Posts Tagged ‘Legacy’
Animals Update
I feel like the horses have been getting short shrift of air time here lately, probably due to the severe winter weather we’ve been enduring of late. Most days it is all business down at the barn, getting hay and feed distributed before my exposed flesh starts getting burned by the cold air. Pulling out the camera in the cold and dark just doesn’t seem to happen. Of course, the fact that the flash quit working on my favorite pocket camera might have a little to do with that.
I did recently snap this shot at dusk, prior to entering the barn to feed them. That is Cayenne in front of Legacy, and if you look close, you can see Hunter peeking out from the edge of the overhang of the barn. Legacy has played hard-to-get when we attempt to adjust his blanket and I’m beginning to think that he thinks it looks cool that way. He reminds me of a teenager who wears his ball cap sideways or lets his pants hang low.
They seem to be doing well despite the harsh conditions. It is such a treat to watch them when they are prancing and dancing around in the snow. We haven’t been picking up after them in the paddocks as diligently as we used to, and now the snow is covering a lot of their piles of manure, so I have resigned myself to it being a muddy, wet manure mess out there when spring finally rolls around.
Meanwhile, I have been having a lot more interaction with Delilah during the time I’ve been home during the week. Since it was so cold, I let her stay indoors with me, and since the cats just sleep on the bed all day, I put up a gate to the bedroom and then give Delilah freedom to move around the house.
We have developed a game of chase in the house where I run after her in laps around the spiral staircase. Last night, she even initiated the game and invited me to chase her around past the kitchen counter, in front of the fireplace, back to the kitchen, around and around again. I run as fast as I can, pushing her to work hard, but I run out of breath well before she tires of the game.
I tried to get her to wear boots that Cyndie bought for her feet, and she was very nice to let me get all 4 of them on her before we went out on the coldest day. After I got her ready, I still had to get my boots and coat on, and she stood totally still while I got ready. I think she was freaked out about trying to walk in them. When I was ready, it took some coaxing to get her to move, and then she clop, clop, clopped her way to the door.
Outside, she instantly appeared to be trying to run out of them, and it didn’t take her long to succeed. I thought it was nice of her to try, but I am guessing they won’t get much use beyond that first attempt.
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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.
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.
Important Lesson
Legacy is showing signs of growing a bit shaggier in preparation for the onset of winter weather. That same growth hasn’t been as noticeable on the others yet. “Legs” doesn’t hesitate for a second to walk over to the fence to command our attention when there is something he wants. On this day, he was getting tired of being wet, and wanted to go in the barn for the rest of the evening. It was the day Cyndie returned home, so we were able to give them all a chance to get dry.
I don’t like it when he approaches when I am not at a gate. The top wire and the third wire are electrified. We have not witnessed them getting shocked by the fence yet, but I’m confident they know about it, one way or another. Still, I don’t want him to accidentally get bit by it when he is focused on communicating with us and neglecting to pay attention to the fence between. I would rather it happen only when he is being mischievous with the perimeter of his confines.
Last night, well after dark, I was walking Delilah on a leash and Cyndie was putting hay out for the horses as she was bringing them in from the big field for the night. We were up the driveway a bit, and Delilah noticed Cyndie’s head lamp moving about in the distance. The dog walked up to the fence to investigate, but got too close and received a shock. She let out a series of yelps as she ran off in a circle around me.
That scared the horses and they ran out of the paddock before Cyndie had gotten the gate closed.
It was the second night in a row that Cyndie was caught in the darkness when the herd startled and ran away in a thundering escape. She said the previous night was a result of some exclamation I made up at the house when I stepped out the door to greet our single surprise Trick-or-Treat visitors. Oops! I got so excited I scared the horses.
They were neighbors we hadn’t met yet, who took advantage of Halloween to come up and say hi, so I was thrilled.
Our horses are showing signs of being comfortable with their new home, but they continue to be quick to exercise their emergency response reactions. Cyndie is learning to make sure she is highly visible when she is inside the paddocks with them after darkness has set in. That’s an important lesson, because I don’t think I can be trusted to keep from doing something that might end up startling the herd while she’s in there.
