Stella has taken to watching me play Guild Wars (GW) almost every time I log on to the game. When she is ready to play, she sits about two inches from the monitor and watches the screen intently. She decided to help me play on Saturday when I was talking with a friend on GW. My friend used the dance emote and the character began dancing. And Stella was on!
She’ll be 20 this spring, believe it or not.
I think this is based on the BBC Big Read top 100 list from 2003. Most of the books are the same.
I was curious how many books on this list my English studies covered.
Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
I just received directions to where Prize is stabled. I really will get to meet her tomorrow. I’m going to take plenty of pictures.
Wow. I think I’m still in a little shock.
There was an informal natural horsemanship session at my barn today. One of the ladies started a three year old filly under saddle. The filly is a buckskin, Quarter Horse/Arabian cross. She is a rescue case and has not been handled much. She knew how to lead and not much else.
It was amazing watching how the filly responded and learned what was being asked. She is a smart little girl. She picked up what she was being asked to do quickly. She learned left, right, whoa, and was exposed to the saddle in about two hours.
It was amazing. She had her first exposure to the saddle and blanket and was fine with it being flapped all over her. She was perfectly content to have the saddle placed on her back and cinched. She could have cared less when the rider sat on her back.
Really amazing to watch. What an excellent filly and an exceptional, non-stressful experience for her first time under saddle.
Today started with a vet visit with Stella for her fluids. She has been so good about it. Surprising, considering that she has limited patience. If something takes longer than five minutes, she will start protesting vigorously. The fluids have made a huge difference for her: the evening after she has her fluids, she plays hard.
One night, she decided to help me play Guild Wars. This was the first time she took a noticeable interest in what was happening on the screen. Some times she would watch the cursor, but nothing major. This was different. She played for several minutes, trying to “help” my character beat a large battle.
Now she regularly helps me play, some times getting in the way. Tonight she was enthralled with the characters and screen. I have another video I’ll upload.
Last night, she chased her tail in the bathtub for several minutes.
Yup, she’s almost 20 and acts like she’s a kitten. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ever since I sold Prize, I have felt guilty over what happened. To say I berated myself is an understatement. I felt like I had let down my horse. I had promised Prize I would never sell her, and then I had to. I swore that I would do everything I could to prevent that same thing from happening again. When you sell a horse in desperate circumstances, you have less control over who or where she goes. Apparently, she ended up in good homes with people who loved her and cared for her. She was incredibly lucky.
I called Prize’s current owner last night. Prize is at a barn that is on the way from my house to the barn where Isis and Kasane are. It turns out that Rody’s daughter had Prize for the past six years. She did everything with Prize: driving, hunter pace, anything. Rody said that Prize is amazing and complemented the training I did with Prize. (Well, we really trained each other.) I was delighted.
Since Rody’s daughter is in college (and currently overseas), they are looking for someone to come out and spend some time with Prize. Rody thought I would be a good choice, if I was in the area. She tracked me down through the letter I had sent when I first sold Prize. That letter was passed from owner to owner wtih Prize for 12 years.
I feel like a weight has been lifted. Like I have been given a chance to make amends and see that Prize is okay.
This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things that happens.
This Sunday, I get to see Prize at 2:30.
I’m still in shock.
Monday afternoon my Mom forwarded an email to me. A woman had emailed her asking if Mom had a daughter who had won a horse in a raffle…
Prize is still alive! She’s 23 and living in Chapel Hill, 10 miles from where I live. I’m going to call the lady tonight and go see my old girl this weekend.
I can’t believe she is still around.
When I was 16, I had a dream come true. On Mothers Day that year, we were at the regional show at Frying Pan Park, Vrginia. The horse show was part of the Eastern Amateur Arabian Horse Show Circuit. We arrived with a four-horse stock trailer with three horses, including the gray mare I was showing, Silver Run Sahsha.
The show had a big event: a purebred Arabian filly was being raffled during lunch. To support the club, Mom and Ed bought two tickets at $1 each. She was a cute filly, small, but very personable. During lunch, she kicked the handler as she was brought into the ring. She was was not malicious: she simply didn’t know what was going on.
When the name was drawn and the winner was announced, I couldn’t believe it. Mom was the winner! I was thrilled! My stepfather was not.
It’s hard to describe what it is like to win a horse, especially when you’ve always wanted to train a horse and be able to show. Do all of the training yourself and come home with a ribbon or two (it doesn’t matter what place the ribbon is either).
The Bay Wonder Mare Senior did well in the clinic and in our lesson on Sunday. We did the in-hand work and also the under-saddle work. It is easy for me to forget how bright Isis is. One of the exercises in the clinic was to encourage the horse to lower his/her head by massaging and applying a little pressure behind the ears. When the horse lowers the head a little, you remove the pressure and praise them. While other horses were gradually understanding, Isis got the concept and idea within 2-3 tries. I started laughing — it is so amazing how smart she is. She just gets things.
She was excited when I first got on Isis on Saturday (even after 2 hours of in-hand work she still had to look for her boyfriend-stablemate, Max). She calmed down when she saw him enter the ring.
We learned some great stuff for helping a forward horse relax. Sylvana, the clinician, had us do an exercise she called “ribboning”: you make tight, switch-back turns, like a piece of ribbon candy that is folded back upon itself. You make the turns and straight-aways on a very loose rein. Each turn you carefully take up contact to turn and apply pressure with the inside leg to have the horse turn tightly around your leg. The rein work flow from rein to rein so it’s very smooth. It worked like a charm! Isis calmed down immediately.
On Sunday, Tish, my riding instructor, came over for a our first lesson at the new facility. Isis had been out and running around a little. Isis was so quiet: I had to actually encourage her to move out and have more energy. She was great– and out-lasted me. I barely lasted 30 minutes because of all of the riding the day before. I felt like my legs were going to fall off.
I brought Kasane in so Tish could see her after the lesson. I let the Bay Wonder Mare Junior loose in the round pen and free lunged her a little. Tish seemed to like her a lot. She said that she has excellent movement and should make a good dressage prospect — provided her front left hoof with the upright inside wall remains sound. I’ll be working with the farrier closely to make sure Kasane’s feet are monitored. I don’t think we’ll have any problem with her staying sound.
What a great weekend!
If you havne’t seen this YouTube video, it’s hysterical. Watch the antics of a mean kitty while his human sings about how mean the kitty Sparta is (not really mean, just wants attention). Very cute.
Stella play-bites when she is very excited. She has never broken skin but she will nip. She loves to rough-house like Sparta does. Ambush will also play hard and likes to have his rump patted. In his youth, he also used to play fetch like Sparta does.
Warning: You won’t be able to get this song out of your head!
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