Pippins POV: It was just the tiniest of bucks!

My Mrs. Owner captured Doc and me. She tied us up and made my skin all twitchy and tingly with the brush. Unless you live in a very dry climate, you have no idea of the slightly uncomfortable effects of a brush running through long Haffie hair causing static build-up and discharge. 

Oooch! 

Ouch! 

Twitch!

Then my Mrs. Owner came out with the black spaghetti contraption. I haven't seen it in ages. She put it on piece by piece. She tugged here. She pulled there. She made disparaging comments about my collar not fitting very well. Hmmmm, it seems that my neck has grown. I'm thinking I do look more magnificently and manly muscled than previously. 

My Mrs. Owner said it was fat.

After standing around for a while she took me to the place where I can go around and around and around. 

It was windy. 

There was a bit of a chill in the air. 

I haven't been out doing things with my Mrs. Owner in days.

At her signal I jumped ever so slightly and began a brisk trot.

trot - kick - trot - trot - kick - trot

what is that thing that keeps tapping me on my 

gluteus gelatinous maximus? 

trot - kick - hop - buck - kick - buck!

We Give Thanks

Hey there, Doc.
	What do you want now?
You don’t have to be so surly. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.
	What’s that?
It’s a time to be thankful for everything we have.
	Like what?
Well, I’m thankful that we live in a nice barn with nice pastures.
	OK, you’re right, and I kinda like my stall. At least it is cleaner than your’s!
Wait, I can’t help it if I sometimes mess up my stall. At least my Mrs. Owner cleans it up. I’m thankful for that.
	I’m thankful that my Mrs. Owner sometimes keeps us separated so I don’t have to put up with you chewing on me all of the time!
You are being really mean. I was trying to be nice by thinking about things I’m thankful for. You know, I’m thankful that we do get to be together. It would be really lonely without you.
	I have to admit that you are right about that one. I hate it when you leave or when I’m taken away from you for a ride.
I’m thankful for the food we get at night. Yum!
	I’m thankful for the treats I get when I’m good.
What? You get treats?
	Yeah! Maybe you should try being good once in a while and you’d get them too.
Hmmpph. I don’t think I’m going to talk to you anymore.
	*Grins* I’m thankful!

Bird Brain

A friend posted the following joke on facebook. I thought it was quite cute and very timely. Enjoy!

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then, suddenly, there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."
John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a  dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

Awesome!

Have you ever thought about how far we've come because of various technologies?
 
When I think back I am in awe of changes that have occurred and how far we have come, even in the last 20 years.

In fact, I wrote a great post (if I do say so myself) about these changes. In that post I pointed out, among other things,  that just 10 short years ago Google was in beta, MySpace and Facebook didn't exist, and we didn't have blogs like this where we could 'meet' new friends and have them become an important part of our lives, even if we live hundreds of miles from each other and have never met face to face. I can't count the number of times that I refer to you, my 'blog friends', and tell others something I've learned from you all.

So, I just pulled my great post out of the draft basket, where because of our wondrous technology it has been sitting and waiting for me. I began to reread it and add the latest touches.  Somehow I hit an interesting sequence of key strokes and 'poof'! My post was gone, the editting screen was blank - the auto save, thinking it was doing me a favor, saved my latest version --- a blank page, before I could 'undo' my magic disappearing act.

Arrrgggghhhh!

Have you ever thought about how far we've come insane we can become because of various technologies?

Floating

This is Doc.

Pippin is in the background.

This is Doc on drugs.

He is floating!

 Here are Doc's molars. 

They are looking good - at least that's what the equine dentist says!

 

The equine dentist (Nathan Goddard) smooths the sharp edges of Doc's teeth.

Both boys had their teeth floated. Pippin, who is missing two molars, has to have his teeth floated every six months. The molars on the jaw opposing the missing teeth grow too long and form 'waves'. Doc gets a routine floating every year. Today was their lucky day! They are now out in pasture happily munching the grass. This morning's traumatic event is just a bad dream.

Get a Load of This

I love my trailer. I love being able to take the boys to other places to ride and we have many great open space trails within 30 minutes of us as well as indoor arenas and equestrian parks. I don't love that Doc is undependable when it comes to loading. He's getting better, but we still need to do some circles and 'move your feet' before he decides to get on and stay on. Last week I was able to load and unload both Doc and Pippin all by myself. That felt great. Then, when we were ready to go home, I had trouble with Doc again. I had to resort to the 'flapping the scary hat on the butt' routine.

