Dante and the River

I know that everyone is sitting on the edge of their seats—just waiting to hear all about our riding weekend. Such excitement.

Anyway, Kevin and I went on a short and fast ride Friday evening. It went well, but we realized it would have to be the last of the year like that. It was just too dark to be riding along the street when we got back. Time to start riding in the indoor arena. Kevin is retired, so he will just ride without me during the day.

On Saturday, Ellen and I took Cole and Dante out. Remember last weekend when Ellen ended up leading Dante across the second river because he refused to cross? Well, this time, she brought a change of clothes. Her plan was to dismount if he seemed at all hesitant—before he figured out that she was dismounting because he wouldn’t cross. Right away, when they reached the spot where the trail splits—one way leading to the river and the other to the street—Dante demonstrated that he wanted to go to the street. Ellen dismounted.

I rode Cole into the water, and Dante came down the bank—one slow step after the next. I would say that it took him less than 5 minutes to get into the water. It was a huge improvement over last weekend. Ellen remounted on the other side and we continued the ride. On the way back, she dismounted right away—after all, she was already wet. This time, he went down the bank fairly steadily. I would say it was less than 2 minutes to get into the water.

We rode home happily.

She rode Ranger while I hiked along.

On Sunday, we planned to do the same thing. As we neared the river, she told me she had a theory and she wanted to try things a little different. If they worked, she would tell me the theory. I asked her if it would give me something to write about. When she told me “Yes, absolutely.” I was all enthusiastic. She said to ride just beyond the spot where we turn to the river and approach it from the other direction. There was a convenient tree in the right spot to loop around. I brought Cole first. She followed along with Dante—staying in the saddle this time.

Dante slowly and carefully made his way down the bank. There was very little hesitation. I would say it took less than 2 minutes to reach the water. He then carefully followed Cole across.

We enjoyed a nice ride on the other side, turned around and came back to the river. We approached it the same as always, because there was no choice in this direction. He was in the water in less than a minute.

I know you are dying to know what her theory is, but I am going to hold back until we get a little more proof to support it. There has been a number of odd things that Dante does that have been puzzling us all along. Her theory explains them all, but I want to observe him a little bit more before I let everyone know what it is. The theory is a little off the wall, so I don’t want to sound like we are crazy. I do know that it worked.

She then took Ranger on a ride as I hiked along.

Now for the best news. Cruiser’s appetite is fully up to where it was before he lost it. He is back to eating like a horse.

Another thing—right before he lost his appetite, I tested him at the trot—and he seemed stiff but as sound as he was before the injury. (He has a bit of arthritis as most horses his age.) I didn’t tell anyone because he then lost his appetite, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I then decided to keep it to myself for a while since I have gotten my hopes up before only to have them dashed to the ground. It’s bad enough that I have been going through an emotional roller coaster—no reason for Ellen to go through it, too. Well, while I was walking him this weekend, he started to misbehave and Ellen saw him trot. the cat was out of the bag. I asked her opinion as to if he looked as good as he did before the injury, and she agreed.

I don’t exactly know what we will be doing in the near future, but only a couple months after I gave up complete hope, there is some hope back that I may be able to do light rides with him next year. He has pulled off miracles before in his life, and he might just do it again. He has sarcoid warts that disappeared on their own—astonishing the vet, and tumor on his thyroid that vanished—astonishing the vet, he came back from a bad tendon injury (not so miraculous, but close) and completely recovered from that hopeless cough last year due to COPD—and we haven’t had any trouble since—just by switching from hay to hay cubes.

Will he be able to heal from a bad injury at such an advanced age? Or will he manage to aggravate it again. Time will tell, and I am actually reluctant to start hoping, again, but I am human. And hope springs eternal in the human breast…

Thunder the Wonder Cat – Clicker Training Update

Thunder the Wonder Cat – Clicker Training Update

I have been only doing Thunder training a couple times a week. I am going to try to do it more because he really seems to enjoy himself.

I made him a little box tower. I had 3 very sturdy boxes that I got from work. I used 2 as the base and put the third on top. This way, he has steps to get to the top. He is a very careful cat—not the kind that would leap up from the floor. No, he likes to step up. To make it even easier, on 2 sides of his box tower, I placed 2 even lower boxes alongside. This way he can go up 2 steps to get to the top.

He likes to go on his box tower even if we aren’t training, but he really likes when I incorporate it in his training sessions. Sometimes, when he hears me get the clicker, he goes to the top of his box tower to wait for me.

The training is simple I tap the top of the box, and he walks up. I click and treat him. Then I ask him to come down—then go sit on the coffee table—then back to the box tower. You get the idea. I will throw in a few “sit ups” and “touch nose to target” for variety.

