Friday, December 8

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Decent weather.

I got good sleep last night.

Sprite seems to be eating normally, and acting like herself. I wonder if I over reacted by taking her to the vet, but I would hate to have NOT taken her, and have it be a mistake to ignore her couple of off days.

I went to see River, and it was nice to be with him.

We worked on the usual things, and he was a bit worried at first because another horse was all worked up in the barn today, but he settled down fairly quickly.

He did well on our work overall.

I stayed to work with Quidley, when the other rider came in for her lesson.

Today R asked me just to get Quidley to stand quietly beside the mounting block, and to practice me just leaning onto him, and having him stay relaxed. He was pretty anxious about the mounting block, but I just started giving him scritchies and lots of rubbing, and he relaxed. It will take some consistent work with letting him have lots of time to calm down and for R not to just jump on him to work right away.

I came home and we watched "The Matrix". Good lord, it's hard to believe how old that movie is, and it was so AMAZING when it came out! It's still a great movie. Love it.

I learned about why we call a single garment "pants": he word pants is a plurale tantum. The Oxford English Dictionary defines plurale tantum, which is Latin for “plural only,” as a “noun which is used only in plural form, or which is used only in plural form in a particular sense or senses.” Bifurcated items (things that can be divided into two), such as pants, fall into this category. Think of items that are usually referred to in plural—often preceded by “pair of” or something similar, even when there is only one item: pliers, glasses, scissors, sunglasses, tweezers, etc. So, pants is a type of noun that is used only in its plural form, even when there is only one item being discussed.

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-say-a-pair-of-pants

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

You explained each of your LOL almost said children, animals very well. You talk about them that way I guess! The way a parent explains a small small child. Well a good parent anyway. And you also explained about the last paragraph well too. I live in a highly populated but uneducated area. City people who just didn't choose to finish their education and could have very often done so. My family themselves are highly educated but at this point I can't remember how to speak correctly at all. JM who is an aide in a better class than most that come this way, will consistently say the wrong tents of things and because I don't want to correct her and appear rude, my brain accepts what she says to understand it and I get all confused later.

I signed up for Merriam Webster's word a day. I've done it before and had to discontinue because I just didn't keep up. But for now I'm not doing badly. I'd say I know about a third of the words without having to open the emails, so if I skip a few I don't mind! LOL and bifurcate was one of them recently, so as our dear friend Ratty would say, huzzah!

[gottawonder]

Animals really are "persons", in terms of having unique and distinct traits.

They also have noticeable moods, and you can tell for example, when River is having a good day, or enjoyed the work that day, or a sleepy day, or a day where he is distracted or worried. The body language of animals is very expressive, once you know what to look for.

It is in humans as well, but we often listen to the words too much, and forget to pay attention to the language that doesn't lie.

Animals always know how you're feeling, in broad strokes like "worried, relaxed, distracted, tired, happy, sad, angry, etc.".

Pretty much most of what I talk about with R or her husband K is what kind of mood the horses are in today, how their work went, who is eating well again after an off week, or how the dogs or cats are doing, where they were hunting or digging.

Literally the conversation with R might be "Arrow has been really lazy this week, it's been so warm still. I wish Journey would relax and just eat something, he's been so anxious about things. There hasn't been a good leader in the herd since Jazz died, and no one is taking over."

or "Earl (cat) was so funny today, he was outside in the garden, staring at one spot for over an hour. Probably that's where the moles come out".

It's partly because people who love animals actually care enough to see this, and to pay attention, and partly because when you own animals, you watch them like hawks for any change in their behavior that might indicate a health problem.

Everything about working with horses means being VERY attuned to their body language, their mood, and their natural behaviors. I've been around them my entire life, so I do feel like I am always "listening" to them.

I can't imagine what it's like for people who don't recognize cat/dog/horse language.

The last paragraph is an excerpt from a page, but I did already know what "bifurcated" means.