Smokey's Lesson With Saskia on YouTube

hacked and edited and shortened to 10 mins! Smokey learning about "contact"

busy busy

Had a friend from Italy who is doing Animal Communication turn up on Friday, was lovely to see her again! Daniela arrived in time to come to Smokey's lesson with Saskia on Saturday and share my birthday with me on Sunday (she gives GREAT Shiatsu massages!) She came to see Mac's Bowen session Sunday morning with us (his TMJ (jaw) session) and thankfully he is a LOT happier now in the paddock with being touched! YAY!!! We had dinner with a friend in town and then we put Daniela on Smokey for a quick ride before taking her to Kaikoura on Monday. Dear wee Smokey.... I had given Daniela instructions of what to do in the "worst case scenario" leave his head alone, don't try to stop him, just hold onto the saddle until he stops (lets face it, he's not dirty, but even he might think the other horses are appealing if a beginner rider doesn't enforce the way he should be going! He was a little worried when she first got on him but settled nicely, we took the lead off and Daniela even had a trot on her own!!! She then had an unplanned canter on her own too LOL, she was trotting nicely but not turning back towards me and hey presto he was aiming up the paddock! The very sensible lady did exactly what I said, didn't bother trying to pull him up (the sure fire way for a beginner to lose centre of gravity and topple off LOL) but just held onto the saddle till he stopped up by the fence.

When they finished Smokey was told he'd better apologise (for which he could really see no reason to!) and when he was not forthcoming I told him naughty boys do not get carrots and if he can't apologise he wouldn't get any. He was then told that apologies came complete with cuddles and he instantly stepped forward to give Daniela a cuddle (although he was intercepted by Marcus who grabbed a cuddle off him first hehehe)

So it was a lovely weekend, Smokey had a FANTASTIC lesson with Saskia, Mac seems to be on the mend, oh and I got a birthday message from the dogs!

Daniela was sitting in my chair on Saturday night and says "what do you want Zak?" I look around and she says to me "what does he want?" I ask him and he indicates he wants to talk to her so she gets out her notebook and starts having a chat with him.

The next day in the birthday card I got from her (which she felt compelled to buy in Italy before she came to NZ and didn't even know my birthday was coming up!) was a message from the dogs for my birthday that Zak had had to pass on because he was the eldest.... how sweet was that!?! :o)

So I'm still trying to butcher Smokey's lesson enough to get 1/2 an hour into 10 mins and then that will get linked up there, and need to get back and do some work!

The Little Jumping Bean

got to go x-country yesterday. One wee jump with a steering issue hehehe but he took it all in his stride (apart from the mistrides and the crashing of the jump!) I know the tyre jump doesn't look it, but it is still 2 tyres high, just took the middle one out for a bit of encouragement for him to start with, I thought 3 tyres high might have prompted a stop!

Blogger take sooooooo long to upload vids and these were going on FaceBook too so I you tubed them.... so here is a link to one of them, if you then browse "more from The T2YA" you'll be taken to the others.

Smokey Jumping

and here is Marcus getting a lift back to the yards :o)

Marcus hitching a ride

Mac had his 2nd session of Bowen yesterday, Smokey will be taking his spot with a lesson with Saskia Ostermeier next weekend since Mac is still out of action, so that will be exciting!

The chooks are good, Spooky Lee is very UNspooky and all her feathers have grown back on her back now! YAY!!!

Daniela a lady from Rome I met up with when she came traveling last year is back in NZ at the moment and will be popping in for a couple of days again in the next week sometime YAY!!!! She is a communicator too and so lovely, will be great to catch up again :o)

Don't forget our FaceBook page Talk To Your Animals on Face Book Face Book seems to be a lot more interactive so if you're signed up over there already it's an easy place to discuss, contribute and follow!

Mac gets some body work, Smokey goes jumping!

We went to Kimberley's place today to ride in her flash new arena!!! She is also an EMRT (Bowen) technician so Mac came along for the ride and to get a treatment... Looks like he has a TMJ issue which would explain the not wanting his usual head cuddles! Poor possum is staunch with pain too, so it must be bad!!!

Smokey got shown around the arena, a cavaletti dragged in (more our size than the jumps Kimberley does!) and he was led over it once each way then I jumped on and we did some trotting poles and then over the wee cavaletti. I had to put it up to it's highest height because he would only trot over it any lower!

Kim then came out and manned the camera for me (gotta love a good neighbour!) and got some posey shots and then some action shots :o)

And an action shot... crappy riding on my part but really conscious of not interfering with his mouth in case he fell on his face or wanted to look LOL (yeah, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

and then a couple of movies, the last of which I was NOT expecting a canter and a big launch at it as you may be able to tell by the laughter that follows!!! (and the picture the blog has decided to put as the freeze frame! LOL)

He was fantastic and he always makes me so proud of him! Go the little Kai!!!

Smokey has his day out :o)

It was a 5 hr ride through some magnificent farmland with spectacular scenery and I didn't listen to the little voice that had said the night before "wonder if the camera battery needs charging" so sadly the lack of photos is due to my inability to heed that little voice LOL. However there was someone else there with a camera who got some good shots and fingers crossed she'll remember to email them through!

Smokey was happy as larry bringing up the rear and apart from stubbornly refusing to shut a gate for me (grrrr) he didn't set a foot wrong all day. He was really feeling the gravel on the way home though the poor mite, although once he hit grass again thankfully he wasn't sore at all and happy to trot out catch up and overtake everyone so we could clown around about being in front once in the ride (this was 5 mins from home again hehehe)

We stopped for a picnic lunch about 1/2 way and the horses grazed or stood tied to fences and trees while we nattered and ate. It was great! There were 10 of us and all the horses were very well behaved, quite a few 4 yr olds there.

Once stopped for lunch Smokey had his bridle off and could eat, he had his apple and 1/2 of my apricots the little rat! He wasn't supposed to like them!

I like the more submissive animals, they can be so uncomplicated!

Mac is still fighting his demons in relation to me falling off back in November, fighting and losing I might add! He had another hissy fits 2 days ago and he and I parted company AGAIN! What made it worse however was that I had Pete there holding the reins and he STILL spazzed out. There is something going on there that I'm missing, as soon as I get some work out the way I'm going to have to sit down and see if I can get the missing link with him.... very very frustrating as he is the love of my life and he will pull away from even having cuddles in the paddock which is just not him :o( We'll figure it out I'm sure!

All the Animals are so Good!

Smokey has energy to burn, his little sewing machine trot is going for it when we're riding LOL. He even wanted to play in the paddock the other day, so we had some chasing games (an adaptation of this, his game with Marcus who always has an apple core when we go out to see him)




The chickens are fantastic and all still laying an egg each a day :o) My most hen pecked girl is finally hanging out with the other girls now, eating from the same hand, sharing the same nesting box and is now roosting for the night in the new mobile coop (the only one using it!) Really happy with them all but especially my Spooky (aka Lee) AND her feathers are all growing back already! She now has feathers on her back YAY!!! No more sunburn!