Oggy, Ashley, Brandon, and now James are all collaborating to get Oggy involved in the work of feeding hay to the herd. Brandon coaches Ashley to train Oggy and works with James to design and build a stoneboat as a hay conveyance. It all seems to be coming together. When not training Oggy or feeding the herd, Ashley has been busy with SuzAnne’s ancient Singer featherweight sewing machine to add some Oggy calico horses to the Herd for Hugs!

Oggy Takes the Bit!

pREVIOUS WEEKS BROADCASTS

Training Oggy

Getting Ready to Pull a Stone-boat

Both Ashley and Oggy are proving to be excellent students with keen minds and calm personalities. They have come to trust one another as she continually introduces him to new equipment that he tries his best to accept. This success reflects the great student-coach relationship that Brandon has built with Ashley. Trust is at the center of it all. Ashley trusts Brandon, which translates into Oggy trusting Ashley, creating a circle of trust.

This week Oggy took two big training steps: accepting a bit in his mouth and accepting a Decker Pack Saddle with a britchen which goes around Oggy’s rump. Both steps are essential in his learning to pull a stoneboat so he can assist Ashley in feeding the herd.

News from Hashknife Ranch

Making a Stone-boat

Clearly Oggy can’t pull a stone-boat unless Dunrovin has a stone-boat. Equally obvious is that Dunrovin doesn’t really need a stone-boat. The old classic F250 Ford stick-shift pickup with a missing tailgate is perfect for the job of hauling and distributing hay. If we don’t really need a stone-boat, then we certainly aren’t going to spend a lot of money purchasing a fancy hay sled for Oggy’s training. No, Dunrovin will do what ranchers have done for centuries: Improvise!

Brandon Carpenter is the king of improvising when it comes to implements for training horses to do ranch work. He is teaming up with Dunrovin’s all around tech guru and handyman James to build a stone-boat. Let’s see what they have planned. Rumor has it that some welding is involved and that James will try to entice our favorite welder G3 to come out for a visit.

A Herd For Hugs

All About Manes and Tails

Just as with real live horses, the manes and tails are the pièces de résistance of our huggable calico horses. A flowing mane and tail on a galloping horse are indeed hard to resist! This week Lorraine and Loreen demonstrated how to add colorful manes and tails to their fabric horses.

This has been such a wonderful and fun project. Dunrovin Ranch is so grateful to Lorraine Turner for having suggested and organized this humanitarian effort to spread the healing power of horses to people who have felt isolated during the pandemic. Next Monday will be out last Herd for Hug broadcast. We are already miss Lorraine and Loreen just thinking about it!

Ashley Creates a Herd of Huggable Oggys

Since last December SuzAnne has been zooming with a young Korean boy named Jiho who is now living in North Carolina. She was partnered with him through a program called Eldera.ai that brings generations together to make the world a better place: “We are a global virtual village where generations come together to connect, learn, have fun, share wisdom and create a better future for all.” Check it out. It is a terrific way to make meaningful connections with a child during the pandemic.

When Dunrovin decided to participate with Lorraine Turner to host A Herd for Hugs, SuzAnne knew that she wanted to create a huggable horse for Jiho. He likes dinosaurs, so she ordered a kit with fabric that featured all kinds of white dinosaurs on a bright green background. However, there was a problem. SuzAnne can’t sew - seriously, she flunked 7th grade home-economics.

Ashley to the rescue. She likes to sew and offered to make the dinosaur huggable horse using SuzAnne’s ancient Singer sewing machine. She had such fun making the dinosaur huggable horse that she went on to make four more calico horses all with Oggy in mind. She then gave one to SuzAnne for her 73rd birthday, one to Ryen for sharing the ranch chores with her this season, one to give away to a stranger, and one to keep to remind her of her days at Dunrovin training Oggy. What a wonderful surprise for all concerned! Ashley created a circle of love!

