what she shredded was a chew toy of her own, so no harm done. I think it is cute that it is common for her to lay her head down on whatever it is she has just torn to bits, to take a little rest. All that destruction must be exhausting.
Later in the day, I let her accompany me, on a leash, for the trip to the barn. I chose to leave her tied up inside while tending to chores in the paddocks. I didn’t have it in me to witness any chasing of horses, and she has not been very trustworthy about behaving appropriately in their presence for the entirety of each visit. When she is good, it is as though she can only hold it for so long, and eventually something gives way and she can’t help but give chase.
What really got me yesterday –and this may be something that you really needed to be there for– was what she did when I finished my barn chores and disconnected the tie line holding her in place. Now I had her by the spring-loaded leash we often use, allowing her to explore, within limits, at her heart’s content. She seemed to have an immediate agenda, and headed for a spot that seemed entirely random to me.
She sniffed and pushed her nose into the apparent nothingness of the dirt, like she so often does. I have watched her appear to be within striking distance of a mole in the dirt so many times, yet come up with absolutely nothing, I hardly glance her way anymore when she starts the routine. Too often, when she starts frantically digging to get after something, she stops and turns to pounce on the sound behind her, which happens to be the dirt she was throwing between her back legs, as it hits the leaves on the ground.
I think she may have attention deficit issues.
Not me. I’m still on track, trying to describe what happened yesterday. So, as I was barely paying attention to her putting her nose to the ground at that unlikely spot, she surprised me by pulling something out of the dirt right there! She is so funny when she gets a critter in her mouth. She gets this expression that looks a bit sheepish, like she is doing something embarrassing. My guess is that she has a sense we might disapprove, which I suppose Cyndie does to a small degree more than I. Delilah also becomes entirely fixated on her “catch” and will take great precautions to maintain possession.
Whatever she pulled out of the ground was so covered with dirt that I couldn’t identify it, but it seemed to be about the size of a mole, and was dangling out of her mouth, swinging as she walked. I couldn’t tell if it was something she just discovered, or if it was something she had previously buried in that spot. I let her lead the way, and we walked out into the warm sunshine bathing the back hill behind our house.
I was more than happy to let her find a spot to lie down and do what comes natural with her little prize. As she licked and licked that dirt blob, I began to recognize the profile of a rabbit ear. I expect it is a remnant of the rabbit she had a couple of weeks ago, and thus, probably something she buried for her future enjoyment.
Work Visit
We put the new “Griz” ATV to use yesterday, and it worked like a charm. One of my goals for the day was to take down the temporary fence we put up to define a grazing area just west of the big field. Our friend, Rich, and his daughter, Sarah, offered to visit and help with some chores, so I also had a goal of having a little fun. Both were accomplished!
They got to meet our horses for the first time, which also served a purpose for us, because we want the herd to be at ease in the presence of visitors. The more chances our horses have to experience receiving visitors, the better.
Cyndie brought Legacy into the barn to be groomed, and Sarah was able to help out with that task. I think she may have done too well, because when we returned to the barn later, to give the horses their afternoon feed, Legacy was covered with mud. He must have felt too clean, and rolled on the ground, in his version of self-grooming, to create a new layer of “insulation.” It was pretty funny to see.
Rich helped me to roll up the poly tape and pull out T-posts. I had rigged a way to connect our little trailer, ill-fitting and undersized though it is, to the Griz, and pulled that along as Rich picked up the posts. We reached that point where the load was becoming precarious, yet had only about a half-dozen left, so we went for it, and with Rich supporting the posts hanging off the end of the trailer, slowly worked our way out of the field.
The load was enough that I got stuck on the slope of gravel leading up to the pavement of the driveway, so I shifted to low, and then put it in 4-wheel-drive, and up it went, easy as could be. Then my only remaining problem was figuring out where the heck I would put all the posts. I hadn’t thought that far ahead!
Rich helped me create some space in the back of the shop garage and we finished putting things away just as soup and fresh-baked bread were being announced, topped off with cookies that Sarah helped Cyndie bake.
Thank you to Rich and Sarah for the visit, and assistance with chores. More than just a helping hand, having another person around when working provides opportunity for banter that energizes the endeavor.
Wintervale is a place that is made whole by the presence of guests. That has become apparent to me. At first, I thought we just needed to get the horses here to achieve the fulfillment of potential this place holds. Horses are a big part of it, but having people here to immerse themselves in the experience is the most precious of all.
