Trickmeister Dude

Sunday January 22 2017

My sister's visiting, and she got to meet Stormy and Jose and Dudley and the rest of the herd for the first time.

Dudley put on a little show for her the first day. Not too bad, considering we haven't worked on tricks for a while! (Day 2 we tried and he was totally uninterested in performing. In fact, he just stood there and stared at us, even with carrots as rewards on offer! Oh well.) My sister took the pictures.


cheese!


give me a hug!


pick it up! 
We just started on working having him pick it up and hand it to me. I tried to run in there to grab it before he dropped it! Gotta work on it.


step!
Working on the Spanish step. Right now he has to do 3 steps (left right left) before he gets a reward. We'll eventually work on walking forward while doing it.

The Dude's Photobomb

Monday March 23 2015

It was a simple picture, of Carol and August and The Dude, before we took off to help move Don's cows.

Little did I know till I got home and looked at photos, that The Dude was mugging for the camera. Obviously it's a new one of his tricks.

He CRACKS ME UP!

Ring My Bell

Friday October 31 2014

It seemed natural to want to teach Dudley a few tricks, since he's such a smart horse.

However, he's so smart, he's made up a couple of his own tricks. One is shoving a gate open (I unlatch the gate, say "OK," and with his nose he shoves the gate as hard as he can, swinging it open as far as it will go - he loves doing this).

Another one he debuted yesterday is ringing a bell for a treat. I am not making this up - he figured this out on his own!

Dudley already knew to stop and check out Connie's place - wait outside at her porch, look in her windows - to see if she's home, so he could get a treat.

Yesterday, he figured out, on his own, that if he rang her little bell hanging off her porch, she would give him a treat! I swear, he came up with this bell-ringing on his own.

See the video:


or link:
http://youtu.be/vmS3FIQ9z-A

(and Connie posted later today: Well you have created a monster. I was sitting on the porch minding my own business talking on the phone blah blah, And here comes Dudley, and well he thought about coming up the stairs… Then proceeds to go ring the bell , not once but 3 different times and well I gave him 3 treats, and I would still be up there listening to Dudley ringing the bell and giving him treats, but fortunately his master Phinneas was hollering for him and he left on his own accord!

APPALLED

Saturday May 17 2014

If you've read Chapter 23 of Soul Deep in Horses, you might have gotten the impression that my horse Stormy, The Most Beautiful Horse On The Planet, is a bit lazy (in an ever so charming kind of way), and you'll understand his reasoning behind it.

And so it was that he was absolutely appalled when I used him to help mark trail for the Owyhee Trail Challenges with the other Old Man, Krusty. From Stormy's point of view, you see, I took him out of retirement once again.

Look at his face!

Besides the indignation he feels at being un-retired, Stormy has always hated being cinched up, no matter how gently or slowly I do it. He pins his ears and will try to bite, if I'm not careful. I can only think it brings back memories of being a racehorse, and having that stretchy cinch cranked as tight as it will go, to hold that postage-stamp-of-a-racing-saddle on his back.

Pinned ears! Mad face!

I couldn't help myself; I took a video as I saddled Stormy up. You can see by the expression on his face how appalled he is that he's being saddled; and when I cinch him up, you'll see him pin his ears at me - even though it's not tight.

He wears his rather offended face until I mount up, but once we got going and out on the trail, he forgot that life was so bad - particularly when he found excellent grass to munch on along the trail.

The Two Old Men spent a couple of days marking trail up the canyon, and Stormy decided that it wasn't such a bad unretirement job, after all.

The video:


(or link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZRbEDho5k8&feature=youtu.be

You can get Soul Deep in horses here!