Pony Fun

I met some friends at a small horse show on Sunday. Most of it was boring, western pleasure especially is a snoozer. Even the horses look half asleep. There was a little excitement when a so-called horse trainer got dumped in the ring. That was interesting. She was not hurt.

Most of the people at this show did not have huge fancy trucks and trailers and immaculate horses that have been trained to perfection. They seemed to be regular people with backyard horses who were out having a good time.

There were a lot of kids showing. Not the kind whose parents were doing all the work for them, the do-it-yourself kind. It was so much fun to watch them. This group of kids had miniature horses that followed them around like dogs. (You can see how warm it was by the girl's shorts and tank top.) These kids had body-clipped their little horses. You can see they don't have the sturdy little legs and cobby body of a Shetland.

Some of the little guys were still shaggy in their winter coats, like the one below. This boy was spending a lot of time talking to his horse. They were buddies.

One of the parents said that the little horses had been rescued from a bad situation and the kids were in a group that was taking care of them and learning to handle them. The kids were all waiting to show their animals in a halter class. They also participated in showmanship. The horses - let's just call them ponies, okay? - are too small to be ridden.

Here's a pair in the showmanship class. The girl is checking to make sure her pony's feet are properly positioned. The pony is making her work.

Showmanship is a great way for kids to learn how to handle their animals. It doesn't matter if they're showing horses, sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, chickens, or rabbits, the lessons and skills are the same.

This is an actual pony, not a miniature horse. I'm not sure what breed, it seems bigger than a Shetland and smaller than a Welsh. This was my favorite pair to watch at the show. The little girl was all business and in the first class or two the pony was not cooperating. He whinnied and bucked and didn't pay attention, as only an annoying little pony could do. They placed last in the first class. The girl was not pleased with her little troublemaker. Her mom met them at the exit gate. "He didn't do very well, did he? You know why? Because you're not being fair with him, you're in his mouth and picking on him. If you don't want to do this right and give him a chance, just go load him in the trailer and we'll go home today." (To be entirely fair, the pony WAS being a stinker, but the mom did a good job using the situation as a learning opportunity.)

By the end of the day, the pair was working like a team, and they won their last class (they are on the left).

The two little girls on the right were also fun to watch. Their regular-size horses were ancient. The oldsters were content to carry their riders around the ring as long as they didn't have to be too far apart.

Showing horses can be very hard, horses are just so big and they aren't eager to please like a dog is. They can get you and themselves into trouble, they can get distracted and walk all over your feet, snot on your clothes, whack you with their heads. But little girls don't care.

See? She smiled like this all day. This is little girl heaven. I know, I've been there.

We watched some classes with adults in them, too, but they weren't as fun.

What's Going on Here?

When you're messing around with the zoom lens on your camera, sometimes you get the strangest pictures. Can you figure out what this is?

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Does this help?

Taken in a warm-up ring at a horse show. The two people in the middle weren't even that close, the lens just makes it seem like 2 centaurs smooching.

Pigeons in the Sun

It was sunny and warm today, almost 70 degrees I think. The pigeons really needed to get out and stretch their wings, so I opened their door and sat outside with them for a couple of hours to guard against the hawk. Then I put fresh food in their feeder and they all flew back in the pen and I closed the door. Such well-trained birds they are. I had my camera with me and took some pictures so you could see how pretty pigeons are with the sun on their feathers.

Big Red, who survived his run-in with the hawk

Little Red, his wife

Furniture shopping, choosing just the right stick

Oh no, she didn't measure the door. Will it fit?
She tried twice and it didn't so she backed up and looked at the situation,
 then turned her head sideways and the stick went through the door.

Even plain old gray pigeons are beautiful in the sun.

Piebald pigeon.

Piebald pigeon, back view, looks like modern art.

Miss Freckles

Big Spot guards the door, all who pass must have his permission.

Old German Owl

A couple of years ago when Katherine went to the poultry show up north in Eureka, she brought me back a little spotted pigeon, Val. Today I have about 26 pigeons and at least half of them are spotted. None are white with brown wings like the Taganrogs. Only one purebred Taganrog baby was ever raised in the 5 or 6 years I've had them, and I raised that one myself.

I do like to raise purebred chickens and show them, but I love my pen of mostly mutt pigeons. They're so colorful and fun.

