Wednesday, December 13
Dec. 14th, 2023 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
The freakishly beautiful weather we had again today, that was even a little above 0 C.
Getting a good night's sleep, and waking to my little fluff-butts.
I went to see River, and remembered to organize and bring the fabric I wanted to give to R's daughter. She sews, and I really don't (even though I always think I am going to do more of it at some point), so it's better to go to someone who does.
I also looked at the two nice fine wool fabric garments (a dress and a skirt) and hung them up. D from pottery said she might be interested in them.
River actually came when I called, which is nice. The horses can all go out into a fairly large pasture, and I really didn't want to have to go looking for him since it was already dark. At least this time of year, there's not much out there for them to eat, and he knows that when I come get him, he gets a nice bucket of extra food, and about 15 minutes to eat hay before we work. It makes a good incentive.
It looks like the person who had lessons before mine is done for the year, and also there was no one having a lesson after me tonight, so no feeling of either being rushed or losing part of my lesson to someone else.
It was nice; I was ready to work at 6 pm.
River was in a great frame of mind today, very willing and interested in the work. I am trying really hard to keep things positive, not too repetitive (which he hates), and to only do something a couple of times and move on if he did well enough.
He now understands the "touch" training we were working on, which is to touch the pool noodle with his nose and he gets a treat. We are trying to transfer that to him reaching his leg out to touch it, and see if we can teach him to Spanish walk this way. My only concern is that he won't do it without a treat.
That said, it does wonders for his interest in working.
We worked on the Liberty circles to get a nice, consistent canter, and that's improving.
At about the half way mark, my Sweetie showed up, which is nice. I had been upset with him last night about him having the freedom to do things in the city after work when I don't, and how it made me feel left out.
He did have supper/beer with two guys (they are the people who we all trade work on each other's houses), but he was able to leave work a little bit early to meet with them so he could drop in on my lesson on the way home.
I really appreciated him making the effort, otherwise by the time I got home he would pretty much be going to bed.
Our ridden work was focusing on getting a trot from a standstill, good clean halts from a trot and then a canter. THEN trying to get them with just the neck rope. There is a pattern that R is going to use for a barn show in February that asks these movements.
Throughout our ridden work, the blanket of snow on top of the arena roof (which is basically a big tent) started sliding off in huge chunks. The sound of that snow sliding from inside the arena is VERY LOUD, and can be pretty scary for the horses.
River was great. He was a bit concerned, and I did my best to stay relaxed, but he didn't spook, and after the first couple of slides, he just ignored it all together.
Every winter you kind of have to see if the horse remembers that it's okay and nothing to be concerned about.
Then we went home and chatted for a while before he went to bed.
In and around things I got some laundry done.
My husband FINALLY heard back from one of the places we've contacted about what their estimate would be for installing a wood stove in the basement.
He had contacted one other place, and they never got back to him.
I think it's nuts how some place that does this as a BUSINESS won't even bother to get back to you about an estimate, I mean, I keep hearing how the economy is slow right now and a lot of people aren't spending much money, so you'd think they might be interested in selling us a wood stove and installing it?
Would they even be a bit embarrassed to realize that they lost a potential customer by not bothering to call them back with an estimate?
Trainwreck wanted to talk right as I was riding, so I said I would call her tomorrow when I have more time. I didn't want to talk to her later in the evening, because I already know that by then she's drunk, slurring her speech, nothing she says makes sense, and she's always horribly dark about her life that time of night. I don't need that.
Sprite seems to be doing just fine since the vet visit, no signs of being off her food or vomiting, which is great. She's back to screaming her head off to be fed and eating every last bit of her food. I have no idea what was going on when she had the two days of not eating well, but who knows. I'm grateful that she's back to eating well.
I learned about Vincent Kosuga, a farmer in New York state who manipulated the market in 1956 by cornering the market on onions. He ended up controlling 98% of the market, ruined the prices, and caused many farmers to go bankrupt and be forced to destroy their worthless crops.
As a result, there was a law created to prevent anyone else from doing the same thing, and it is called The Onion Futures Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga#Cornering_the_onion_market
If you've ever seen the movie "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd, they basically do the same thing to corner the market on orange juice to make millions and bankrupt the two old guys who had a fun bet about "nature vs. nurture" (though I suppose what they did was illegal).
