Lately nothing new has really been going on. Got some cleaning done, doing tons of laundry, *thinking* about cleaning my tack, and that's about it. Been focusing more on weight loss lately than anything else and now's the time I need to get back up on my horse. The bad part is I'm timid on him again. I noticed it last time I rode. Sigh. All that is is uneasyness of not knowing what he will do and my ability to react to it. It'll get better the more I ride him. I've at least got it up to 20 minutes of riding rather than the 10 I was doing. I'd like to ride tomm but it looks like its going to rain :(
Short post I know.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Let the season of gardening begin!
Danger of frost has finally left my little (well not that little) city of Louisville and since my veggie plants came in on Weds of last week, I needed to go ahead and work the ground some. Joe had already tilled about a month ago and the ground is still super soft and workable. He does a much better job tilling than I do, simply because he has more patience than I do.
So anywho, I set out 9 pepper plants, 18 tomato plants, a row of zucchini, another row of that, and a row of pumpkins. I have carrot seeds too but I'm currently trying to figure out where to put them. I plan on canning all the tomatoes into salsas, sauce, and crushed tomatoes.
We also finally got a decent fence built around the garden to keep the dogs and chickens out. I spent the money this year and got metal stakes insead of the crappy plastic ones I had last year that never held the fence up. I'm proud of the work put into it :) Ok, slight correction, that Joe put into it. He put up the fence for me while I cleaned out the chicken coop and tended to Lucy.
I still need to weed my front yard, remulch the rosebeds, get a new border to put around the rose bed, trim the roses, pull out the ugly bushes in front of our windows, and then trim down the plant that is taking over the corner of the house. That will most likely be next weekends project.
Other than that, not much else in my household. Have a few recipe posts to make and tonight I need to clean out the chick brooder and build something for them to go outside in.
Never ends.
So anywho, I set out 9 pepper plants, 18 tomato plants, a row of zucchini, another row of that, and a row of pumpkins. I have carrot seeds too but I'm currently trying to figure out where to put them. I plan on canning all the tomatoes into salsas, sauce, and crushed tomatoes.
We also finally got a decent fence built around the garden to keep the dogs and chickens out. I spent the money this year and got metal stakes insead of the crappy plastic ones I had last year that never held the fence up. I'm proud of the work put into it :) Ok, slight correction, that Joe put into it. He put up the fence for me while I cleaned out the chicken coop and tended to Lucy.
I still need to weed my front yard, remulch the rosebeds, get a new border to put around the rose bed, trim the roses, pull out the ugly bushes in front of our windows, and then trim down the plant that is taking over the corner of the house. That will most likely be next weekends project.
Other than that, not much else in my household. Have a few recipe posts to make and tonight I need to clean out the chick brooder and build something for them to go outside in.
Never ends.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Overcoming the evils of spray bottles!
This is more of a training type related post but it's a post all the same.
So, did you know that spray bottles are monsters?! Seriously, the very bottle itself at any point in time can just go off! There is a cold wet feeling that comes right when that bottle shows up and it always seems to start on the legs! Who knows what the real intentions are of these bottles but if I am a horse, NO WAY THAT THING IS GOING TO KILL ME!!!!!!
I think that is what goes through Memphis' mind when he sees the bottle. I can usually see him tensing up right when I start walking towards him with it. But, at the end of the day I am going to win. (My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Adams, would fail me based on the fact that I started that sentence with "but")
So every time we work through this issue it's much the same. This is so similar to working him through bath time that its the same principal. I have found that the safest place for me when working through an issue with my horse is right at his shoulder about 2-3 feet away from him. I do not stand in front of him, nor do I allow a large area of space between us. My reasoning for this is I do not want to be trampled if he decides to bolt forward and I don't want to give him the freedom of unpressured motion. (that leads to more of a free will to act even dumber I have found)
Now, I do not want forward movement out of him. His natural instinct is to bolt the hell away from the monster at hand and that is forward movement. (sometimes he bolts backwards but that's more in response to my pressure on him in the wrong spot) I want to restrict his ability to bolt forward for this exercise in getting over evil horse eating bottles.
I keep myself in a large area to give us both room to move around with no fears of hitting anything since I don't want to add any more monsters to the list while trying to train him to give to this bottle. I also need to allow myself enough patience to work him through this, so I usually give myself a second to decompose before I start. This is for my sanity and helps put myself in the mindset of getting a job done as opposed to trying to spray him with flyspray.
Ok, so I have a big dumb horse, I have fly spray in one hand, one short lead rope attached to his halter, and we are standing in the middle of a large open barn area. Let the fun begin!!!!