Well, the other night, I took a small scratching post that he never uses and laid it on it’s side to turn it into a jump. He has done jumping in his training before, but here is what got me so excited about this. On my first request, he jumped down from the box tower and leapt over the jump in one command. When I tapped the top of the box tower, he leapt the jump and then jumped up to the top of the tower. It wasn’t a fluke. He did it a number of times. He was so cute.

At the end of the session—which can only go about 10 minutes because his tummy gets full—I realized that Maggie never moved from my side. I give her a treat with every click, but in the past, she was so excited, she would get up and I would have to reposition her. This time, she didn’t move. No wonder my session went so well. Maggie wasn’t distracting Thunder.

That only inspires me to do more training. If Maggie stays still, we can train over a larger area.

When Thunder was finished, I spent some time with Maggie practicing her jumping through her hoop.

Cruiser feeling better--and Cole feeling full of himself.

The picture is Dante.

Cruiser seems to be over whatever it was that made him go off his feed. We did switch his grain from Safe N Easy to Triple Crown Senior. It has a little less carbs, more fiber and smells much more palatable. That wasn’t the problem, though, because he wasn’t finishing his alfalfa cubes, either. Now, he is eating everything. It is wonderful. I was so worried.



On Monday, I was only able to work Cole on the hill since the river was too high. It was very overcast, too, so I didn’t have very much time. It was the first cool day we had in a while, so he was very, very hyper. On the second trip up, we saw a raccoon run across the trail, and he bucked and tried to go after it. After that, I decided that 2 trips was enough. We went back to the barn and I led him to the back of the property and then took him in the arena and did some in-hand work. With Cole, that means trick. We did park, bow, silly walk and big, bold trot in hand. Each time, the trot got bigger and more spectacular because I was clicking him for it. He is such a show off.



The river was down, yesterday, so Kevin and I took Starry and Cole on a quick 40 minute ride before the sun went down. Cole had wings on his feet, again. When we got to the spot that I like to canter, I kept him at a trot—and we flew. It is so exciting to ride a trot like that. Starry had to canter to keep up. I kept hearing Kevin saying I should slow down, and I just told him I was only trotting. We trotted on the way home, but we kept Starry in front. He goes speedy, but sensibly. Cole knows he must follow other horses quietly, so it settled him right down—and we got home before dark. I am going to miss these short and intense rides. It won’t be much longer, and we just won’t have time left to do it.

Weekend update

It was supposed to be a rainy weekend, but we managed to get our rides in. Friday night, Kevin and I had a quick ride before sunset. We have to make it fast, now, if we want to get a trail ride in.




Saturday, I took Cole with Ellen and Dante. All went well until we wanted to cross the second river, and he didn’t. Just getting him down the bank was tough. She finally told me to ride on without her. I left reluctantly, and met her on the way back. She had to lead him across, and she was still on foot and not very happy. Of course, she had to cross on the way home, too. She was wet and on foot, so she led him down the bank and across the river. Although he didn’t do it readily, he still managed to get into the water in just a couple of minutes. Once he is in the water, he is fine. We don’t really know what the problem is, but it may be the steep, muddy banks. He has crossed this river quite well a number of times until last week. We are very perplexed about it.



She then rode Ranger, and I went hiking. She met Kevin with Starry, and we all came home together.



It rained on Saturday night, and the river was elevated, but not bad. We took Cole and Ranger out on a really nice ride. The second river crossing was too high—as it is normally deeper there to begin with—so we crossed on the ford.



Ellen didn’t feel very good about taking Dante across the river—it was just a case of nerves. It really wasn’t very high. She told me I could take him on a ride, instead. I jumped at the chance. She walked with me down the hill and crossed the river on foot with us. Dante was just fine. Once on the other side, I took off trotting and barely stopped until it was time to turn around. Even then, I continued to trot home until I caught up with Ellen. We walked from there. Dante was very good the whole ride. The only thing that bothered him is when the wind would gust very hard—and then acorns came flying off the trees. It was like we were under attack. I just made him stand each time until the crisis was over. We had 3 gusts like that.



Now for the sad part of the weekend. Cruiser was off his feed. He was only eating about half his grain and half his hay cubes. He was just fine on Friday, off on Saturday, improved on Sunday and much better on Monday. Ellen checked on him this morning, and he ate all except about ½ pound of grain. He seems all right in all other ways. There was another horse just 2 stalls down that went through something like this last week, so maybe there is something going around—I don’t know, but it sure does put me out of sorts with worry. It might be a dental issue, and the vet is scheduled to come out next week for shots and dentals, so we shall see.

