Spring approaches ( and ZOMG!!! Interweb Dramaz!!! )

[glenatron]

At last there are hints of spring out in the world - the snowdrops are in full flower and the celandine are starting to open as well. On Saturday morning we watched buzzards on a rapid diving chase over the woods and fields across the valley from the field. Birds are starting to sing out in the trees and hedgerows. Very pleasant.

On Saturday morning Small took sleepsy_mouse out for a short ride on the common while Zorro and I did some schooling. He was only a little bit grumpy at first but came through really nicely. Also he did some very bless jumping on line. I don't really have anything to do with jumps but it's one of Steve's basic skills things and so I was having a play with it to see how we got on and Zorro was very bless, picking his feet up and popping over.

After riding, it being sunny and pleasant, we put Zorro out without his rug, for the first time this year. Normally I'm all about letting the ponies to be furry and outside in all weathers but Zorro has been clipped so between that and the cold weather he's been rugged more than usual and this was his first time out without.

He made the best of it and also looked a lot like he was going to just slide off down the hill.

On Sunday we rode at the start of the day, doing a shorter circuit on the common. Zorro was a star and Small did well but seemed quite tired. After last summer we're quite anxious about that one but it's possible he needs a bit more food to help him build up. We're hoping that is enough but the vet is out next week anyways so we can see if they have anything to say. He's also changing diet so we're hopeful that might help a little.

After riding we put them both out unrugged and in spite of having a tractor tyre of hay each they were much more inclined to share.


We had a tasty mothers' day lunch with my parents and then headed back to the ponies. In the evening I thought I could walk home in the last of the light and enjoy the springiness.


Sure enough the punchbowl ponies were being picturesque and I had just enough light to take their picture...


Most of the evenings over the weekend were spent as a consequence of being caught up in a whirlwind of internet drama, which was quite surprising. A few years back we joined a forum with a vaguely natural-horsemanship but broad spectrum approach. It was a good community and had some cool people on it, but the person running the board tended to get a bit down from time to time and in the end closed the whole place down. In order to make sure that could never happen again a couple of regulars from the board set up a replacement forum ( in fact they set up two, of which more shortly ) and we moved collectively over. I joined the admin team for that board, largely for my technical skills, and it went fine. For a couple of years now it's been a friendly and interesting place to visit. We've had some pretty crazy moments ( funny how people who focus exclusively on positive reinforcement seem to be the most intensely negative individuals ) and from time to time generic clicker-training trolls got banned but all in all it ran fine. Then the person who ran the board started to change, I don't really know what happened there and it's not my problem, but I think one of the clicker-training trolls we banned actually deliberately targetted her for intensive manipulation in order to destroy the forum that had banned her. That's my best guess. Either way, she stopped consulting the rest of the admin team, started inviting back people who we had previously banned for not being able to engage in civil conversation with the other board members and generally did some things that we found a little disagreeable. People quit posting because they felt anything they said would just be wailed on, the rest of us administering the site started to step back a little from the work because we didn't want to tread on the board owner's toes and she had apparently decided to take the board in a more aggressive direction.

On Friday she just closed the board, again without consulting any of her administrators, doing exactly the thing that this board was originally created to avoid. Everyone was locked out and as she hadn't seen fit to tell us what was going on, we just set about activating the second board that had been created a couple of years ago. In a weekend we have got the forum up and running and picked up many members of the old community. All the administrators have full access, including the password for the board owner, so it should really be impossible for one person's whimsical actions to close it down this time. Actually properly impossible.

The owner of the board we used to belong to took this pretty badly. She decided we had been scheming to do this all along and made bad things happen in order to deliberately upset her. It's pretty hard to defend yourself against what someone else's imaginary version of you has done, especially if they won't talk to you. It's fine, not my problem at all, but irritatingly unjust and unfair. Also I had hundreds of posts on that forum and now I'm banned and locked out. I'll ask her, I think, to delete them all- I don't want to have people I don't know or trust going over stuff I've said with no right to reply.

Either way, the major consequence is that we have a new horsey forum that we've just started. I'm helping run it and we're aiming to be friendly, open-minded and interesting. Mostly UK based because that's where we're all from but anyone from anywhere who is interested in horse-oriented training and riding - from any background or style - is welcome.

Also, I'm quite pleased with the logo:

Comments

[skye-ds.livejournal.com]

It's pretty hard to defend yourself against what someone else's imaginary version of you has done, especially if they won't talk to you. It's fine, not my problem at all, but irritatingly unjust and unfair. Absolutely.

Dealing with Dramaz LLamaz myself at the moment, on top of one sister dying and one in the hospital. Great logo :) *hugs*

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

You seem to suffer a lot with the DL fraternity. Seems like you suffer a bit with being an involuntary drama magnet. Not an easy position to be in.

[skye-ds.livejournal.com]

Indeed. In that I don't do it on purpose, it's involuntary. All the same, I still believe it's likely that I am inadvertently bringing it on myself. So I'm constantly examining to see where the patterns lie and what I can do or stop doing. No different than training a horse. "Why is horse doing that? I didn't ask horse to do that!" Well, you might not have meant to ask horse to do that, but you very possibly DID ask horse to do that, without knowing or understanding what you did.

