Cry havoc and unleash the Ferrets of War!
Jul. 22nd, 2002 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joflasherI so blame the Boy for that one...
So we put the ferrets in one cage this weekend and ignored them while they argued it out. Basically boiled down to Midori taking over the hammock and Tira claiming one of the blankets...then Midori chasing Tira out of the blankets and Tira going to the hammock, only to be chased out again. Eventually they seemed to settle down and sleep, though. They woke us up twice the first night with the screaming and once last night. When I went out to check on them this morning (about 30 minutes since the last screaming fit), they were both in the hammock with a blanket separating them, resolutely ignoring one another. Yay, progress. Now to just re-litter train Midori.
Warning - all of these are long.
Friday night Boy and I spent climbing. All in all, it was a pretty good evening. I got on one climb where I was literally one hold from finishing and I couldn't do it. Position - Left hand on a round and slippery hold right below my head, right hand stretched up and out as far as it could go to a two hole finger jam hold. Only one finger fit per hole, the rest of the hold was useless, smooth and round and frictionless. Left leg stretched out, straight line from left hand, on a solid foot rest. Right foot up around my rib cage and off to the right, farther out than the right hand hold. These were the last holds on this climb and to finish I just needed to reach up one hand and grab the top of the wall. I was about 3 inches too short where I was at. Okay, need more height. After numerous foot switches and repostionings, I admitted I couldn't get 3 inches from my current location. Okay, need to stand up on right leg. Easier said than done. With my foot up so high, I couldn't push off of that leg. The left hand was useless to give me any upward motion...it was too low to pull off of and too high to push. This left the right hand and the two fingers jammed into the holes. After 10 minutes, I admitted to myself that trying to do a one-armed pull up with only two fingers was one of the dumbest(and most painful) things I've tried yet.
I came down and talked to Boy about it and he suggested I try turning my back to the right foot hold, stick my heel up on it and sit back. I thought the hold was up to high to do that move successfully but I was willing to give it a shot. Belayed Boy on a climb while my fingers recovered and back up I went, this time having no issues with the soapy round hold of doom that I fell on my first time up. Get back to the top position and try doing the heel/sit trick. Ummm, Boy, my foot is up above my ass, I'm going rock my weight on top of it how? Back to trying out other things. After another 15 minutes, during which I managed to get both hands on the right hand hold, I gave up and came back down. Lesson learned...one armed pullups with two fingers holding all the weight is dumb. Two armed pullups with one finger each holding all the weight is dumber. But I almost made it before something in my right hand gave out in a painful way.
Back on the ground, I realized that two of my fingers on my right hand were completely numb...no feeling left at all. Not a happy Jo. I asked Boy to go up and show me how it finish. He pointed out that a) he could probably reach the top from that position and b) he could also probably just stand up on the right leg. Up he went (heehheee...he had problems with the soapy round hold of doom too) and yep, he could just reach the top standing there. Then he tried to stand up on the right leg. And failed. Tried again. And failed. Tried switching around and sitting on his heel. His foot was above his ass too. No go. Eventually he made it...by doing a two armed pullup off of one finger each until he could get his weight on the right leg. Definitely not a 5.8 ending. We decided either a hold was missing or everyone is supposed to be able to reach the top from that position. Dumb game. I didn't climb again after that, since my right hand was killing me except for the two numb fingers.
Ended up spending most of saturday up at the farm. It was cloady and chilly and we decided we were going to clean Sage's paddock instead of our normal work. It hadn't been done in awhile and it had about 5 inches of manure in his bathroom corner.
Six months ago Sage was still a stallion and was the only horse up there I was truely afraid off. He was completely out of control. Even wrapping a chain around his nose, you couldn't lead him without the help of two or three people with ropes. He would rear up, bite, kick, try to run you down. He wasn't safe to be anywhere near. And that was with ropes on him. If he was loose, you couldn't even get into his paddock without being charged. The farm people gave up. Even though he's a gorgeous stallion, he would never make a breeding horse because he was so dangerous.
Now, 6 months after being gelded, he's a big puppy dog. He still has his bad days but mostly he's just a curious young horse. He nibbles at you sometimes but he rarely tries to take a chunk out of you. I haven't seen him charge anyone but the dogs in months. Unfortunately, no one really wants to work with him because of how he was. So most days he's stuck in his paddock (which is big enough for him to run around quite a bit) all by himself and looking lonely and depressed. I've been after Tom to start putting him in the main pasture with the other geldings but they haven't yet.
While we were cleaning his paddock, he kept following us around, sniffing where we had cleaned, chewing on our shovels, asking for pets and generally letting us know he was happy we were paying attention to him. So Boy put a lead rope on him (no chain) and took him out to the riding ring where we spent over half an hour lunging him and brushing him and generally making over him. He loved it, even though his lunge manners aren't the best. I'm glad Boy was doing it, I would have gotten drug across the ring. Still, I think we should start working with him more. He's so lonely and willing to do things for attention now and he's more than old enough to carry a rider.
