GETTING THE GROOVE BACK

Trying to get things settled again and think forward. Hard to do. I keep going back and looking at the horse photos and thinking of all the ones I missed-- all the 8 hitches, and yeah, Susie wanted me to stand outside the barn in the morning and photograph the horses being walked, and I didn't, because it was cold and I'm a wuss. And the people I didn't take photos of, and the dogs I missed...

And all the questions I had that I never asked. And yes, they dock the tails when the foals are very little--a day or two old or maybe even before that I am not sure at all. It is similar to removing dewclaws on a puppy which is done at 3 days. Not all of them are docked but for halter classes they are. This is a handsome little filly.
While the Judge looks at all of the horse, the rear is the part we saw the most. I think it was our seating...
There were professional photographers there running around in the ring. Two that I saw. One was French altho he spoke English.

Just like always, the Percherons have sheets and blankets that they wear a lot of the time when they are not working. Some had hoods (I do not know the proper term) as well, as did this one. Several belonging to one stable had wild hoods-- zebra prints and geometric designs. I tried to photograph them but ended up deleting those because you really could not tell what you were looking at. Photography in the barn is always a bit trickier than outside, plus these were black horses (for the most part) in a dark place.... This was early in the morning. Wake-up walk. The horse is a colt or filly, not nearly grown

Again this is early morning. Someone walks the horses and someone cleans the stalls. Then they are fed and watered. There was a lot of traffic in the barns so early in the morning. Intersections were always jamming up with horses waiting to come back in and horses going out and coming around the corners, so everyone was especially alert, or tried to be.

And then there was the job of cleaning the horses-- some methods more orthodox than others,(I had a photo in here of a young man vacuuming a horse. However, he is a minor and I do not have waiver and so decided not to use it. He was standing on a bench vacuuming the back of the horse. Use your imagination.) and inspecting and cleaning and polishing the harnesses. Worth thousands of dollars, these pieces of equipment are kept absolutely spotless, cleaned before and after use, inspected for wear and tear.

And finally, they are off to the ring.

MEETING STRANGE DOGS

While I was in Des Moines I witnessed an interesting situation. A man came into the Hospitality suite with his intact Doberman. Now. A lot of people bring dogs to watch the tack or the trucks, so some of these dogs are very sweet until you try to walk into their territory. This was a big, handsome, intact male Dobe and by his body language he was clearly an alpha dog. I was sitting in a chair. I said hello to him, rubbed his ears and when he seemed not very interested, let it go.
Susie went over and also talked to him, (he was on a leash) and he was less stand-offish with her.
One of the volunteers was seated behind a table in front of which the dog was standing, very alert. She stood, cooed at the dog, placed her hands on the table and leaned forward to talk to him. Immediately, he stiffened. I watched very carefully because the room was crowded. The volunteer continued to lean forward, looking directly at the dog who by then had began staring back, and cooed and gurgled at him.
Nothing in the dog's physical appearance suggested friendliness. Ears up, tail up, on toes, perfectly still, staring. And then I heard it., The very low, almost inaudible rumbles. Someone started to reach to pet the dog and I shook my head and said "Not now" and then told the volunteer to look away and sit down in a tone that left no room for argument. As soon as she broke her gaze the dog relaxed, and stopped growling.

Later I told her never to stare at a dog, particularly a dog like that. She had no clue. Absolutely stunned. No wonder people get bitten!

This little dog I never touched. She did not seem interested in being friends and I have been nailed by enough tiny dogs to be a bit wary.

I didn't get photos of the Cattle dogs, or the Swiss Mountain dog (who was a sweetie.)

There were two Corgis at least-- the other that I saw was a tri.
This was dinnertime the first day.
They said she never gets people food and she never stops trying, which made me think maybe she does. (Get people food) since the behavior should be extinguished if it is never rewarded.

I was also surprised at the number of horses whose owners were adamant that the horses never get treats-- not apples or carrots or peppermint (Horses have a sweet tooth.) I used to know a Saddlebred who drank Nehi Tropical Punch.

And of course, there was Flash.

                               The blur you see is Flash's tail.

HITCHING UP (more horse stuff)

The last day we were there, (at the 2010 World Percheron Congress) as evening approached, we had to move the car because the street on which we were parked, right by the hospitality suite, was also right outside one of the horse barns where Priefert harnessed their horses. You can (or someone can, certainly not I) harness the horses up in the barn but you cannot hitch them and drive them through the barn. It would be horribly dangerous, as, being horses, they DO now and then spook.
One Percheron spooking is a real handful. Having a team of anywhere from 2 to 8 horses spook (all it takes is one to start it) would be tragic.

