Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary
RED-DOG:
Horse diving.
Lets take the 'racehorses into stalls' analogy. I have absolutely no experience of getting racehorses into stalls, but I do have a great deal of experience of getting horses to do things that they are unwilling or frightened to do.
It's very common to find a horse that doesn't want to go into a horse box for instance and before you can overcome the problem you have to find out why it doesn't want to go in.
The main reasons are fear or stubbornness.
Stubbornness is usually easy to spot, no eye rolling, ear swivelling, front feet dancing or sweaty panic stance, just a fairly calm, front feet planted, weight on haunches, "I'm not going and you can't make me" type of stance.
The stubborn refusal to go into a box is reasonably easy to overcome, either by
A- Coaxing with treats.
B- Cruelty.
C- Trumping their stubbornness with your own fiendishly stubborn stubbornness.
I'm not a big fan of the treats method, its just not reliable enough. It works fine, but the horse soon realises that if he drags his feet a bit he will get more treats, and eventually the day will come when you want to box the horse unexpectedly and you have no treats available... Believe me, a spoiled sulking child can't hold a candle to a spoiled sulking horse.
The Cruelty method works, after a fashion, but I'm not a fan of that either.
Many years ago I knew a man who bought a beautiful 5yo bay mare. She was ~13.5hh, sweet-natured and very willing. Her problem was, she wouldn't 'box'.
"I soon cured her" He told us. "I took her behind the hedge and laid into her with the hames, put lumps like duck eggs on her I did, now I only has to rattle a bit o chain behind her and she would go forward into Hell itself if she had to."
It was true. Ever after that the bay mare would bolt forward, into a box or anywhere else, to escape the fear of another beating with the hames. The trouble was, an accidental chain rattle would also make her liable to bolt. His cruelty turned a perfectly reliable little mare into a liability.
For those who don't know, hames are the pieces of curved iron or wood that are used to attach a horse-collar to the traces. One side usually has a length of chain attached. Stockmen, Gypsies and farmers etc usually kept this side by the bed at night to deter prowlers.
Many a fireside story has finished with something like, "Sure I gave him a little rap wid da, hames and he decided to leave us alone."
Click to see full-size image.
Next, I'll talk about my favourite method, the 'Who is more stubborn' method. (Although I like to think of it as who has more patience)
RED-DOG:
Then again, perhaps not. Lol.
tikay:
Quote from: RED-DOG on May 21, 2019, 09:15:00 AM
Then again, perhaps not. Lol.
Outrageous.
I was enjoying that.
booder:
;popcorn;
tikay:
We don't do politics on this Diary, but this outbreak of milk-shake throwing is not good, & whilst I have no time at all for Farage, I don't think chucking milkshakes at him or any other prominent Politician is a good thing at all. Gawd knows where it will all end. It'll be Mrs May or Boris next, & that's hardly the right way to oil the wheels of sensible debate.
Having said that, it does give the newspapers an opportunity to indulge in their favourite hobby of punnage. I'm not sure what it is about puns, they are very Ryanair, we all pretend to despise them, but really we like them.
Today's headlines include;
Shaken, but not deterred.
Shaken & stirred
Politics is not all milk & honey.
Brexit Party shake-down.
Click to see full-size image.
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