I start with his legs and spray the bottle, he immediatly trys to go forward on me. I counter his manuever and turn his head towards me. I don't say anything and I don't make a fuss, but this will make him try to turn his entire body away from me to straighten out his neck. I do not allow it. I walk with his body staying at his shoulder and I continue to spray his legs. Now we are doing a sort of dance in the barn. I do not allow him enough room to rear back, I do not allow him the ability to straighten his neck out and bolt, and I do not allow him the option to think about going crazy.
I'm steady and I'm firm.
I give him 5 minutes on each side. I don't want his neck to get sore from being bent one way the entire time; so after 5 mintues he gets a short break to catch his breath, let me get the room to stop spinning, and then I switch sides. Then we go again and again and again.
Took him 30 minutes before he just stopped and let me spray him. I took all pressure off of him. Allowed him to look forward, gave him slack on the lead rope, and took a deep breath while stepping off his shoulder and releasing the pressure I was putting on him.
He then got sprayed again like I would if I was going to do it before any ride. He gets no praises from me, his release from pressure was his reward. I make no fuss about it after I've sprayed him. I just tie him to the wall again, put the fly spray away, and then continue on with whatever I was going to do for the day with him.
I will repeat the above method each time he balks at being sprayed until he will allow me to spray him tied to the wall. This could take a bit, but I'm going to get it done.
Stupid horse eating monsters!!!
So, did you know that spray bottles are monsters?! Seriously, the very bottle itself at any point in time can just go off! There is a cold wet feeling that comes right when that bottle shows up and it always seems to start on the legs! Who knows what the real intentions are of these bottles but if I am a horse, NO WAY THAT THING IS GOING TO KILL ME!!!!!!
I think that is what goes through Memphis' mind when he sees the bottle. I can usually see him tensing up right when I start walking towards him with it. But, at the end of the day I am going to win. (My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Adams, would fail me based on the fact that I started that sentence with "but")
So every time we work through this issue it's much the same. This is so similar to working him through bath time that its the same principal. I have found that the safest place for me when working through an issue with my horse is right at his shoulder about 2-3 feet away from him. I do not stand in front of him, nor do I allow a large area of space between us. My reasoning for this is I do not want to be trampled if he decides to bolt forward and I don't want to give him the freedom of unpressured motion. (that leads to more of a free will to act even dumber I have found)
Now, I do not want forward movement out of him. His natural instinct is to bolt the hell away from the monster at hand and that is forward movement. (sometimes he bolts backwards but that's more in response to my pressure on him in the wrong spot) I want to restrict his ability to bolt forward for this exercise in getting over evil horse eating bottles.
I keep myself in a large area to give us both room to move around with no fears of hitting anything since I don't want to add any more monsters to the list while trying to train him to give to this bottle. I also need to allow myself enough patience to work him through this, so I usually give myself a second to decompose before I start. This is for my sanity and helps put myself in the mindset of getting a job done as opposed to trying to spray him with flyspray.
Ok, so I have a big dumb horse, I have fly spray in one hand, one short lead rope attached to his halter, and we are standing in the middle of a large open barn area. Let the fun begin!!!!
I start with his legs and spray the bottle, he immediatly trys to go forward on me. I counter his manuever and turn his head towards me. I don't say anything and I don't make a fuss, but this will make him try to turn his entire body away from me to straighten out his neck. I do not allow it. I walk with his body staying at his shoulder and I continue to spray his legs. Now we are doing a sort of dance in the barn. I do not allow him enough room to rear back, I do not allow him the ability to straighten his neck out and bolt, and I do not allow him the option to think about going crazy.
I'm steady and I'm firm.
I give him 5 minutes on each side. I don't want his neck to get sore from being bent one way the entire time; so after 5 mintues he gets a short break to catch his breath, let me get the room to stop spinning, and then I switch sides. Then we go again and again and again.
Took him 30 minutes before he just stopped and let me spray him. I took all pressure off of him. Allowed him to look forward, gave him slack on the lead rope, and took a deep breath while stepping off his shoulder and releasing the pressure I was putting on him.
He then got sprayed again like I would if I was going to do it before any ride. He gets no praises from me, his release from pressure was his reward. I make no fuss about it after I've sprayed him. I just tie him to the wall again, put the fly spray away, and then continue on with whatever I was going to do for the day with him.
I will repeat the above method each time he balks at being sprayed until he will allow me to spray him tied to the wall. This could take a bit, but I'm going to get it done.
Stupid horse eating monsters!!!
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