So while I waited for Susie to appear, I began photographing the Priefert people hitching up:

This is the beginning. One of the wheel team horses has been harnessed and brought out. Now he is attached to the wagon. There are, of course, real names for every part of the harness and wagon but I am ignorant of what they are. I know what I THINK they are, but am not sure enough to write it down. The other horse will be hitched where the woman is standing.

In the meantime, while they wait for the second horse in the wheel team, the polishing and cleaning of both horse and harness and wagon continues, unabated. The amount of work that goes into hitching a team for show is mind-boggling. The attention to detail is essential. All this time these two are examing the harnesses, bridles, hitchings and wagon for broken or worn pieces, errors, things that might prove a disaster at a high trot in a ringful of other rigs. And it happens.

The first horse is hitched and you get a good look at how big and long this hitch is going to be. This is one horse.
By the time they are done, there will be 5 more.

Here comes Jason with the second wheel horse. He will lead him around the near horse and back him into place, then attach the tongue (I think that's what it is ) of the wagon to the harness and the harness to all the hooks and rings and clips and bits and pieces that keep everything in place.

Ok. Now we have the wheel team
attached to the wagon, and Jason, who will drive them, is in between fastening and checking the harnesses. I was hoping to watch all
six get hitched but about this time the Priefert people began giving the car (the little blue Prius in the photo)  "significant" looks. Susie would never, ever get in the way and we knew we were moving momentarily, out of their way.

Meanwhile, out came the second section for the next two horses. You can see by the length of the section exactly how long this hitch is going to be. There will be one more section after this one. Two horses hitched to this, and then two more in front. These are normal-sized adult male and female people. The horses make them look tiny...about now Susie came out and with some slick driving of her own, managed to get the car out of the way.

This is the Priefert six-horse-hitch in the ring, albeit a bad shot. This is how it looked all put together.

                     and this is what a team looks like from behind.

HOME AGAIN

I am back (not that you missed me) from the 2010 World Percheron Congress in Des Moines, Iowa. WOW!
I did not take any dogs along and while I missed them desperately they were better off at home. There were dogs there- Cattle dogs, Corgis, a Swiss Mountain dog, a long-haired Chihuahua, an alpha male Doberman I wouldn't have messed with (this is a story I will tell another time.): and ONE BASSET HOUND named--FLASH! Flash loved everyone, of course, but was kept well away from being underfoot. Some of the other dogs were probably horse-savvy but the first day we were there a cattle dog pup got his paw stepped on by a horse that probably weighed close to a ton. It was not a good place for a city dog.
Horses. Let me tell you!! These were all Percherons, black as coal or Dappled greys very few brown, almost none.

The world champion stallion stood 19 hands high (a hand is 4") at the withers, or shoulder. He weighed 2,442 pounds or thereabouts, I may have the last digit wrong but you get the idea. These are not Little People in the photos--these are grown men. Trust me, you do not walk one of these without thinking about it first, altho they are, for the most part, extremely gentle and sweet horses. Once they get into show-mode, it's another story, and besides, he's what he is-- breeding stock. And he knows it.

 This is how big the medium sized horses are. Look at his feet. I would walk through the barn and put my foot inside, completely, one hoofprint. The shoes they wear differ wildly, and I do not know enough to write about it. The horses who are used primarily in hitches have one kind, those with other jobs have different shoes. Farm horses have yet another kind. There were farm demonstrations, but the one I really wanted to see I forgot--it was last night and when we left, after the 8 hitch classes, it was already 10pm.
This is already a long blog.  But I want to say that I was there as a volunteer and we were up at 4:30 every morning and at the Hospitality Room by 6, Susie Spry and I.(There were many other volunteers, all over and helping in hospitality, but Susie and I opened the room every day and closed it down. ) By 6:45 the room was packed with horsepeople, who had already walked, watered and fed the horses, and those first two days it was FREEZING-- the wind whipping across the prairies from wherever and the temps plummeting. When I left home at 5 in the morning on Tues it was 71. When I got to Des Moines about noon, having battled winds that sent semis skittering across I-80 and rain, it was about 40, not counting windchill. People were ready for coffee! We closed the room at 3pm each day but I bailed and did a lot of photography.

This was bathtime. There was a room inside to bathe the horses as well, with warm water but it was always crowded the first couple of days.This horse was really fun to watch getting his bath. I couldn't tell whether he was thirsty or just curious. His ears are up, his face is relaxed even as he appears to be stepping away he really wasn't. The order of the photos is reversed and I think the water surprised him.