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/vincent-kosuga-onions/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_stry_pl#synopsis
The freakishly beautiful weather we had again today, that was even a little above 0 C.
Getting a good night's sleep, and waking to my little fluff-butts.
I went to see River, and remembered to organize and bring the fabric I wanted to give to R's daughter. She sews, and I really don't (even though I always think I am going to do more of it at some point), so it's better to go to someone who does.
I also looked at the two nice fine wool fabric garments (a dress and a skirt) and hung them up. D from pottery said she might be interested in them.
River actually came when I called, which is nice. The horses can all go out into a fairly large pasture, and I really didn't want to have to go looking for him since it was already dark. At least this time of year, there's not much out there for them to eat, and he knows that when I come get him, he gets a nice bucket of extra food, and about 15 minutes to eat hay before we work. It makes a good incentive.
It looks like the person who had lessons before mine is done for the year, and also there was no one having a lesson after me tonight, so no feeling of either being rushed or losing part of my lesson to someone else.
It was nice; I was ready to work at 6 pm.
River was in a great frame of mind today, very willing and interested in the work. I am trying really hard to keep things positive, not too repetitive (which he hates), and to only do something a couple of times and move on if he did well enough.
He now understands the "touch" training we were working on, which is to touch the pool noodle with his nose and he gets a treat. We are trying to transfer that to him reaching his leg out to touch it, and see if we can teach him to Spanish walk this way. My only concern is that he won't do it without a treat.
That said, it does wonders for his interest in working.
We worked on the Liberty circles to get a nice, consistent canter, and that's improving.
At about the half way mark, my Sweetie showed up, which is nice. I had been upset with him last night about him having the freedom to do things in the city after work when I don't, and how it made me feel left out.
He did have supper/beer with two guys (they are the people who we all trade work on each other's houses), but he was able to leave work a little bit early to meet with them so he could drop in on my lesson on the way home.
I really appreciated him making the effort, otherwise by the time I got home he would pretty much be going to bed.
Our ridden work was focusing on getting a trot from a standstill, good clean halts from a trot and then a canter. THEN trying to get them with just the neck rope. There is a pattern that R is going to use for a barn show in February that asks these movements.
Throughout our ridden work, the blanket of snow on top of the arena roof (which is basically a big tent) started sliding off in huge chunks. The sound of that snow sliding from inside the arena is VERY LOUD, and can be pretty scary for the horses.
River was great. He was a bit concerned, and I did my best to stay relaxed, but he didn't spook, and after the first couple of slides, he just ignored it all together.
Every winter you kind of have to see if the horse remembers that it's okay and nothing to be concerned about.
Then we went home and chatted for a while before he went to bed.
In and around things I got some laundry done.
My husband FINALLY heard back from one of the places we've contacted about what their estimate would be for installing a wood stove in the basement.
He had contacted one other place, and they never got back to him.
I think it's nuts how some place that does this as a BUSINESS won't even bother to get back to you about an estimate, I mean, I keep hearing how the economy is slow right now and a lot of people aren't spending much money, so you'd think they might be interested in selling us a wood stove and installing it?
Would they even be a bit embarrassed to realize that they lost a potential customer by not bothering to call them back with an estimate?
Trainwreck wanted to talk right as I was riding, so I said I would call her tomorrow when I have more time. I didn't want to talk to her later in the evening, because I already know that by then she's drunk, slurring her speech, nothing she says makes sense, and she's always horribly dark about her life that time of night. I don't need that.
Sprite seems to be doing just fine since the vet visit, no signs of being off her food or vomiting, which is great. She's back to screaming her head off to be fed and eating every last bit of her food. I have no idea what was going on when she had the two days of not eating well, but who knows. I'm grateful that she's back to eating well.
I learned about Vincent Kosuga, a farmer in New York state who manipulated the market in 1956 by cornering the market on onions. He ended up controlling 98% of the market, ruined the prices, and caused many farmers to go bankrupt and be forced to destroy their worthless crops.
As a result, there was a law created to prevent anyone else from doing the same thing, and it is called The Onion Futures Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga#Cornering_the_onion_market
If you've ever seen the movie "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd, they basically do the same thing to corner the market on orange juice to make millions and bankrupt the two old guys who had a fun bet about "nature vs. nurture" (though I suppose what they did was illegal).
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/vincent-kosuga-onions/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_stry_pl#synopsis
