Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

Hi RED DOG, hope your well

Today I went to Southampton with my cousin to see a puppy he wanted. She was really cute, we are picking her up next week

http://www.picresize.com/dl.php?i=rsz_1image.jpg

Hi Dreenie.

I can't see the picture from that link. What kind of puppy is it?

Is it really cute or are you just saying that because it's a little fluffy baby with big eyes and floppy ears?  

Hi Red dog, sorry, I been away at a friends for the week, so haven't been on the laptop. It's a girl puppy and yes she's really cute, Mel has named her 'Lou Lou' after her sister who tragically died in a car crash.

Here is the cutie pie :

Hey Dreenie, what a beautiful Jack Russell puppy.


I had a red and white filly named Lou Lou when I was a little boy. I was about 10 when I got her, I loved her, I used to ride her for miles without bridle or saddle and if I got off to walk she would follow me like a puppy. She used to roll over so that I could scrach her belly

One year she got strangles, these are large abcesses that develop on a horse's neck and under the jaw, they are quite easy to treat, you wait until they are 'ripe' and lance them, they heal really quickly.

Lou Lou developed an abcess inside her windpipe, a rare complication known to the old horse men as 'bastard strangles'. We couldnt lance it, and she almost suffocated, then an old horse trader told my dad that he could cure her if we would sell her cheap, we had no choice, she was dying so we sold her for a pittance

The old man did cure her though, he shoved a hose down her windpipe and burst the abcess, so it was a happy ending.

I have had many horses with strangles since, and never had a problem.

Click to see full-size image.

[Kev B]

What a great pic Tom. Where was it taken do you remember?

[RED-DOG]

What a great pic Tom. Where was it taken do you remember?

I remember it as if it was yesterday Kev.

We had turned her out on a farm in a village called Spinkhill.

We left her there for a few weeks because we were shifting to North Wales to a lovely town called Brynmawr. (My goodness we had some adventures there I can tell you).

I remember that day especially because while my dad was doing some business with the farmer, I took Lou Lou out for one last ride around the village. I was just passing a parked car when a bloke in a White Triumph Herald came screeching around the corner.

He had to brake because Lou Lou and I had made the gap too narrow for him to pass. He was furious and squeezed trough with inches to spare, horn blaring as he did so.

Lou Lou was pretty quiet for a young horse, but it spooked her and she set off at a full stretch gallop down the road. I had no saddle or bridle and was clinging on for dear life, praying that one or both of us wouldn't be killed. Strangely, I also worried about her damaging her hooves on the tarmac because she wasn't shod.

She stopped eventually, without mishap, and we walked back to the farm.

 I wasn't going to tell my dad, but he could see that Lou Lou was lathered up, so I confessed.

He didn't scold me, but he did give me a disproving look, which was worse in some ways. I knew I shouldn't have taken a young horse out on to a strange road with no bridle or headstall.

That was almost 50 years ago, I haven't made the same mistake since.

[RED-DOG]

The horse.

She misbehaves. Not when she's working, and not when there are other people around, in fact, she never does it at important times, but when it's just me and her, she takes the piss.

At first I thought she was just a bit garrity, or perhaps a bit dim, but I've come to realise that on the contrary, she is very bright. 

Bright enough to get away with winding me up for years without me realising that,

A: she knows what she's doing and

B: she enjoys it.

I will present some evidence.





This is her when I want her to come to me

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

And this is her when I want her to go away.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

The horse.


If I tell her to move, she will move, instantly. 

Unless she happens to be standing on my foot that is, in which case she seems to develop some sort of temporary deafness that can last for anything up to 5 excruciating seconds.

Anyone who has ever had a horse standing on their foot will agree, 5 seconds is a very long time.

It's not even the pain that I mind so much, it's her obvious delight in seeing me hop around the field that I can't take.

[RED-DOG]

The horse.


Blacksmiths are expensive, so I trim her hooves myself. It's done by resting the horse's foot in your lap and cutting off the excess growth with a device that looks like a giant pair of pincers. (a bit like a scaled up version of trimming your nails)


It looks like this.

Click to see full-size image.

The horse is used to this procedure and should stand quietly until it's done.

She does stand quietly, but slowly, ever so slowly, she leans on me, carefully transferring more and more weight. The trouble is, I'm so preoccupied with the job in hand that I don't notice until I'm on the verge of collapse, legs shaking, eyes bulging, sweat pouring from me...

I have to let her foot drop and stand upright, trying my best not to faint. Meanwhile, she turns her head away and sniggers softly.

[Kev B]

She does take the piss, I like the cut of her Jib though. 

[RED-DOG]

The horse.


Because I live in a caravan, I used to have my Sky dish mounted on a pole in the ground. As it happened, it faced the horse field.






Somehow, the horse discovered that if it stood really close to the fence, directly in front of the Sky dish, and held her head as high as possible, she could interrupt the signal, causing me to run outside and shoo her away.

It quickly learned that the more often it did it, the more annoyed I got, and the more of a spectacle I made of myself when I ran outside, screaming and shaking my fist.

I even went to the trouble of putting a pile of old scrap iron against the fence. The next time the telly went off I found her standing on top of it, all four hooves crammed on to a piece of metal no bigger than a dustbin lid, looking for all the world like a mountain goat.

Worst of all, the place where she used to stand was nowhere near the gate, so to chase her off properly I ether had to climb over the fence (ripping my trousers on the barbed wire in the process) or making a long detour.

When I did chase her, she would gallop away, gleefully kicking her heels up and farting in my general direction.

[Laxie]

    She's lovely!!!   

Pretty sure you've already mentioned it, but how long will she be staying at yours for?

[RED-DOG]

  She's lovely!!!   

Pretty sure you've already mentioned it, but how long will she be staying at yours for?

Not much longer if she doesn't show me some respect.

You haven't heard about her latest shenanigans.

[Mohican]

Seems to me likes she's trained her own human to do what she wants!!!

[Laxie]

  She's lovely!!!   

Pretty sure you've already mentioned it, but how long will she be staying at yours for?

Not much longer if she doesn't show me some respect.

You haven't heard about her latest shenanigans.

Oh man...there's more?!  Brilliant!  Get telling so...

[Tal]

Reminded me of this:



Was a brilliant show if you never caught it, Mongrels.

[Kev B]

Seems to me likes she's trained her own human to do what she wants!!!

WP Ralph.

[Skippy]

See I knew the horse story would be good.