The real bathing room was

just inside the barn doors, altho there were three barns full of these horses. This grey is fairly small but not infrequently you saw grown men standing on kitchen ladders or stools to reach the tops of the horses backs, and their heads. One time, walking through the barn I saw a gelding chewing on the overhead stall beam. He was that tall.

FOUR ABREAST HITCH

ps. If you hate horses, skip the next few blogs.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow I leave DadPerson in charge and take off for the 2010 World Percheron Congress in Des Moines. My ever-faithful traveling companion, Cooper, will not be going. I have not told him this yet, but he sees the bags and is becoming suspicious. Hopeful, even.
He is afraid of normally-sized horses. I hate to think what meeting 800 Draft horses might do to him. We will be at the fairgrounds, I am told, from 6 in the morning until after 10pm. EVERY DAY.
I was going to make stuffed manicotti to take so Susie doesn't have to cook but I guess not. Transporting it, frozen, could be a real challenge.
So I am hoping to overwhelm the blog with photos of gorgeous horses and interesting people. I should take  some release forms. I will have to make them out. Hmm.

BITS AND PIECES

I got up at 6 this morning, fed the dogs and let them out and in. By 6:30 they had been in and out 3 times.

I finally locked the screen and shut the inner door which has become the sign that they are IN TO STAY at least for awhile.

A friend of mine sent me, simply because she does this, a heated mattress pad.

While it may fall short of being one of the seven great wonders of the world-- or is it eight-- it certainly became, in one night, my favorite household item. I sleep in a converted (not by much) garage (actually it is pretty nice as these things go and it does have a built in space heater that is very good.) Nevertheless when I wake up in the morning these days the temp is about 63 which, knowing people who consider that overly warm, it is cold for me. So last night I threw Conley off the bed (he growled at me because I took him off the bed and he got right back on and I removed him again and he resented it)
And I put the new mattress pad on and I plugged it in (that was the worst part, crawling under the bed in the thick dust--and when I crawled, finally, into bed MY FEET HIT WARMTH!!
Awesome.
The dogs usually get me up at 4 to go out and this morning I refused to get up and then went, mumbling, back to sleep. So thank you thankyou.

Next week I am leaving for the Percheron Congress in Des Moines, Iowa. DadPerson will be dogsitting, so I ask for kind thoughts and patience vibes for him, for he will CERTAINLY need it.

KAILEY

This is Kailey.
She was a stray.
She was adopted by my daughter and lived almost 17 years.
She was the smartest dog I have ever known, including my own.
She was funny, bright, bouncy, perpetually upbeat, protective and intuitive.
If it is possible to have a heart dog that is not your own, she was mine.

When she was excited, she made this strange, high-pitched keening noise. Her Bunny noise. EEeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

When she was excited she leaped straight up in the air, maybe 3 feet above the ground.

Kailey lived with us off and on over the years. Here she is with Mitchell (ATB) when he was but a pup. She put up with him but as you can see by the wide, gaping jaws, it was not always a happy group. She would not have dreamed of hurting him. But by the expression I see here, she is about to yap right in his ear, or grab whatever she is guarding and leave. She barked a LOT. But at night, walking the dogs, we followed her bright and bushy white rear end with her beautiful silver tail curled over her back. Despite the fact that she had the worst underbite I have ever seen, she was a beautiful girl.

One time a serviceman came to the door and opened it before I had a chance to get there. Stacey and Kailey were staying upstairs, the bottom of the stairs ends to the left of the door. The guy opened the door and Kailey let out a roar and leaped-- LEAPED-- From about halfway down the stairs to the door, roaring like a German Shepherd, all her teeth bared, all her hair up and hit the door as the serviceman fell backwards out of it and slammed it in her face.

Later we saw Kailey on walks, innumerable times, place herself in front of my daughter when Kailey thought there was a threat. She was the sweetest, funniest dog I have ever known, but by God, nobody was going to mess with my daughter.

This is a typical Kailey expression. A combination of  suspicion, gentleness and temporary acceptance.

One day when she was staying with us I thought it was very quiet outside and I opened the door in time to see her stepping through the fence. I called to her--"Cheese, cheeese"-- her most favorite thing. She wagged her tail, and gave me a look similar to this and----vanished. (We found her.)


She was patient with the puppies but not overly so. She lived here with Mitchell and my first Belgian, Quiller with no problem. Later her companions were Rottweilers, and that was fine too. She grew older. She became slightly deaf, arthritic, and slow. It was so sad. She was a wonderful girl.

This is Kailey. She is ATB now but I think of her often, and I wonder if there will ever be another like her. She was not my dog, but I loved her as if she were, and I miss her all the same.