Stormy with too much nip

My sister's cat really does have a substance abuse problem.  You would never see Thunder in a state like this! 

Starry D

Starry D is my boyfriend's horse.  He is an Appendix Quarter Horse (half Quarter Horse/half Thoroughbred.)  He is the tallest horse in our little herd.  Cole looks tiny next to him.  He is very gentle and good natured.  His one big fault is he hates bugs.  Now that bug season is over, he is a much happier horse--and goes much slower.  He is the slowest walker when there are no bugs.

Update on Maggie the Sprollie

Maggie. The dog I didn’t want. The dog that Thunder didn’t want. Problem was—no one else wanted her, either. When Dad died, we were stuck with her, so we had to make the best of it. I am no stranger to having dogs. Our family had dogs all my life. Pollie, the last one, was a real treasure. When Dad wanted another one, I cried. I didn’t want to be walking a dog every day in all kinds of weather. I didn’t want a dog to be interfering with my Thunder time. Dad was so lonely after Pollie died, of course I gave in. Maggie came into our lives.


Now, she has been mine for a year. I don’t like that I have to come home from work to take her out—I wish I could go directly to the barn—so much. I lose a lot of trail riding time because it is too dark when I get there. I love trail riding on chilly October evenings. Well, that is no more.


That’s the worst part, though. I was worried that she wouldn’t be able to adapt to being home by herself while I was at work, but I was blessed by her being a dog of less-than-average intelligence. Pollie would have been a problem. She was smarter than a lot of people—being a Sheltie mix. Maggie is a Sprollie (Border Collie/Spaniel) but she takes after the Spaniel side—no sheepdog in her brain. Give her a duck to chase, and she is happy.


She doesn’t need a lot of mental stimulation. She hasn’t developed any issues at all from her mostly boring life. Rather, she adapted like a champ. She is at the point where she only destroys things that are easy to get and tempting. It’s been months since she knocked down the garbage can. I do have to be careful what I leave in my coat pockets if she can reach them. I lost a cell phone that way…


The walking is good for me, and I don’t mind it if the weather is nice—never did. Winter is tough, but since I have been doing it for decades, what’s a few more years?


She doesn’t come when she is called—and since she likes to run down to the street, I can’t let her loose in the yard. (I think her time in the wild taught her that there is garbage to eat by the street.) She is great on a leash—until she sees another dog on a leash—then she goes nuts. I don’t know what to do about that.



Thunder does pick on her an awful lot. I yell at her if she tries to retaliate, and praise her when she runs away. She does sometimes interfere with our games if she hasn’t had her walk, yet.



She is a good guard dog. The other night, she was barking like crazy at something—and it continued until shortly before I got up. When I came downstairs, I found a dead wasp, so I guess she was defending the house.



So overall, we have adapted—though I think Thunder wouldn’t mind if she decided to go live with the coyotes. He does like chasing her, though.

Dante Stalls Out

Dante Stalls Out




Ellen and I took Dante and Cole on a trail ride one day. When we reached the second river crossing, Dante tried to zip up the trail that leads to the ford to avoid crossing the river. That didn’t surprise us too much, since Cole did that for a while once he learned he could cross that way and keep his feet dry.



Ellen turned him to the river bank—and he refused. He had been crossing there very reliably, so that was a surprise. Then she remembered that he stumbled in the water crossing on the way home the previous ride. This had happened before, here—Dante stumbles and then he won’t cross the next time. Evidently, a stumble is a traumatic thing for Dante.



It didn’t help that when he took that bad step, he splashed Cole. Cole has always been funny about getting splashed. These days, he usually just cringes or walks a little faster. This time, he got splashed a lot, so he started dancing and sidepassing about—making it a much more chaotic experience.



It took Ellen about 10 minutes before she could persuade Dante to cross. The whole time, Cole stood in the water and waited patiently.



We continued on our ride, turned around and headed home. This meant we had to cross the river, again. Since we were going the same direction that we were when Dante stumbled, he was much more resistant. Ellen couldn’t even get him to take a single step down the bank.



After about 10 minutes, she gave up, dismounted him and he fairly readily followed her across. It is pretty deep where we cross, so she got soaked. The whole time, Cole stood patiently in the water.



I suggested that we ride past the trail that leads home and go on a fun little dead end trail that we like to do when we want to make our ride a little longer. We have done this before with Dante, and he can be resistant about passing home. Ellen suggested keeping Cole right by his side to block him from turning down the trail that leads across the river and home. I tried, but Dante just stopped since he couldn’t turn. Ellen tried to shake him loose, but he wasn’t budging. After several minutes, I suggested bringing Cole back to him to see if he would follow Cole.