Doing
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waking
cooking
eating
cleaning
sawing
shearing
swinging
laughing
coughing
hacking
whacking
lifting
hanging
singing
flinging
calling
chilling
dreaming
hearing
feeding
washing
seeing
wanting
doing
writing
fooling
asking
shooing
snoring
cooing
playing
chewing
drifting
zooming
brushing
knowing
itching
going
scratching
choosing
thinking
snoozing
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Selective Intelligence
Legacy is definitely the “spokeshorse” for the group, and in most situations, he demonstrates a lot of intelligence. I was cleaning the paddock yesterday while the horses were out grazing. See if you can follow this: The wheelbarrow and I were stationed inside the large paddock, along the fence bordering the big field where the horses were grazing. The gate that was open between the paddock and big field was located in the other, smaller paddock.
At one point during my effort, Legacy sauntered into the small paddock and headed over to the waterer for a drink. While I continued scooping up manure, he crossed through the opening between the two paddocks and walked over by me into the very limited space between the wheelbarrow and the fence.
I was just about to ask him if he wanted something from me when he proceeded to deposit a fresh pile for me to pick up. He was so close, he might as well have just dropped it directly into the wheelbarrow himself.
I got the feeling he was trying to impress me with how smart he is. Unfortunately, his next behavior totally undermined his little show of smarts.
Upon completing his contribution of fertilizer for me to pick up, he looked to rejoin the three horses in the big field, by walking up to the closed gate near where I was working. The herd approached him there and waited. They quickly became frustrated and started running, so Legacy ran with them, along the fence, past me and the wheelbarrow, sliding to a stop when he reached the end of the paddock. He turned, frustrated, and ran back, stepping in the pile he so conveniently placed for me just moments before.
He did this run a couple more times, even as I was attempting to coax him to the wide open route he had used to get into this situation. He is intelligent, but he appears to experience lapses of memory. The horses in the field joined in his increasing frustration and sprinted back and forth, stopping amazingly close to the open gate in the small paddock.
I continued to invite both him and them to join me in passing through the open gates to reunite, by walking in and out through the openings. When his frustrated gyrations finally brought him far enough along to see what I had been trying to show him, he bolted through just as the other three figured it out and were charging in. I thought I was going to witness a demolition derby collision. Somehow, they avoided that catastrophe, and the four of them turned and raced full-speed together through the open gate, out into the big field, throwing chunks of mud 20-feet into the air in a thunder of pounding hooves.
One thing about horses, just as quickly as he forgot which gates were open, they forgot about how frustrated they all were, and instantly relaxed and went back to grazing. It’s one of the more intelligent things they do.
Delightful Delilah
I had a very fine day yesterday with Delilah that started a little surprisingly. Cyndie had gotten up early to let Delilah out, and then was occupied with some activity, while I remained in bed trying to fall back to sleep. I was jolted alert by a commotion in the dark at the foot of the bed. Usually it is the sound of the cats doing battle, but that rarely lasts very long, and this sound wasn’t stopping.
My intuition sensed Delilah was in the room, but the familiar clanking sound of the tags on her collar was missing. Then it occurred to me that the reason she would be able to appear in our bedroom in the first place would be, if she got loose from her leash, which would be logical if she had slipped out of her collar altogether. I jumped out of bed in the dark, wearing my usual sleepwear –which doesn’t happen to involve pajamas– and blindly stepped into the middle of the hissing fracas, feeling a bit ill at ease.
By this time, Cyndie was aware something was amiss and had come running. She toggled the light switch and revealed the standoff between the girls. Pequenita will stand her ground, but Mozyr zooms under the bed at the slightest threat. Calm was restored, but my thoughts of falling back to sleep were dashed.
After breakfast, I took Delilah outside to see if I could chuck a ball someplace where she would have to hunt to find it. It is thrilling to watch her dial in the location, as she passes back and forth across the path the ball took. One of my tosses ended up deflecting off a tree, changing trajectory from what Delilah was anticipating. I thought I saw where it landed and waited for her to narrow it down to that spot. I could tell it was a hard one, because she was obviously having difficulty homing in on it.
She would pop out of the woods, and then circle back in to hunt some more. One time, when she came out and headed all the way back toward me, I figured she was giving up. Then I spotted the ball in her mouth. I didn’t believe it, because she hadn’t made it back to the spot I had been watching. I thought she must have found some other ball from an earlier time. I hiked in and checked out the spot I had been eyeing. Nothing there!
Her nose is definitely better than my eyesight.
The morning altercation with Pequenita must have stirred something in the cat, as she came out three different times throughout the day to approach Delilah and make contact. It is not entirely unprecedented that she do that, but it doesn’t happen every day. Three times in one day is of noteworthy significance. When Delilah remains calm in the presence of the cat(s), she gets a treat.
On the third occasion, when Cyndie had arrived home, they were almost nose to nose, gobbling up the treats she was putting down. It was very rewarding to see Delilah maintain her composure for all three of the visits from Pequenita.
Progress has been very slow in coming, but it appears our patience is finally being rewarded. I don’t know about the cats, but I am truly looking forward to the day when we don’t have to confine Delilah to a leash when she comes inside the house.
