Its a 3½ minute video that was consolidated out of a 20 minute video of our workout. The way I rigged up the camera to get this was beyond ghetto & super creative - I'm tooting my own horn here, but this is my blog so I think I'm entitled to that once in awhile ;-)
(Sorry the loping clip ended up in their twice... I'm not awesome at this editing thing yet.) We have a lot of work to do still, but watching this has helped me to learn SO much about what I'm doing and NOT doing. Its going to help me immensely. It also helps me to really fall for this little horse that much more. He's super stupendous with everything.
Accomplishments from today that weren't filmed:
- He nickered at me as soon as I got out of my car and started walking over. I reinforced this with a whistle or two just to hammer that in more.
- He walked through two people doors without balking. I've never asked him to do this before.
- He wore Orion's old frilly bonnet and didn't freak out. However, he did manage to look a little sheepish which was amusing (yes, I'm anthropomorphizing here, but - once again - my blog, I do wha' I wan').
- Let me rasp all four hooves. He previous wanted nothing to do with the rasp, it felt too funny or sounded too funny. But today was a different story. This probably had something to do with the fact that there were NO OTHER distractions and he had food to concentrate on.
- Wore hoof boots for the first time. Same first reaction as Orion - acted as if it were old hat and didn't care at all! Made him walk and trot out with them and he was mostly agitated that they were slightly large and made a funny noise. He's probably going to fit a double ott, but because the trimmer hasn't made it out yet and his feet are wonky in a couple places from flaring and because I didn't want to cram on boots and freak him out too much, I put him in a pair of size ones.
- He isn't afraid of a squawking flapping freaked-out bird in his face. Just flicked his ear.
Wait, what? A squawking flapping freaked-out bird in his face?! Where did I conjure that desensitizing measure? Oh, that's right, I caught a starling today with my bare hands.
 |
| Starling bomber. ..and my hand a month after I accidentally rasped it. I heal excessively slow |
THE BIRD WAS NOT HARMED! Extremely agitated, yes, but harmed, NO.
Little back story: A couple days after I picked up Kenai we were walking and he managed (on a leash) to catch and kill a starling fledgling. Ever since he's had quite a fascination with birds. Today I couldn't help but re-introduce him to a starling sans killing it.
 |
| Holy laser-eyes, Batman! |
 |
| Oooh, yew haz this bird for meez? |
 |
| It haz pointy nose. |
 |
| Iz yew shur yew izn't tricksing meez wif this? |
 |
| Reery? No tricksing? I can haz bird? |
 |
| Well okayz... |
 |
| I takez bird. |
But no, seriously, the bird was not harmed. Keeny knows when he can and can't have something. There is either YES or NO in that realm. And if it isn't a YES then it must be a NO. So he was pulling his whole If I openz mouf slowly and gentleez then I maybe getz this as mai ownz routine. (He also uses this routine to try and sneak away with things he shouldn't have to hide them in a corner [does anyone else think of Dirty Dancing whenever you hear "in a corner"? NOBODY puts Baby in a corner! ..no? Okay, I'm weird.]) I reprimanded his sneaky bite-grab immediately and he backed off. Bird was no worse for the wear and was released into the wild moments later. (I would like to point out my restraint at killing said invasive species during this encounter. My inner nature purest was squealing to kill it, but I subdued her and set the little thing free. It didn't even bite me - odd from my experience with starlings - so it deserved to live even more.)
Its been a great Friday so far. Here's to the weekend!!
Happy weekending, all!
Ooooh I HATE starlings!! That was some serious restraint!
ReplyDeleteVery cute little pony...
Dirty Dancing is classic.
Looks like a productive day (or two). And I was suitably impressed you managed to catch a bloody bird!