Okay, more than enough rambling. Time to go to work.
So we put the ferrets in one cage this weekend and ignored them while they argued it out. Basically boiled down to Midori taking over the hammock and Tira claiming one of the blankets...then Midori chasing Tira out of the blankets and Tira going to the hammock, only to be chased out again. Eventually they seemed to settle down and sleep, though. They woke us up twice the first night with the screaming and once last night. When I went out to check on them this morning (about 30 minutes since the last screaming fit), they were both in the hammock with a blanket separating them, resolutely ignoring one another. Yay, progress. Now to just re-litter train Midori.
Warning - all of these are long.
Friday night Boy and I spent climbing. All in all, it was a pretty good evening. I got on one climb where I was literally one hold from finishing and I couldn't do it. Position - Left hand on a round and slippery hold right below my head, right hand stretched up and out as far as it could go to a two hole finger jam hold. Only one finger fit per hole, the rest of the hold was useless, smooth and round and frictionless. Left leg stretched out, straight line from left hand, on a solid foot rest. Right foot up around my rib cage and off to the right, farther out than the right hand hold. These were the last holds on this climb and to finish I just needed to reach up one hand and grab the top of the wall. I was about 3 inches too short where I was at. Okay, need more height. After numerous foot switches and repostionings, I admitted I couldn't get 3 inches from my current location. Okay, need to stand up on right leg. Easier said than done. With my foot up so high, I couldn't push off of that leg. The left hand was useless to give me any upward motion...it was too low to pull off of and too high to push. This left the right hand and the two fingers jammed into the holes. After 10 minutes, I admitted to myself that trying to do a one-armed pull up with only two fingers was one of the dumbest(and most painful) things I've tried yet.
I came down and talked to Boy about it and he suggested I try turning my back to the right foot hold, stick my heel up on it and sit back. I thought the hold was up to high to do that move successfully but I was willing to give it a shot. Belayed Boy on a climb while my fingers recovered and back up I went, this time having no issues with the soapy round hold of doom that I fell on my first time up. Get back to the top position and try doing the heel/sit trick. Ummm, Boy, my foot is up above my ass, I'm going rock my weight on top of it how? Back to trying out other things. After another 15 minutes, during which I managed to get both hands on the right hand hold, I gave up and came back down. Lesson learned...one armed pullups with two fingers holding all the weight is dumb. Two armed pullups with one finger each holding all the weight is dumber. But I almost made it before something in my right hand gave out in a painful way.
Back on the ground, I realized that two of my fingers on my right hand were completely numb...no feeling left at all. Not a happy Jo. I asked Boy to go up and show me how it finish. He pointed out that a) he could probably reach the top from that position and b) he could also probably just stand up on the right leg. Up he went (heehheee...he had problems with the soapy round hold of doom too) and yep, he could just reach the top standing there. Then he tried to stand up on the right leg. And failed. Tried again. And failed. Tried switching around and sitting on his heel. His foot was above his ass too. No go. Eventually he made it...by doing a two armed pullup off of one finger each until he could get his weight on the right leg. Definitely not a 5.8 ending. We decided either a hold was missing or everyone is supposed to be able to reach the top from that position. Dumb game. I didn't climb again after that, since my right hand was killing me except for the two numb fingers.
Ended up spending most of saturday up at the farm. It was cloady and chilly and we decided we were going to clean Sage's paddock instead of our normal work. It hadn't been done in awhile and it had about 5 inches of manure in his bathroom corner.
Six months ago Sage was still a stallion and was the only horse up there I was truely afraid off. He was completely out of control. Even wrapping a chain around his nose, you couldn't lead him without the help of two or three people with ropes. He would rear up, bite, kick, try to run you down. He wasn't safe to be anywhere near. And that was with ropes on him. If he was loose, you couldn't even get into his paddock without being charged. The farm people gave up. Even though he's a gorgeous stallion, he would never make a breeding horse because he was so dangerous.
Now, 6 months after being gelded, he's a big puppy dog. He still has his bad days but mostly he's just a curious young horse. He nibbles at you sometimes but he rarely tries to take a chunk out of you. I haven't seen him charge anyone but the dogs in months. Unfortunately, no one really wants to work with him because of how he was. So most days he's stuck in his paddock (which is big enough for him to run around quite a bit) all by himself and looking lonely and depressed. I've been after Tom to start putting him in the main pasture with the other geldings but they haven't yet.
While we were cleaning his paddock, he kept following us around, sniffing where we had cleaned, chewing on our shovels, asking for pets and generally letting us know he was happy we were paying attention to him. So Boy put a lead rope on him (no chain) and took him out to the riding ring where we spent over half an hour lunging him and brushing him and generally making over him. He loved it, even though his lunge manners aren't the best. I'm glad Boy was doing it, I would have gotten drug across the ring. Still, I think we should start working with him more. He's so lonely and willing to do things for attention now and he's more than old enough to carry a rider.
Okay, more than enough rambling. Time to go to work.
