snippets, 10-31-2017

Fantastic beasts and how to rank them (The New Yorker). Fabulous.

garden notes, mmxvii-x-xxix

lesson notes, mmxvii-x-xviii

Susan's visiting from Colorado and brought some cold weather with her - today was our coldest morning since last winter. The horses were all a bit flighty and kept us on our toes. Susan worked with Koby on the ground and with Fancy and Kelly in the arena; I lunged and rode Leda in the round pen. I caught Leda's trotting rhythm for a couple laps, and oh my gosh, it was 30 or 40 of the best seconds of my life. We visited with several other horses afterwards, including sweet old Hot Shot -  we had a nice talk (he's leaving Monday). A magnificent morning, grace and blessings abounding.

snippets, 10-25-2017

Public art takes flight (NY Times).

Meet Junornis (The Guardian). 

trail notes, mmxvii-x-xxii

bluebonnet expo, 10-21-2017

Bren and PJ and I took in a little of the annual expo today. The long poles are garrochas - very cool.

(The horses in the stalls are Promise, a friendly thoroughbred, and Cindera, a nice gaited pony.)

park notes, mmxvii-x-xx

 

(This was Monday. I forgot to upload it.)

snippets, 10-20-2017

Volunteer guide Mariah and four-legged volunteer, Duncan. The fact that Duncan likes the nautilus is cool, but it's only the second-best thing about this post. Well done, MBA.

snippets, 10-18-2017

Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers (The Guardian).

trail notes, mmxvii-x-xv

lesson notes, mmxvii-x-xiv

Had to say goodbye to Hot Shot day - he's going back to his previous owner.

snippets, 10-13-2017

Too much love: is it partnership? (Relaxed and Forward) Nice.

One day a while back my nerves were frayed by a lousy work week, compounded by the rush-hour traffic and construction on the way over. I figured I could get all that fixed by deploying my mystical equine guru skills, but when I walked up to Hot Shot with my grooming bucket, he just walked away. Heh. That was a good lesson.

(A little out of scope but since I'm thinking about it, the clearest message I've ever heard from him was, "Take off those dang sunglasses, mister.")

Oh, check this out (it's from August 2015 but I ran across it via BoingBoing just today):  EquiFACS: The Equine Facial Action Coding System.

trail notes, mmxvii-x-xi

river notes, mmxvii-x-viii

horse notes, mmxxvii-x-vii

(Fancy, Stormy, Lady, Joy and Hot Shot)

No lesson today - lunged Hot Shot lightly for about ten minutes. He looks good but he pulled up with his front right leg a couple times - not sure whether he's just stiff or if he has something else going on. We took it super easy. 

(Guinea eggs - they were off in the lower meadow.)