Tania Kettle

So it was race night tonight, and I got to work with a horse.  

I really love the racing part.  

Do I agree with everything that happens?  No.  But do I love it still?  Yes.  

Tonight was good though because a horse was a little high and doing naughty things.  It was cool for me because I started using the 1-2 method.  I swear, hand on heart, I have never seen anything work as well as this.  You are literally calling the horse so it cannot go into it's horsey place, which as you and I both know is not a good place for a horse to go.  

You are calling it and keeping it anchored in the human world, where it's still listening, communicating and hearing you.  Although to be fair, there is no horse whispering or zen about this.  The horse is tied up on either side in an open stall (in rows of stalls either side and horses, carts and people consistently walking around) but I am literally trying not to be bucked, kicked, reared at or stomped on.  Then I am trying to find the horses place.  That place where it goes all mooshie.

And it's chaos, chaos, chaos then Boom! we're there.

I can't make you see though.  

You either see or you do not see.

****

Onto other news:

Peanut has found a new home.  Brooke is a beautiful person.  Peanut will be going to markets with her and her family, not to do rides but to literally hang out on a Sunday morning with everyone.  Walk down to the dairy and walk up the road to see friends.  He will be going to school with her some days when they have Special Friends Day and generally be part of the family.  Actually, the whole family came to meet him.  Mum, Dad, his person Brooke, her brother AND her grandparents.  Peanut also has a lovely place to live but will be living here with us for a little while longer, while the land gets finished.  Brooke and her family are everything that Peanut and I had hoped for.

Actually, now that I'm writing this, let me give you a few tips for finding a mini for your own:

1) Do not buy a mini that when you go to see it, he/she is tied up all pretty, ready and waiting for you.  Make the people take the mini off the lead and put him/her in the paddock and then you go and halter your future mini.  90% of the time you won't be able to catch him/her.  Don't buy a mini you can't catch.

2) Don't take a free one.  Most times he/she is free because they are a demon on wheels and totally unrepentant.  If you don't believe me, refer to 1.

3) Ask how long someone has had a mini.  If it hasn't been very long, ask why.  This will be mostly 2).  Unless someone takes on rescues then rehomes them (which is a good and valid reason), the good mini's have peeps who love them to bits and don't want to sell or give them away.   

4) Do not, I repeat, DO NOT take a mini that tries to double barrel you, kick out, bite or pin his/her ears back.  Mini's are the most loveable, adorable, super cute creatures on the plantet.  They love humans.   

Happy mini hunting!

Mares and I are loving our Touch/play video's.  The video's actually go for between 8 to 14 minutes, you get 59 seconds.  However, I'm starting to be able to show you our relationship.  You can start to see how Mares communicates, when I get it right, how the dance starts working.  I don't have these vid's perfect, but they are as perfect as I can get them at this point in time.  It's where we are at in our journey.  

I've got to say here though, the Touch/play you see with Mares and I is more balanced than any Touch/play I do with outside horses, when we're at the races.  The races are quicker, faster, higher Energy and most times I don't have a previous Touch/play relationship going with the horse.  I'm going in cold.  The theory is the same though.  Keeping the horse/human door open.  Talking, communicating, calling, settling the Energy.

And Blue LOVES her new Mummy, and her Mummy completely and utterly loves her back.  Nana A thinks it's because Blue is black and white and Lucy (Mummy) is also black and white, so Lucy loves her because they look the same.  I said, Yes, but how does Lucy know she herself, is black and white?  Nana A didn't have the answer but to be fair, that's as good a theory as any.  

Anyway, they've fallen head over hoof for each other and I'm not needed or missed.  

So, that's been our week: Another stunning 7 days with Spirit and horses.  

Take what you need, leave the rest.

Wishing you much love my friends, and of course, my humans.

Caps, me, Spirit, Az, Ralph, Chew, Suz, Peanut, Fenny, Flash + 1, Mares and baby Mares

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* So there I am this morning out saying Hi! to my horses, dressed in a towel.  Now it was a towel because I had just hopped out of bed and opened my french doors.  I had a bit of a chat and a pat and then I swear I hear my name being called.  Which is odd considering where I live.  And that I live by myself.  So, anyway, I just ignored it but it got louder and kept on calling.  So I looked around and there is my neighbour and my bloody mini's standing outside the gate.  Road side.  I yelled out, Coming! Then scooted inside to put clothes on.  Walked down the driveway to call mini's home (Peanut and Suz were inside where they should be) undid gate, got within 1 metre of them, a digger came round the corner, scared them, they took off calling Peanut and Suz who came a running, then we spent the next 25 minutes getting them what should have been 5 metres home.  They got scared by digger, then cars going to work stopped and cars coming in our road stopped.  Then they decided they liked our neighbours Millionaire Drive better, so they hooned up that driveway, round the house and stopped at the top paddock.  

So steep even the goats hesitate.  

Mini's had a munch while watching me climb then leisurely walked home with Chew pretending he didn't know me (no surprises there), Ralph frollicking, Peanut trotting along having fun and Suz being cute.

They're lucky they're not ugly, is all I'm going to say. 

** Mares and I are doing really well.  Today for the first time, she just stood there talking with me when the horses were going round the track (her paddock is right next to the track), she never moved a muscle.  That's great form.  Secondly, in our video tonight, when I played it back, you heard me stuttering.  Which was really odd.  But then I realized that I wasn't stuttering, you heard me saying, I want to touch your baby and Mares kept interrupting saying, No.

I still take the vid's down every day.