Comment

Comment by lesley bruce on September 15, 2008 at 7:14pm

Oh Dorothy.
You entrance me, you are a conjurer of tales. I am enriched.
Thank you

(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by Dorothy McDonall on September 15, 2008 at 5:16pm

What a wonderful idea!

My horse and I have an artistic "understanding:" I am the writer; he is my muse. So, while this story is not about me and him per se, it is about a real experience he had and we have collaborated to write about it.

Here, in his own poetic words, and by my pen, is a story my Shakespeare, a.k.a. Bear, tells about his experience with a rubber duck! It's dedicated to barn guy on duty that day, Paul.

By the way ... there are more where this came from ... Shakespeare is very prolific! ;-)

This poetic offering is entitled "Squeak!"

"Alone, in arena dull,
I am left to ponder the
Meaning of this singular
Existence, wandering
Around a pile of poles
And meandering amongst
The jump standards, bored
Beyond belief!

To the door, go I,
In search of amusement
And relief from mine lonely
Condition. I stand; I chew;
Whoppy do! But then,
Alas, my reverie is
Interrupted by the
Unhappy interrupted,
So I scoot,
Alone again, naturally.

But wait! What is this I
Spy, in yellow hues imbued
Inanimate with eyes glazed?
Perchance a new friend to
Meet, I extend to him my
Muzzle soft. Funny fellow,
Speaks not unless I squish
Him 'tween mine teeth.
"Squeak!"

In earnest I seek to
Declare my new found
Friend to the waiting world.
To the door, trot I,
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"
And, from beyond
The door, a voice:
"What is that horse
Up to now?"

I stand and wait, yet
Eager to share.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Paul appears.
I make my move.
"Here, meet my new friend
Mr. Duck!"
I throw. Paul laughs.
I run.
Life is good.
"Squeak!"

(Copyright Bearwrinkle Publications, 2006)

N.B. I've tried to paste a small photo but they come out too large. A photo of Bear appears in my identifier above.

Thanks for this opportunity. Such fun!

Cheerz!

Dorothy :-)

Comment by lesley bruce on September 13, 2008 at 5:10pm

Hi Folks,

Thought you might like to meet Patina a true friend she is my "Chestnut Mare" and is the star of a "Quiet Hack"
Here is her story ...... It is all TRUE......

Patina burst onto the scene in 1985 the first child of Luther, a Thoroughbred Stallion, big and powerful he gleamed mahogany bay. Her dam, Sirocco, a large
loose-limbed rangy redhead was of equal
Irish Draught and Thoroughbred blood. ¼
ID x 3/4 TB.... Hmmm! What a nice
mixture.

Her drop dead gorgeous looks; powerful
rippling muscles, outstanding athleticism,
speed, Massive Charisma and generosity
were gifts from her father.
Sirocco gave that temperament that
might rage wild like the hurricane wind of
her namesake and the rich chestnut coat,
which glistened bright with glints of gold.

Generous to a fault Patina always tried
her very hardest, so, should there be any
"VICIOUS WHITE BAGS" .......
"STALKING HER" .....Well!..... She
certainly wasn't going to let them "Get
You" was she? and "BRAVERY" was her
middle name after all you can't be brave
if you aren't scared in the first place can
you?

Once upon a time she lost this Bravery.
I'll tell you about it.

We had just rented and moved to the
place Phoebe the Cat called "The First
Place" it was a fifties style dormer-
bungalow boasting a pathetic and totally
and totally inadequate marshy acre of
land, My stables had been hastily
dismantled, transported then clumsily
erected in the back garden in "Buster
Keaton" fashion, by comedians
masquerading as knowledgeable
handymen.

Situated in North Wales, the property
sat miserable amongst an isolated row of
similar dormer-bungalows. They bordered a country road, wide enough for 2-way traffic but narrow none the less. It was a shortcut to and from the local industrial estate. This useful bit of information was in the Knowledge" of every truck driver in the world, or so it seemed. They roared by in angry convoys.

To avoid riding on this terrifying road I was thrilled to find an alternative and it was nearly opposite. Patina or Teens, as she is known to her friends, and I merrily set out exploring to be immediately crestfallen at finding this little road was blocked by a raging ford in full flood.

It looked deep, up to her belly, no higher, and thundered deafeningly by, crashing wild over jagged rocks to plunge with frightening speed beneath the jaws of a concrete footbridge. Contemplating being swept there-under I decided the terrifying road was safer and turned Patina round in retreat, a thing I had
........NEVER DONE BEFORE ...........

The "Road" had one saving grace; it possessed a small pedestrian pavement continuing about a mile, happily it reached the next turn off.

It just kept on raining, the ford brimmed for weeks, with no alternative we HAD to ride "That Road". The traffic wasn’t the problem Teens was great in traffic, it was those VICIOUS, PLOTTING "WHITE BAGS" the Lurking with intent "CRISP PACKETS". Yes, .."TRASH GOBLINS "... it was them who did for her.

Normally, being so brave she coped, for, though fearful of all the world's gremlins, if I asked she would venture anywhere. Things began to change. Her Fear turned to Terror. She became alarming....... She was dangerous. Now I was scared... Her "Terror" list grew to include even our parked car, something was very, very wrong, She'd morphed into an accident waiting to happen............. Didn't dare take her on "That Road" .......not now.

