Ponies, Intro.
I got permission to work with the horses my employers own, and their son JJ provided me with some information about them.
Curly: Retired racehorse. Old. Thoroughbred. Used to be ridden but not anymore. Head shy. Fur worn off in some places under his bridle.
Sundance: Pony. Born right there, they raised her from a foal. JJ tried to ride him once, but he bucked him off. Sundance is 16 years old and has never been trained to do anything.
April Lightning: 15 years old. Also born there and raised by them. She has never been ridden nor been trained.
Peter: Peter is a goat.
All of them will go back to their stalls freely, because that's where the food is. Their owners, rather than take their bridles off and put them back on as needed, leave them on all the time.
I've been feeding them carrots for about a week, and they are all friendly towards me, or at least, they come over to me to get carrots.
The ponies chase Curly away when he tries to eat the carrots. The goat, surprisingly, seems dominate over all of the horses. He can chases any of them away, despite his size. I think this is because he has weapons growing out of his head.
Yesterday I attempted to get April Lightning to learn a tongue clucking sound means "treat". She didn't seem to get it. I may need to use a more distinct sound, like an actual clicker. I also groomed her a bit. She was very pushy to get the treats.
Today I got on their side of the fence. The weren't afraid of me, and came right over to me. They are rather big. They kept curly away, and tried to keep the goat away. I didn't bring any treats on to their side of the fence. They stood on either side of me, and both competed to be groomed. They really seem to like that, I don't think they've been groom in quite a while.
Anyway, I hope to clicker train one of the ponies this summer. I intend to record my progress here. We'll see how this goes.
Dream alert:
Also I had unending horrific nightmares last night. Mostly about being blended alive, feet first, being reconstructed and knowing it was going to happen again, and being helpless to escape. This repeated four times, but it wasn't four different dreams, it was because of the struggle between those who wanted people alive as individuals and those who wanted them blended.
Also one about scary albino army guys beheading people...people begging for their loved ones to be spared...I think the albino guys were the ones who set up the giant blenders... they blended everyone in the dome and then combined the bits of their brains to make one really big brain that was unimaginably intelligent. They wanted it to do "dome work" for them. (I think more than one city was inside a dome. )
The first time the dome exits slammed shut, I was in a panic, trying to get out, or hide, and there were simply too many other people...crowds of people, trying to get the exits open and crowding around, not knowing what was gong to happen.
Being blended was horrific. Seeing the blades getting closer and closer...and even though dream pain is not intense (unless I'm actually in pain anyway) it still feels really awful...hard to describe.
Then finding myself alive again...all I wanted to do was get out of there. I didn't want to trust any one, I was sure that things would not be alright. It seemed impossible. When I was betrayed by two friends (even though I'd just met them in the dream, it felt like I'd known them a long time) and saw the machines again, all I felt was dread.
By the time the exits shut a forth time, I was helpless, miserable, and some what resigned.
Curly: Retired racehorse. Old. Thoroughbred. Used to be ridden but not anymore. Head shy. Fur worn off in some places under his bridle.
Sundance: Pony. Born right there, they raised her from a foal. JJ tried to ride him once, but he bucked him off. Sundance is 16 years old and has never been trained to do anything.
April Lightning: 15 years old. Also born there and raised by them. She has never been ridden nor been trained.
Peter: Peter is a goat.
All of them will go back to their stalls freely, because that's where the food is. Their owners, rather than take their bridles off and put them back on as needed, leave them on all the time.
I've been feeding them carrots for about a week, and they are all friendly towards me, or at least, they come over to me to get carrots.
The ponies chase Curly away when he tries to eat the carrots. The goat, surprisingly, seems dominate over all of the horses. He can chases any of them away, despite his size. I think this is because he has weapons growing out of his head.
Yesterday I attempted to get April Lightning to learn a tongue clucking sound means "treat". She didn't seem to get it. I may need to use a more distinct sound, like an actual clicker. I also groomed her a bit. She was very pushy to get the treats.
Today I got on their side of the fence. The weren't afraid of me, and came right over to me. They are rather big. They kept curly away, and tried to keep the goat away. I didn't bring any treats on to their side of the fence. They stood on either side of me, and both competed to be groomed. They really seem to like that, I don't think they've been groom in quite a while.
Anyway, I hope to clicker train one of the ponies this summer. I intend to record my progress here. We'll see how this goes.
Dream alert:
Also I had unending horrific nightmares last night. Mostly about being blended alive, feet first, being reconstructed and knowing it was going to happen again, and being helpless to escape. This repeated four times, but it wasn't four different dreams, it was because of the struggle between those who wanted people alive as individuals and those who wanted them blended.
Also one about scary albino army guys beheading people...people begging for their loved ones to be spared...I think the albino guys were the ones who set up the giant blenders... they blended everyone in the dome and then combined the bits of their brains to make one really big brain that was unimaginably intelligent. They wanted it to do "dome work" for them. (I think more than one city was inside a dome. )
The first time the dome exits slammed shut, I was in a panic, trying to get out, or hide, and there were simply too many other people...crowds of people, trying to get the exits open and crowding around, not knowing what was gong to happen.
Being blended was horrific. Seeing the blades getting closer and closer...and even though dream pain is not intense (unless I'm actually in pain anyway) it still feels really awful...hard to describe.
Then finding myself alive again...all I wanted to do was get out of there. I didn't want to trust any one, I was sure that things would not be alright. It seemed impossible. When I was betrayed by two friends (even though I'd just met them in the dream, it felt like I'd known them a long time) and saw the machines again, all I felt was dread.
By the time the exits shut a forth time, I was helpless, miserable, and some what resigned.