Stranger Than Fiction

This post is for Travis Erwin who is suffering from the heat in Amarillo, Texas. Perhaps by looking at the photos he will chill a little.

A friend in the insurance business sent these photos to me along with the accompanying note, which I did find to be stranger than fiction. They were taken at Churchill, Manitoba.

“The photographs are Norbert Rosing’s striking images of a wild polar bear playing with sled dogs in the wilds of Canada’s Hudson Bay. The photographer was certain that he was going to see the end of his huskies when the polar bear materialized “out of the blue”, as it were. The polar bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs….”

Have you seen anything that would seem to be stranger than fiction?

Toronto, Ontario - My Town Monday

I first learned about My Town Monday on Travis Erwin's blog and have been invited to join in.

Being a person who enjoys nature and wide open spaces, I like going to High Park where if you stand in certain places it seems as if you have entered another existence. There are no telephone poles, telephone or electrical wires, houses or rooftops to be seen. High Park is situated in the west end of Toronto on approximately 400 acres of wilderness and groomed landscape within an urban area. There are woods, meadows with linking trails, ponds and a teahouse.

At this time of year you are in a lush green area where birds twitter and soar, squirrels and chipmunks scamper, swans, ducks, geese and storks congregate in the various ponds in the park. There are probably other animals, like possums and racoons which frequent my neightbourhood area to the west of this park.

According to the park information site at Toronto.ca there are “oak savannahs in the park which are the remnants of the sand prairie system that once covered much of the Ontario landscape”.

John Howard, an early architect and philanthropist of Toronto, founded High Park. (A future post will be written about him).

Within High Park there is a zoo, first built in 1890, when deer were kept. Now there are a variety of domestic and exotic species: bison, llamas, peacocks, deer, highland cattle and sheep. The animals kept at High Park have large paddocks to roam in and they appear content to be there. It is one of the features that draws children to the park, and its enjoyable to seeing their faces light up when they see the animals as they approach.

Photo Credit: wikipedia.

Man's Best Friend

Best friend? That’s a dog. Currently, I don’t have a dog, although I have had several in the past. So in lieu of showing photos of the dogs I have owned, this particular dog is Buster. He’s a Standard Dachshund, owned by a friend. A nicely put together dog: with a well shaped head, good bone in his legs and a square stance. How can you tell I used to show dogs?

Dachshunds come in two sizes: standard and miniature; three coat lengths: long, short and wire; and colours: black and tan, red, and dapple. They also come in other colours (when I was showing dogs they were not allowed in the ring).

Dachshunds were bred to hunt rabbits, foxes and badgers in Germany. A dog has to be tough and tenacious to go after a badger. The only other dog bred to go after badgers is the Skye Terrier from Scotland.

During my dog show career, the breeds of dogs I exhibited were: a slew of Doberman Pinschers in conformation and obedience trials; an Akita and a Saint Bernard. One of the techniques used in showing a dog off to a judge was to use some bait: often liver, and more likely to be beef than pork. Dogs love liver to distraction. Their attention to you becomes riveted as their eyes and nose zero in on those wee chunks you popped into your mouth to hold in your cheek while you keep one eye on what the judge is doing and the other eye on the dog to make sure its standing where you put it.

When I was in the dog show ring I used beef liver, and at one show, I had a breeder's Akita bitch in a 9-12 month class. I ran out of liver, was given a small handful by another handler. Out of habit I put it into my mouth. Gag! Blech! It was pork liver. And the dog was eyeing me up ... gee if I had it in my mouth it must be really good!!!! She was a good dog, stood square, kept her tail curled over her back and pricked her ears at me. Akita's ears naturally stand up, but when they are puppies and still growing, one may not stand erect and flop over instead. We took the breed, which is really great with a senior puppy and moved on up to do a Group class. Every dog who wins a breed class automatically moves up into a Group class to be judged best of Group. Then all the Best of Groups are judged together for Best of Show. We only got to Group and didn't move on up. Very rare for a senior puppy in any breed to go up against older dogs who are usually of champion status.

In the video section are videos on Akitas at a show, and Peggy Adamson with her famous Doberman Pinscher, Dictator. Dictator set the standard for Doberman Pinscher breeding in North America. About 25 years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Peggy Adamson at a Doberman Pinscher Specialty Club in western Canada.

Photo credit: Buster's owner: Christina.

The First Accolades

Writing comes naturally to me which is a boon during the drafting and rewriting stages. Of course, the butterflies arrive with polishing the synopsis and making those last final touches to the manuscript just before sending it out to be seen by strangers' eyes. This is followed by self-doubt and wondering whether or not the idea for your story merits being published. Is it really good enough? Does it fit in with what the literary agents are looking for?