Eventually the rain stopped; ford became passable, we could go that way. ... Not so easy, poor Teens, she
quaked in fear. Time to ask Nick my man for help.

Nick never was and never will be "horsy" On meeting the horses he took one look at their rear ends, said "That's a Big Engine" and stepped well back loving them from a safe distance.

He was sporting a nasty head cold the day I asked him to stand in the ford with a carrot.

"Nick, Nick! Come out it's not safe" implored Patina,..... the carrot useless.

Encouragingly, I said, "You only have stand there until she sees that nothing happens to you, She won't take too long.

"Hmmmm .... "She obviously doesn't know then, I could "HAPPEN" to catch pneumonia." Nick looked bleak.

."NICK!!"....., Patina, fraught for his safety was fidgeting and ready to flee. "Oh! Teens ..COME ON JUST
DO IT” Resolute, I took charge and strongly rode at the ford taking absolutely no nonsense. Eyes tight
shut she launched herself madly across. . Gasp! ...We were on the other side.

Grateful, I turned to the now dripping Nick to say, "Thanks for that, you can go now, you'll catch your
death in that ford."

The instant I'd taken charge I'd got my old Teens back, because she got her old me back. That fateful
day when I did... "the thing I'd never done before"... in turning her away from the ford she'd lost her
confidence, her protector was SCARED .... All she needed was for me to be my normal fearless self and she'd be right by my side BACK TO HER OLD BRAVE SELF.

Alls Well that Ends Well.... Phew!!!.............. Nick survived too....... Phew ... Phew!!!

Comment by Canadian Starz on September 13, 2008 at 2:43pm

Yes, I did the photos below with my trusty Cannon XTi, which my DH surprised me with last Xmas. We also have a friend in the neighbourhood, that is a Professional Photographer. She holds Photo Workshops etc, here on our Farm, as we have a good assortment of Equines here to work with, from New Forest Ponies to Warmbloods.

Comment by lesley bruce on September 12, 2008 at 4:03pm

Canadian startz.
Are you the photographer? great photos. I was one of 3 sisters and your gang of fillies bring back memories, girls really do know how to play.

Delilah, she's a one off thats for sure.

Cheers

(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by lesley bruce on September 12, 2008 at 3:56pm

Gosh Christine the "Boogie Men" seem to like your Boogie. Raccoons in the roof thats a new one for me, my cat Elly when she was a kitten skidded down a tin roof in like manner so I know the ghastly sound. ... scary ... oooooh a... it's a wonder you didn't end up on the deck.

And the humming bird, weird goings on???, thanks for telling me about it.

You can tell Boogie that I agree with him he is a handsome lad.

Cheers
(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by Canadian Starz on September 12, 2008 at 12:45pm

Delilah is starting to grow like a little weed....."and can actually look quite innocent"! LOL......However she still enjoys... "annoying the crap out of her usually peace loving sisters!"

Comment by Canadian Starz on September 12, 2008 at 12:21pm

Had 3 Bouncing Baby Fillies this year, instead of the "usual assortment wearing NUTS". These girls are quite a trio of Comedians, with the eldest one called Delilah leading the pack!
Poor Delilah's Mom will be so happy to see the back butt end of this kid, going out of the stall for the weaning I'm SURE.
Caught her poking poor Mom on the back to re-open the milkbar when Mama was trying to take a few minutes basking in the sun.
Then when Mama ignored all the harassment.....Delilah flipped herself upside down, and had herself a little "tantrum" right at Mama's back.

Comment by Christine Kennedy on September 12, 2008 at 8:58am

Boogie has also been attacked by a hummingbird. Yes, a hummingbird. I had never actually seen one up close before this incident. I was grooming Boogie one evening in the wash stall. All of the sudden, this little green and white bird, with rapidly flapping wings, comes flying in at us. I shoo it away and it flies across the barn aisle. Like two seconds later, it comes flying back in at us and gets right up in Boogie's face. He of course is not pleased about this and again, I swat at the hummingbird. The hummingbird comes to rest on the edge of a bucket I have in the wash stall filled with vetrolin. It then proceeds to fall in the bucket. I grab the bucket, containing the hummingbird and run out the barn door to dump it out of the bucket. The hummingbird falls out and looks dazed. He just laid on the ground breathing very hard. I went back to check on him before I left the barn that night and he was still there. The next day, when I came out to the barn, I checked to see if the hummingbird was gone. Unfortunately, it seems all of the excitement, along with a good dunking in a bucket of vetrolin, did him in. RIP little hummingbird.

Comment by Christine Kennedy on September 12, 2008 at 8:46am

Funny things always happen to me and my horse Boogie. It seems he is a magnet for disaster. One winter night, we were riding in the indoor arena, minding our own business. All of the sudden, we heard a loud scream and something that sounded like nails scraping across a chalkboard. Boogie, being a 5 year old ottb, was not waiting around to find out what the heck the commotion was. He bolted halfway around the arena, then stopped. We both turned around to look behind us, like what the heck was that. Turns out, there was a raccoon family living up in the rafters on the arena roof and one of them started to slip off, causing the very pleasant screaming and scraping noise. Of course, being the magnet he is, all of this action happend right over the top of Boogie's head!

If you look under my profile, you will find pictures of Boogie and I. He is the leggy TB with the white star and stripe. He believes himself to be quite handsome, if he does say so himself!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• Next ›
• Page