I circled Cole around and brought him right to Dante. Rather than walking past Dante, Cole paused, swung his head to Dante’s face and uncharacteristically pinned his ears back and opened his jaws wide—pointing his nose at Dante’s face.



I pulled Cole away from Dante—and Dante stepped right behind Cole without the least bit of hesitation. I don’t know what Cole said to Dante, but I’m thinking he got tired of waiting for him in the river, and he didn’t want to wait here any longer.



The rest of the ride went smoothly.

Kevin Nearly Falls off Starry

Kevin Nearly Falls off Starry




Since Cruiser is on the disabled list, the tables have been turned on us. Ellen and I used to ride 2 horses together, and then she would hike along as I rode the third. Now, I am the one hiking along as she rides the third. I miss riding Cruiser, of course, but I like going on the walks. Much of the time is spent alone, since I don’t trot, but I have company on my way home.



I was out walking with Ellen and Ranger. We saw a jogger that we have been seeing for years, though I don’t know his name. He is out in fair weather as well as foul—just like us. He’s seen me with Ellen and with Kevin many times. He has also seen Kevin out jogging, himself, many times.



(That’s how Kevin and I met—he was jogging on the bridle trail.)



He was taken aback to see me on foot, and I told him about Cruiser. He jogged on, and Ellen and Range soon followed. Kevin and Starry were up ahead of us, somewhere. I just wandered about, alone, looking at the fall flowers.



The jogger came back before Ellen or Kevin. He said he had an idea. He thought that since I was down a horse, I should take up jogging. I said that there was no way I would, and he said that he knew what he would do. (I can barely type this without chuckling.) He said,”I will talk to your father, and he will straighten you out.” I don’t know how I kept a straight face, but I didn’t correct him—I was too stunned. He thought Kevin was my father!



When Ellen and Kevin caught up with us, I told them about the encounter, and poor Kevin nearly fell out of the saddle—laughing.



(There is an 18 year difference between our ages, but Kevin looks quite young for his age. Then again, so do I—hence the confusion.)

Going Solo

Going Solo



Ellen tends to get anxious when she is riding, which usually has nothing to do with her horses or her skill. It is just part of her personality. Sometimes it gets in the way of her doing as much as she likes, and it causes her frustration. I’m sure she’s not alone, and hopefully people will be able to conquer their own anxieties as they read about hers.



She would like to take Dante on trail rides by herself when there is no one else around. Dante is a great horse, and there is absolutely no reason for her not to—except for that little voice in her head that causes her to hesitate taking the big step.



Enter the big sister—me. I had a plan. She would go on a ride by herself to test Dante and prove to herself that she could handle whatever he gave her on her own—with me not too far away. Dante wouldn’t know that I would be close enough to step in and help. Ellen would know, and that would boost her confidence, but Dante would be clueless.



She has ridden him without other horses, but I have always been on foot with her. She has trotted off without me, so that’s not the problem. My sister worried most about going down the hill and crossing the river. There have been times when he is a bit balky on the first part of the ride, and she worried that he might not go, might spook, might refuse to cross and probably a half a dozen other things that she didn’t tell me. On all previous rides, once she is across the river, everything goes pretty well.



Instead of walking with her, I drove down into the park and waited, hidden in the woods, on the other side of the river. I made sure that she couldn’t find me easily—and Dante wouldn’t see me at all.



The first horse to come into view on the other side of the river was Starry. Kevin had left before Ellen, but it was surprising to see that they hadn’t crossed the river, yet. I yelled hello. Starry neighed to me. In the distance, we heard Dante answer. Kevin realized he better hurry if Ellen was going to do this on her own. They scurried across the river and down the trail.



Soon, Ellen came into view. She was leading him down the hill, as she usually does and mounted on the convenient mounting block. He hesitated a little at the top of the river bank, but soon, I could hear the “good boys.” They went down the bank, approached the water, stepped in, walked across and then I couldn’t see them. Soon, they were up on the trail, and I announced my presence. She said that right before going up the river bank, he spooked at something, but she managed to get him through. Dante seemed excited, so she just got him trotting and left me in the dust.



Eventually, she did meet Kevin and Starry close to the spot where she planned to turn around, and they came back together. The whole experiment was a success, but Ellen still wasn’t quite as confident as she needed to be to do it truly on her own. That meant—let’s do it again.



A couple days later, we repeated the experiment. The only thing different is that Ellen would be leaving before Kevin with Starry.



She was worried the most that he would spook in the river like he did the last ride.



This time, everything went totally flawless. Kevin caught up with Ellen and they went home together. I asked her if she would try to do it alone if the conditions were right, and she said, “Yes, if the weather is good, it is a blue moon, the planets are aligned…” Something like that. I think that means she will.