This year when Katherine went to Eureka, she sent me pictures of the pigeons that were available. This is the one she brought back.

It's an Old German Owl. It has the coloring of the Taganrogs, and the same short little beak. I haven't put him into the pigeon pen yet, it's good to keep a new bird isolated for a few days just to make sure it's healthy. When I do put Ogo in the pen, I won't be able to let the pigeons out to fly for quite a while.

That's becoming very hard anyway. That nasty little hawk that has killed several of my pigeons did not migrate out of here this spring. It appears to have moved into the area. That's not surprising, since there is a large flock of feral pigeons in the area.

By next year my group of mutt pigeons might be even more colorful. And also have some cute hairdos.

Banned in California

I saw a list of animals that are banned as pets in California yesterday. Each picture gave a reason why it was illegal to keep the animal. Some are just too obvious, like tigers. Of course you shouldn't keep a tiger for a pet, though if you do you'll probably be eaten eventually and then the rest of us won't have to abide your stupidness.

Ferrets are illegal because they can negatively affect native wildlife. I've known people who lived in other states who had ferrets and loved them, but I've also seen mongooses running all around in Hawaii. Raccoons are bad enough, so I support the no ferret rule. Though I wonder what would happen if it was legal to keep a neutered ferret? If it got loose, at least it wouldn't proliferate. But then you'd have all the stupid people again, the ones who wouldn't get THEIR ferret neutered because they'd want to make money selling them, or didn't have the money to neuter them in the first place. I'm thinking these people live in trailer parks and have dozens of guinea pigs in their living room. (I'm not imagining this, I've seen it, it was amusing and terrifying at the same time.)

I think it's also not a good idea to keep hedgehogs, but the reason given is so dumb. Because there might be a germ on their quills? Using this criteria, no one should keep a dog that's big enough to bite off their faces, either, but the reason would be "there might be a germ on their teeth." I think hedgehogs are so cute, but am totally satisfied watching the home movies Uncle B posts from England, where there are actually hedges for these animals to live in. Our only hedges are in the center divide of freeways, not good habitat for anything.

My Aunt Beth has a nice collection of ceramic, wooden, and stuffed hedgehogs. I'd have a similar collection of armadillos if they were easy to find. (And small. And cheap.) But there are plenty of domestic animals that are legal to keep as pets who need a home.

A Welcome Sight

Mini Daffodils

Baby Time!

What was I doing out and about at the crack of dawn on a day like this?

I was on my way to the post office, I'd just been called to come pick up this package.

My first chicks of the season! I'd ordered 10 barred Old English bantam chicks from Cackle Hatchery in the midwest. Let me say right here that I don't want to hear any doodoo about how chickens should raise their own babies and it's cruel to hatch them in incubators and mail them across the United States. If you want to believe that, please do, just don't try to sell that story to me because I know better.

Usually you have to order 25 chicks at a time because that's how many it takes so they keep each other perfectly warm inside the mailing box. But Cackle Hatchery has devised a way to send 10. This is the box that would hold 25 chicks. Inside it is a smaller box, with insulation all around it. They also had a little piece of spongy wet stuff that the chicks could peck at and get moisture, though I doubt they did that.

I took the chicks out of the box one-by-one and gave each a few drops of water. I dip a small paintbrush in water and let the chick drink the drops. You could just shove their beaks into a bowl, but I find the paintbrush method less stressful. By the time I'd unloaded the last chick, the first two were already running around in the aquarium, jumping for joy.

By the end of the day, there was one chick that wasn't quite as lively as the others. It was obviously a little older, its wing feathers were visible. So I cut up a couple of mealworms and used the paintbrush to put a piece into its mouth. It ate the rest by itself, eagerly.

Here are some of the babies.

Here is a view of my brooding arrangement.

I use aquariums because I like to sit and watch the babies. It's a good way to make sure they're all doing fine. Also you can spoil the heck out of chicks this way, they get accustomed to seeing people and expecting treats. Sure makes it easier to catch them when they're grown up.

Did you recognize the workbench from a few days ago? It was $67 from Home Depot. It took a quart of paint and went together in 3 minutes, just like the label said it would. It has not (to my knowledge) been used to support anyone's vices, however.

Katherine is hatching some eggs from my own birds, so there will be more babies as the month progresses.