OK. I'm guilty. 

 My patience jar was empty.

I think I'm going to take my computer down to the barn to share this video with Doc.
So, what do you think the chances of this working might be? OK. Never mind. Don't answer that...I know. Slim to none!

Uh Oh! Mr. Destructo!

Who me?

I didn't do it. 

Honest, it wasn't me.

I would never chew on your shoe!

I wouldn't take the toilet paper!

I only chew my own toys.

A Pallet of Pellets

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But the bedding in the stall is delightful,

And since you're too wimpy to ride

We'll stay inside, stay inside, stay inside!

Oh a sad day week is coming. Our beautiful fall is at it's end.
Here is what the weather forecasters have to say about the next few days:

Tonight I made the boys' beds. They are both relaxing in stalls that have that wonderful clean pine scent that comes with fresh bedding.  Last year I purchased a pallet of wood pellets to use as bedding for my horses. I used the bedding through most of the winter and still had almost half of the pallet left. Doc rarely needed anything done with his stall as he prefers to do his business outside, and unless it is really blowing, both horses have an open door into their paddocks. Pippin, on the other hand, will in short order have a stall that looks like butter has been cut into flour to make biscuits. He not only messes in his stall, but then compounds the problem by spending the night walking around in circles mashing the poop into the sawdust and breaking it into tiny, sawdust covered pieces.Arghhh! I debated leaving both boys without bedding, but with the cold weather coming I just couldn't do it. I'd like to think that when it gets really cold they will curl up in their stalls and snuggle into the nice, clean, fluffy bedding all around.

Pippin's POV: Being the Best

My Mrs. Owner finally found time to ride me and Doc the other day. I don't know what has been keeping that lady out of the saddle, but it was about time she remembered us and did something with us other than shove food our way. Oh wait, I'm not saying I don't like my food, 'cause you all know what a chow hound I am!

Anyway, I knew something was up when my Mrs. Owner caught us both and tied us up. She groomed us and saddled us. I got to wear the military police saddle. I think it looks especially nice on me. 

First she rode Doc. They went out into the round pen. Doc did the round and round thing and then my Mrs. Owner got up on his back. They did some more stuff, but it was kinda boring so I gave up on watching what was going on while I was trying to rub the halter off. I snoozed a bit.

Then it was my turn. My Mrs. Owner tried to scare me with the whip. We stood in the round pen and she hit the ground with it. Ha, I'm not falling for that. I know she's not going to hit me. Then she pushed me around the pen for a while. Finally she called me into the center and told me what a good boy I was. I felt all gooshy inside. My Mrs. Owner took my halter off and put on something else. It wasn't a halter....but it wasn't a bridle either. It has reins but it doesn't have that awful, cold metal thing in my mouth. My Mrs. Owner got on top of me. She asked me to walk on. Then she stopped me. She did this many more times. Then she asked me to turn in circles...and serpentines....and half circles. We stopped. We walked. We turned. We did some sideways stuff. The thing that isn't a bridle feels different. It tugs at me by my ear and under my throat. It pulls gently on my nose. It feels so much better than the bit. I kept my head down and my mouth shut the entire time we were working. Then we went into the center of the round pen. My Mrs. Owner leaned down and gave me a big hug. She said I was the best! Ha! That means I'm better than Doc. That means I'm better than any other horse. I know my superlatives!

So Sad....but So True!

Today I had a ton of things to do. As I was madly pedaling my way through the day, spinning my wheels, I remembered having read a joke about someone having a day similar to what I experienced. I poked around on the Internet (instead of doing something else that I should have been doing somewhere in the house) and unearthed the story. Oh my! A few years ago I laughed at this story. Now I could write it - it so perfectly describes the way I 'work'! 

 A. A. A. D. D. - Classic Retirement Syndrome

Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests itself:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the rubbish bin under the table, and notice that the bin is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque (check) book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye: they need to be watered.

I place the coke down on the work surface, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the work top, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone has left it on the kitchen table.

I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

• The car isn't washed.
• The bills aren't paid.
• There is a warm can of coke sitting on the work surface.
• The flowers don't have enough water.
• There is still only one cheque in my chequebook.
• I can't find the TV remote.
• I can't find my glasses and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

PS. I just remembered, I left the water running......................................