Equus International Film Festival

Riding with ThisABILITIES

Filmmaker Matthew Handal talks about the making of his beautiful film Riding with ThisAbilities that shows how disabled children are empowered through a therapeutic horse program at the historic Claremont Riding Academy in NYC. We learn what therapeutic riding is and how it benefits the children: especially Josue, an eleven year-old with cerebral palsy, and Zack, a six year-old autistic child. We even meet them as young adults to see the benefits of therapeutic riding. Unfortunately in spite of the program's obvious success, the stable has been sold and the program ended. In a postscript, there’s a plea for society to support therapeutic horse riding so that everyone has a chance to “Ride with TheirABILITY.”

Clicking with Mackenzie

Shaping, Luring, and Capturing

The DIVAS can never get enough time with Mackenzie and Michal. They simply love being in the classroom with these two patient and loving trainers.

This past week Mackenize and Michal demonstrated the three best ways to create novel behaviors – shaping, luring, and capturing with both the DIVAS and with Mackenzie’s horse, Canner. The goal was to teach them a new trick from start to finish. Did they succeed during the very cold and short session? Watch the video to see what happened!

RANCH NOTES AND VIDEOS

A Raven’s Visit Presents a Teachable Moment

The common raven is a member of the Corvidea family of birds which many consider to be the most intelligent birds in the avian world. Montana is home to nine species within the Corvidea family: the American crow, the black-billed magpie, the blue jay, the California scrub-jay, the Canada jay, Clark’s nutcracker, the common raven, the pinyon jay, and the Steller’s jay. All but the California scrub-jay and the pinyon jay have been seen at Dunrovin.

Many people have difficulty distinguishing the American crow from the common raven. Here is a chart showing some of the differences.

The raven’s recent visit to the ospreys’ nest gave us some great footage allowing us to distinguish the raven from the crow. The raven also treated us to three different vocalizations which is another common trait among the Corvidea family - they all have rich vocabularies!

Busy Bird Feeders

Winter’s sudden change of heart from warm to cold and the return of the red winged blackbirds has kept the bench bird feeders humming with activity from a range of different birds. The competition has been fierce, both between species and among individuals of the same species. Those colorful evening grosbeaks are particularly feisty with one another.

The Animals as Helpers and Healers Program Continues

During Monday's broadcast at MontanaSocials.org, the following guest sessions will be broadcast:

7:30AM - Sunrise Webcam Tour with James
8:00AM - Morning Chores
10:00AM - A Herd for Hugs with Lorraine Turner
11:00AM - News from the Hashknife Ranch with Brandon Carpenter
11:30AM - Training Oggy with Ashley and Brandon Carpenter
1:00PM - Clicking with Mackenzie and Michal
2:00PM - Service Dog Training with Ally Marshall
4:00PM - Feeding the Herd

Ally Marshall, master falconer PLUS

A Skilled Dog Trainer and Falconer

Almost exactly one year ago, Ally Marshall visited Dunrovin with a couple of beautiful Harris’s hawks. She came twice: the first time she introduced her two hawks and explained how she became involved with them and the sport of falconry; the second time, she “flew” one of her birds, Chile, to demonstrate how hawks are trained to fly and hunt. The entire staff had a great time with Ally, Chile, and Taco.

This year we welcome Ally back to Dunrovin to introduce us to the world of service dogs. Ally owns and operates Wind River Canine Partners where she and her staff offer pet training, service dog training, off-leash training, and kennel-free boarding and daycare. Ally has invited one of her service dog partners, Katie Miklos, and Katie’s service dog, Phoenix, to join us this Monday.The trainers and dog will participate in a 2pm broadcast to discuss and demonstrate the creation of a successful relationship between a service dog and its handler. Dunrovin is delighted to have this opportunity to share in Katie’s life and experiences with Phoenix. We hope to achieve a better understanding of the process of transforming a dog into a helping hand and assistant for people with special needs. We look forward to getting to know you, Katie and Phoenix! Welcome back, Ally. We appreciate you sharing your expertise!

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