Monday, April 15, 2013

Blessi at Police Horse Training

Flickr Photo by cwwycoff1 Carl Wycoff
This weekend, Blessi and I went to a Police Horse training clinic. Blessi surprised me since I thought we could encounter at least one thing that would make him nervous. There was nothing that he spooked at or hesitated at. New items encountered: magnesium flares, police dog following and barking at the horses, smoke bombs, whistles, siren, police car driving around horses with siren going and police dog in window barking at horses. And some of this happened while the horses were crossing wooden bridges and going through car washes and between pool noodles. I spent most of the day leading Blessi since I thought it was unfair to ride him for 6 hours when I have only been riding him for 15 or 20 minutes--plus I had a minor gastro-intestinal problem.

Some of the things Blessi did give me trouble with:

- He politely but definitely want to hang at one end of the arena since the last time we were at this stable we did cattle sorting. For the first half hour he was convinced there were still cattle in those pastures.

- He also wanted to hang with the mini donkey who kept braying. He was fascinated with that little guy. He put his head down very low and tried to get the mini donkey to share his breakfast.

- I used to treat Blessi from a peanut can during trick training. Smoke bombs come in similar cans and Blessi wanted to go over and grab the can. Now that would have been a bad scene.

- The trainer kept lowering more sheets in the car wash as Blessi and I were going through. Blessi kept stopping and tried to use his nose to help the instructor untie and lower more strips in the car wash.

- The assistant trainer had a whistle hanging around her neck. Blessi had never seen a whistle and he kept picking it up in his mouth.

I forgot to put my SD card in my camera so I have no photos!!

What is my cat trying to tell me

I am a little late feeding my cats today.  Merci the Burmese cat jumped on my keyboard and managed to type something on the screen.  I wonder if she is trying to tell me something.  What do you think?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Forbes Magazine Interviews Grumpy Cat

OK, I am way too amused by Grumpy Cat.  I don't know if it is the nihilism or the cynicism or the just the cute.  I hope you are amused by this Forbes interview of Grumpy Cat.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Blessi As Moose

I saw an animated gif that inspired me to do this experiment with Blessi.  He loves experiments since they involve carrots.  In the original gif, the horse was quite animated.  Blessi is such a happy boy that his ears are almost always forward so some of the effect is lost.  Plus he was definitely following the movement of the hay bale behind my back.  Don't you think this would make a great Christmas card?  Be sure and check out the video below to see those "antlers" move.