Anyway, I am having increasing success in whittling away at the amount of drama that I attract, so it's working, slowly but surely, baby steps. Almost all of the remaining drama llamas are in one group, so I'm going to be resigning as an officer of that group in two weeks time. My resignation speech has been crafted with the help of folks much like you, who are much better at it than I am, and I'm quite pleased with it.

In my self-examination, I have discovered that my horses are smarter than I am. They learn faster. I desensitize/sack them out once, that's all it takes. The Powers that Be keep having to desensitize/sack me out over and over again. I might not be as bright as I thought I was :P

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's pretty hard to be a learn-once animal. I guess the flipside is that you don't learn the wrong thing as quickly either. A bit more resilience in that direction perhaps saves as many problems as it causes.

[skye-ds.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hadn't considered that. (As usual). *HUGS* (And Zorro rolling down the hill is priceless.)

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Zorro really does look like he might just slide downhill and i find that highly amusing.

I see you have had some dramaz haven't you?

I think I may go join that board now, though I'm glad I didn't really participate in the other one before...

What a bummer to be locked out of all your old posts. Is EVERYONE locked out or just board members? Because theoretically I could join and then give you the password...at least give you a chance to delete everything.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

And well done you for saving the day a bit there--I'm sure you did to at least some extent given your set of skills.

Sadly, for some reason, I cannot follow that link above. Grr.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It should take you to explorehorse.proboards.com (http://explorehorse.proboards.com/) - does it not want to play?

I have managed to save most of the old posts I wanted as well, in a roundabout sort of way, so it should be fine. Just a shame seeing how much time we spent there. The new place seems pretty homely already though.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I can only imagine how good the first blanket-free roll of the spring must feel. Ahhhhhh!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Zorro has got pretty good at showing me where he needs scratchies, but being able to get loads of them at once must be just brilliant. It certainly looks that way from how long he was rolling...

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, internet drama ... how I love it. :| Sounds like you're going in the right direction now, though - like you say, should be impossible for any one person to shut it all down on a whim.

LOVE the photo of Zorro rolling. XD He really does look like he's sliding down the hill ... hehehehe.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

He was a fair few feet further down when he got up than he was when he lay down. Partly because of the way he was pretty much throwing his feet in the air like he is in that picture to really get all the itchy bits down on the floor.

[oifonly.livejournal.com]

I am very much liking the new forum. I could see the way the other one was headed too. One of the reasons I asked to resign as a mod was because I could see a division forming and, being far too good as a Professional Fence-Sitter, I didn't want to feel stuck in the middle.

The sanctimonious and downright RUDE replies to my last post on the old forum, have pretty much convinced me that's not a place I want to hang out any more.

Now all I have to decide is whether I want to tell 'em exactly what I think of them, as eloquently as possible, then flounce, or just delete meself without bothering to explain. I'm kinda thinking I'd like to flounce in grand style. I've never done that before. Do you think I need a feather boa or anything?

Love the pics - especially Zorro heading down the hill. Priceless! It sounds like you had a great weekend. :)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

There's nothing not funny about a classic flounce. Quite possibly an awesome move. Especially from the self confessed fence sitter :)

[tom909.livejournal.com]

Wow, so that's the story behind all the drama, or one side of it anyway. It's been an interesting time lately with the posting on f4th. I wondered what was going on. I haven't posted on either since the bust up cos I don't want to lose any friends.
I am very aware that I am always watching what I say a bit more than I'd like to when I comment on forums. That's good in one way, but it's also a bit frustrating. If and when I re-surface on the boards I am going to try a bit harder to say it how I think it is. Damn it, sooner or later I have to stand up and be counted.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The thing is that it's really easy to come across like you're constantly mean to ponies. I do this myself. I don't believe that I am - in fact I tend towards the overgenerous even still, but there are techniques and tools I use that some people find bothersome and the fact is that I absolutely don't care how they feel about it. But they're going to be judging me on that and if they only have the things I say and never judge me on it, they'll see me say that I don't mind to slap my horse on the shoulder if he's let me run into it and think I'm a horse-beating monster and never become aware that I would never hit my horse as hard as most showjumpers pat their horses when they finish a round...

I guess one thing I've learned from recent scientific debate is that ultimately people believe what they want to believe anyway I guess and the facts really are not that important to them.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

You'll be glad to hear I've linked to Eight horses one winter (http://eighthorsesonewinter.blogspot.com/) in a discussion of bits vs hackamores already...

[tom909.livejournal.com]

Hi breakfast,
Thanks for that. We are having a clinic this weekend dedicated to 'understanding the bit'. If it works well we may try offering it as a possible day of our clinics away. We'll have to see - it may not be everyones cup of tea.

But I'm looking at that thread on bits and bitless, and thinking if people understand bits it sure makes it easier for horses to understand them.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

One thing that watching Richard Caldwell on tack the other day reminded me of is how people get caught up on the pressure element of bits and don't really pay enough attention to the signal aspect. It seems to me that if you have a trained horse you should rarely need to get to the point that you're applying pressure because the signal is enough. The requirements of a bit to maximise signal compared with a bit to maximise pressure are quite different and I don't know how many people are even aware of them.