My first manuscript went through a thorough editing with an editor, followed by rewrites, and with several tweaks here and there will be sent out to retest the waters next month. My first attempt ended in a fizz. Now, I'm ready to make further attempts, and while this is going on I will be working on other manuscripts that follow the premise of the first.

To keep my spirits up with future writing will be the words from my editor, Michael Carr, on the overall aspect of my first manuscript:

... You have a wonderfully fertile imagination, and the ability to bring those imagined situations and characters to life in such a way that even the bizarre sounds somehow believable. You do horror well, and that is no mean feat, but you’ve done something much trickier: evoking in the reader an empathy for the monstrous. There is also a certain strangeness about your writing. I mean this as a very high compliment. That strangeness, permeating every word and existing between the words as well, says to the reader, “Come, enter this world I have made for you. It is not quite the same as the one you inhabit day by day without a second thought.”

The Necessity of Preparation

Many riders find that jumping horses or ponies is an exhilarating sport.

The initial training of a young or older horse to jump should be done gradually, beginning with ground poles spaced apart to fit the length of stride of the animal. This can be graduated to using cavaletti, which is simply a pole set on 2 x's that give you three training heights: 7", 12" and 17" for gymnastics. Four to six cavaletti set in a line at the lowest level can improve a horse's trot; and set at the highest height they can make a small bounce jump.

Used reguarly, cavaletti can be an integral part of your training. Variations can be set up to keep the horse/pony interested in the work.

Later, once horse, pony and rider have accomplished these varying heights without over practising, they can move on to small jumps with a few poles and a ground pole. A ground pole provides the horse or pony with a distance marker to judge when they should begin to jump. A ground pole set too far from the jump confuses the horse or pony and there may be an accident where the rider and animal crashes through the fence.

Before raising the height of the jumps or cavaletti, it is of benefit to make a spread jump in the early stages. It is easier for a horse to jump wide than to jump higher.

Often, riders think they have prepared their mounts properly at home before shows. If a rider jumps their horse or pony too much, the animal will become "sour" (not wanting to jump) and will often act out their frustrations in the show ring. Apart from being embarassing, the rider could be bucked off resulting in injury. Also, jumping a horse/pony too high too soon before it becomes comfortable with an easier height will often cause refusals at the fence.

It takes time to train a horse/pony to jump properly and consistently, which is why the jumping levels at shows: pre-green hunter/jumper, green hunter/jumper, are set at graduating levels to prepare a rider and horse for the next level. Often, I have seen riders and horses not ready for their level and need to take more time at home with practice which should include long hacks to break up the intense training. Horses need breaks from their work just like humans do. Too much repetition makes for cranky, reluctant workers: humans and horses or ponies.

The video section shows what happens when rider and mount are prepared or not. Another good video of using bounces at a show in practice can be seen on You Tube: Girl Doing A Bounce.

Sport Ponies

I previously posted on "Theodore O'Connor", a pony who is representing the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics, and ponies who are used in combined driving.

Some breeders of sport horses also like to breed warmblood horse lines into their smaller counterparts to produce a mount for children who are not at the age to be able to manage a much larger horse. Some adults could fit into this category, including myself, especially when it pertains to riding warmblood horses.

European warmblood horses come in a variety of sizes, although the majority are large and larger: at 16.2 hh or 17.2 hh or even 18 hh, with the weight to go with it. For those not acquainted with measuring horses, a hand width of 4 inches makes up 1 hh; therefore 16.2 would be 16 x 4 plus 2 inches = 66 inches to the top of the horse's shoulders (withers). These are totally unsuitable for children to even consider riding, so the German breeders developed a sport pony which they hold in high regard.

A common breed of pony used to cross with warmbloods are the versatile Welsh, which come in four different sizes, set in sections: A, B, C and D. The Section D ponies are usually cobs being more of a sturdy, well built small horse size up to 15.2 hh.

From You Tube video three representatives of well presented sport ponies: a buckskin from Germany, Der Kleine Prints,



not embedded here,

and two from the United States Wedderlie Mardi Gras (an imported Welsh Pony stallion, Section B),



not embedded here,


and an approved American Sport Pony Registry stallion,

Hot Shot MRF who is a Welsh Hanoverian cross) below:



For those unable to view embedded see here.

Egads, Inspiration!

Mars, the planet, seems to be working it's magic on me. I have begun reworking my WIP and now have new ideas springing forth like green buds on branches. That's figuratively thinking, considering Toronto is expecting a large dump of snow overnight and on Saturday into Sunday.

That, in fact, will assist in my sitting at my desk and writing whatever comes to mind. In the past, I found it easier to write in bits: taking small portions of the overall manuscript and working on that. This is akin to working on dressage movements, dividing up the figures to make a whole. If I get stuck on one section, I move to another and work on that, and afterwards I write transitions between paragraphs or chapters to make the story fit. I believe I read an article that Diana Gabaldon subscribes to this method. If it works for her, it should work for me. I hope.