Featuring Legacy
The last horse to be featured from our little herd is, Legacy, aka “Legs.” I saved him for last because he already tends to command the most attention. I think partly, that is because he is a gray in an otherwise chestnut herd, but mostly it is because he is the leader.
One of the ways I notice that he is in charge is how often he stands solid, appearing oblivious to the antics of the other three when they are doing their merry-go-round game of working out their pecking order. He doesn’t bother to look up from eating while they jostle and jump, jockeying for position. Another way Legacy’s leadership is evident is the fact that he is first to approach when the herd comes over to greet people.
Legacy is pretty inquisitive and can be a bit of a mischief-maker. When we happen to be cleaning up the paddock while they are in there, he will wander over to supervise our activity. Then he will sniff at the tools or the wheelbarrow, which leads to grabbing things with his teeth, as if he is going to pick up and help.
He noticed Cyndie had hung a shirt over the fence that she had shed when she got too warm. He smelled it, grabbed it with his teeth and pulled it to the ground. Then for good measure, he wanted to paw at it with his hoof, before I rescued it from a muddy manure mess.
It is very clear when Legacy is trying to communicate something. He will make a very obvious approach to address me, and as I stand in front of him, trying to read his message, he seems to grow impatient with me. He often stomps his hoof to make a point.
I usually turn and go find Cyndie to ask her to come figure out what he wants. Sometimes it is that he wants to be fed grain or expects some treats, but one time it was that they all wanted to come into the barn and get out of the cold rain.
Legacy is a wise old leader. We are very lucky to have his watchful eye managing the safety of the herd for us. He does his job well.
Not Proud
Out of respect for the whole truth, I must report that it isn’t always sunshine-happy-roses here at Wintervale, despite all my blissful stories. Yesterday afternoon, Cyndie got out of her car after work, hobbling on a sprained ankle. She reported that it happened as she was squeezing out time before work that she didn’t really have, trying to walk Delilah one last time before leaving. Delilah ran off with gusto, pulling Cyndie off-balance.
With me trying to help out, doing more of the walking chores, we headed down to the barn to invite the horses into the paddock for their evening grain. I don’t know where he had been rolling, but Hunter arrived with dirt covering him, head to hoof. He was an absolute mess. Regardless the hindrance of her painful sprain, Cyndie wanted to try to clean him up. She worked her way into the paddock, with brushes and cleaning supplies.
He wasn’t interested.
She turned to Legacy, who had a fair amount of dirt on his back, giving him the option of being groomed. He didn’t seem to want to hang around, either. As we stood at the gate, after exiting, Legacy appeared to want to give us one last message. He presented his backside and lifted his tail. Message received.
We left the sorry-looking geldings to strut their muddy body art.
I dropped Cyndie off at the house and headed around back to retrieve Delilah from her kennel. Yes, she is still behaving like a puppy, despite our impression that she should be beyond portions of it now. For the second time in three days, she has ripped and de-stuffed articles of bedding. I found her insulated blanket torn open and puffs of white stuffing spread all over the place. It is so frustrating, especially when she presents such an obvious look pride for her “accomplishment.”
On Saturday, Delilah was confined to her crate in the house, while we entertained guests. She made quick work of the bed Cyndie had tossed in there while cleaning. Ever so quietly, Delilah pulled the green stuffing out of it to surround herself, before lying down to nap.
Shortly after coming inside with Delilah yesterday, as I brought a cold pack for Cyndie’s ankle, while she propped her foot up in the living room, I stepped in a pile of poop Delilah had covertly dropped on the rug the day before. That afternoon was when Elysa was over, and both she and I smelled something, but weren’t wily enough to follow our noses to the source. Discovery was delayed for 24 hours.
Maybe we can blame Delilah for all the flies in the house. There has been an epic population explosion of flies around here this summer, and now that we have an unending supply of manure, the flies are thicker than ever. With Cyndie on the couch, pointing them out, I swatted at flies in a fruitless effort to curb the infestation.
This was not one of our proudest days.
Relative Something 