Anna Blake's Blog (319)

Walter, Walter, Walter

Walter is starting to settle in with us. Now I get to go to the bathroom by myself… about once every three days. It’s the kind of thing you expect from a herding dog, but being a rescue as well, Walter likes to go the extra mile.

I’ve had a couple of…

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Added by Anna Blake on February 22, 2013 at 8:24am — No Comments

They Love It, Even if You Do a Lousy Job.



Last week I complained about bi-polar February riding weather. I suggested ground-play as a positive alternative to riding some days. (Horses tell me that ground-play is…

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Added by Anna Blake on February 15, 2013 at 8:25am — No Comments

Let That Pony Run!

February is an unstable time of the year. It isn’t spring and it isn’t winter. There are a few 50 degree days that trick us into spring fever before the heaviest snows even come. Still, the horses are shedding, days are longer and it’s hard to not want outside again full-time. There’s no…

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Added by Anna Blake on February 8, 2013 at 8:26am — No Comments

Rescue Me.

If you follow this blog, you know I have been in a pretty lousy mood lately. I’ve been pondering mortality.  The loss of a hard working dog and a sweet old horse has got me feeling particularly cold and dark this winter.

I’m usually pretty good at picking myself up, but this time it’s a lot to lift. I started doing that thing that sad people do late at night on…

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Added by Anna Blake on February 1, 2013 at 8:39am — No Comments

The Old Age Fiscal Cliff.



Napping on noses

Could there be a more beautiful animal than a horse? Even old ones who nap on their noses like this pair? Maybe my training has brainwashed my eye to see horse proportions as the gold standard but when I think other animals are beautiful, it’s usually because they remind me of a…

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Added by Anna Blake on January 25, 2013 at 8:48am — 3 Comments

Surviving Old Age: Part One.



Can we talk about surviving old age?  It isn’t mine I’m worried about. It’ll catch up without any help from me.

I am more concerned with the herd here at Infinity…

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Added by Anna Blake on January 18, 2013 at 8:11am — 1 Comment

What Does Success Look Like?

I was walking a client out of the arena and doing the end-of-lesson list. I talked about the high points of the ride and things that made a positive difference. She has a wonderful young horse who trusts her and they get better every lesson. She…

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Added by Anna Blake on January 11, 2013 at 8:32am — 1 Comment

New Year’s Day, minus the Happy.



It was New Year’s Eve, and I was listening to a sad radio memorial about the musicians who passed this year. I do the same thing on my farm at year-end; I take a census and count my losses.

We lost a wonderful goat this year. Elvis loved flirting with women, sleeping…

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Added by Anna Blake on January 4, 2013 at 8:00am — No Comments

Auld Lang Syne from You…

The sun’s out and there isn’t much snow, but nothing’s melting at all. It’s been bitter cold during these days between Christmas and New Year’s and lessons have cancelled all week.

I’ve had a little too much time to…

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Added by Anna Blake on December 28, 2012 at 8:15am — 2 Comments

Edgar Rice Burro’s Thoughts on Peace.



Disclaimer: I’m going to transcribe for Edgar. Donkeys are very smart, profoundly philosophical and endowed with Victorian sensibilities.…

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Added by Anna Blake on December 21, 2012 at 8:16am — 2 Comments

What’s Less Fun Than Saddle Shopping?

Nothing. Not a thing.

I hate saddle shopping. It makes my head explode.

I have a young mare just starting…

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Added by Anna Blake on December 14, 2012 at 8:30am — 4 Comments

Humor Deficit Disorder: Serious Riders and Stoic Horses.

Humor Deficit Disorder: It’s time someone brings this condition out of the closet.

Seriousness might be the biggest obstacle in getting a good ride. Ever had that feeling that the harder you try, the worse it gets? You could have Humor…

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Added by Anna Blake on December 7, 2012 at 8:30am — 2 Comments

Discipline: Writing and Riding.

This week I was talking to a writer-friend about how he approached a new project and he offered to share his writing discipline.

Discipline is a word that can make a person seize up with negative anticipation; it’s a punishment or correction. The visual that comes to mind for me is an angry parent dragging a little kid by the arm.

In…

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Added by Anna Blake on November 30, 2012 at 8:00am — No Comments

Thanksgiving with Family.

The holiday season is upon us. From Thanksgiving till the end of the year, we’re encouraged to celebrate the family, seen through Norman Rockwell eyes. Lots of us fit that mold. Our families come together, smile into the camera, and stay up late laughing.  Generations of women gather in kitchens and cook massive meals to the praise of the men folk.

But some of us didn’t come from warm families. Some of us had parents who didn’t really want kids after all. Some of us have lost loved…

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Added by Anna Blake on November 23, 2012 at 8:55am — No Comments

Mucking for Peace.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think we should nix all the others and celebrate Thanksgiving every month. I am fine with changing the meal sometimes, as long as the tradition of eating too much, sleeping, and saying thank you is still the order of the day. Got to love a holiday with such low expectations.

And I have so much to be grateful for. Today, as I took a deep breath, quieting outside distractions… I heard a still, small voice from very deep inside of me say, “I hate…

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Added by Anna Blake on November 16, 2012 at 8:12am — No Comments

How to Get a Stinky Old Dog.

Puppy breath is one of those addictive smells that isn’t actually pleasing aromatically. Still, who doesn’t inch their nose dangerously close to those tiny teeth, just for a whiff of puppy breath?

One bright Sunday morning while driving to the barn to ride, I saw a sign on a ranch gate: Heeler Pups. I’d recently lost an elderly dog- I think he might have turned the…

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Added by Anna Blake on November 9, 2012 at 7:59am — 2 Comments

A Public Service Announcement: The Answer is Forward.

In a normal week I probably suggest, chirp, cajole, beg, and sometimes yell- the word forward at least 3 million times. This week it’s twice that, and I’m not even to my busiest lesson days yet.

Sometimes I mix in some clucking noises for variety.

Not that I am complaining. Not a bit. I owe a debt myself. Every time I utter…

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Added by Anna Blake on November 2, 2012 at 8:00am — 1 Comment

What’s More Natural Than Piaffe?

“Will you come over and ride our horse?” she asked. “We know he’s a dressage horse, we just don’t know how to cue him, but if you rode him…  He does that trot in one place thing.”

(I already knew they bought this elderly horse from their ‘trainer’, who tranquilized him for them to try out. That was when I asked them to refer to their ‘trainer’ by some other name.)

“…

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Added by Anna Blake on October 26, 2012 at 8:12am — No Comments

The Relative Misery Factor (Prepping for Winter.)

The wind positively howled. There was sun, not that you could feel it. The horses didn’t want turn out. It was 20 degrees warmer in the south-facing runs and there’s not much windbreak on our prairie pasture. The horses that were turned out looked longingly at the barn and I knew the season has truly changed.

I was mucking a pen, coat zipped against the wind and my warmest Elmer Fudd hat tied down, when my phone rang. A client re-scheduled her lesson that afternoon. I don’t blame her;…

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Added by Anna Blake on October 19, 2012 at 8:33am — No Comments

Farm Politics: It Takes All Kinds.

 

It Takes All Kinds. And here at Infinity Farm, we have all kinds. In fact, we have inter-species chaos.

I want to affirm that I like order. But I’m the minority here, so not everyone goes along with my type-A fantasies. Exactly like real life, we don’t all fit into little boxes.

Sure, I have some level of leadership out of the saddle.…

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Added by Anna Blake on October 12, 2012 at 8:27am — No Comments

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