Posts Tagged ‘iron horse farm
Scratch Art Masterpiece by the Dachshund
Around Painting Pony we’re known for our three talented painting Chincoteague Ponies. Minnow, Blitz, and Boomer all hold paintbrushes in their mouths and paint onto canvases while standing at their easel. Since November of 2008 they have had a special sidekick, Ammo the Dachshund. Ammo has lived in their shadow for the past two and a half years. He gets toted to horse shows, brought to performances, and lugged to the farm where they live. Don’t get me wrong, he loves all of it, especially the visiting the farm part. In fact, he’s formed unusual relationships with all of the ponies, as I frequently catch him playing with them in the pastures. But if you have been following this blog, you know that I have decided to let Ammo come out from behind their shadow by helping him develop his artistic talents and learn to paint. We have been working almost daily on honing Ammo’s talents as a painter.
first practice attempt
While Ammo is getting closer to creating his very first painting, we are still working on distinguishing between the handle and the bristles. I’m sure it won’t be as fun to jam the bristles in his mouth when the paint is applied! So, in the meantime I decided we would embark on some other artistic endeavors. In his case, scratch art.
For Ammo’s graduation from training class I taught him a new trick, to dig on command. It was quite funny actually, I used a matboard marker and taught him to target his feet to the mat. I then enticed him to dig at it (natural to the burrowing Dachshund), and then gave him a command for it. Ammo thought the whole thing was quite fun, and we routinely practiced every morning before opening the shop. Suddenly I had an idea – we should try making some scratch art with his new found skill.
First scratch art painting. Its so beautiful I can't even look at it!
So today I attached some transfer paper to piece of matboard and set out to see if Ammo would like to create a scratch art painting. As you can see he was very proud of his very first work of art. The Dachshund was more than disappointed when we had to stop for the day, so I’m sure this will be the first of many scratch art paintings for the little guy. I’ve been scheming up some more creative ways for Ammo to get his scratch on, so be sure and stay tuned to see what he will create next.
I will post a video of Ammo “scratching” soon!
So what do you think? Is his masterpiece fridge worthy? Would you hang it on your wall? Excited to see more of his scratch art talents?
Dachshund Graduation
On April 22, 2010 Ammo the Dachshund graduated from the Level 1 Basic Manners Class at DTCCC. I’m so proud of him! In the course of 6 weeks he learned so much, and so did I. Honestly the class was more about giving me ways to train my dog, but the added benefit of taking Ammo to a new place, meeting new people (and dogs), really helped to give him more confidence. I’m excited that we will be taking the Level 2 course starting in mid-May. I know there is a whole world of things Ammo can still learn!
Below is a video of Ammo’s final test. We still have to work on our loose leash walking as Ammo likes to smell EVERYTHING, but its coming along.
At the end of class Ammo was rewarded with his certificate and allowed to choose a toy from the pile. Ammo of course couldn’t make up his mind so I chose a cute stuffed dog for him. A puppy to call his own.
The cutest thing about Ammo and his new little friend was that the second we walked in the door to the house he ran straight to the bathroom and jumped in the tub with his new pal. Not sure why, he never gets in the tub (at least voluntarily), maybe he thought his friend needed a bath. Either way it was pretty adorable. In fact, its now become a regular thing for him.
How do you turn this thing on?
The Painters and their Brushes
Today I decided to take some photos of the boys with their paintbrushes. I was attempting to get some nice photos of them for their new website, but it proved to be harder than I thought with handing them the brushes and trying to run backwards to get the shot before they decided to drop them. It would/will be much easier with two people. Minnow decided to be camera shy – he’s always had an issue with the sound of a camera shutter. I think he associates the sound with the flash going off, and he REALLY believes that the flash is lightning. And Minnow is afraid of lightning. Its one of his lingering fears from when I first met him that I haven’t quite been able to get him over. Although he no longer runs now, he just chooses to look away or calmly keep himself at a safe distance.
If you think about it, its quite amazing that he will still perform with me while onlookers flash cameras at him in all directions. Sometimes his fear gets the best of him and I have to refocus him, that or politely ask people to turn off their flashes until Minnow relaxes. This has/is one of his biggest challenges when we travel to Chincoteague each year, because he performs in an indoor facility, which tends to make the camera flashes go off. I’m not sure Minnow will truly ever overcome his fear, he must have had a traumatic experience with lightning before he came to me – perhaps something happened to him when he was a foal on the island…I will never know.
So for today, I only have photos of Blitz and Boomer, and thats ok. Perhaps Minnow will decide to let us capture him another day.
Blitz was quite the ham with the paintbrush – as always. He’s such a funny pony, I think he knows he’s cute – which in turn makes him think he can get away with anything. He kept trying to paint the fence with the brushes, which eventually led him to frustration when he realized that with each stroke he took, nothing came off of the brush.
Don’t worry Blitz, we will paint again soon.
Jump into Spring Contest
I was recently honored as the second place winner of The Horse Studio, Jump into Spring Writing Contest. The topic to be written about was “When did you fall in love with horses?”. Below is my entry:
2006 Kissing Minnow
My Little Chincoteague Pony
I’ve been involved with horses since the day I was born, but I didn’t really fall in love with them until I was 18 and Chincoteague Minnow came into my life. He was a short, rotund Chincoteague pony that started his life as a wild pony on Assateague Island. I didn’t know much about him except for the fact that an owner in his past had neglected him and his care for several months, and I quickly found that he had deep trust issues as well as a nasty buck.
For two years Minnow and I battled to gain an understanding of each other. He constantly ran away with me and wanted nothing to do with me. He ignored scary situations and refused to confront anything he felt threatened by. But I loved him anyway and I refused to give up on him.
2007 Me and Minnow
It wasn’t until a simple book came into my life that things began to change. Trickonometry by Carole Fletcher was a book that detailed a multitude of tricks to teach your horse. As I taught Minnow his very first trick, to give me a kiss, something began to happen. Minnow began to light up as he discovered what it meant to learn. We flew through the book as he learned to play fetch, shake hands, and even bow. Minnow and I were now communicating and understanding each other.
A year passed and I could barely recognize him as the pony that had appeared in my life 3 years earlier. He was bright eyed and excited for my daily visits to see him. He no longer ran away with me and most importantly we were a team. Minnow had showed me how to teach him and in doing so we opened up a whole door to the world of horse training. And I loved him more every day.
Minnow is now an accomplished trick pony as well as an exceptional riding pony. As he now enters into the retirement phase of his life we enjoy spending time together even more. I have him to thank for my love of horses, although I can be sure that I will never love another horse the way I love him.
Excitingly my prize is an Imagine A Horse DVD, Using Treats as a Training Tool. I can’t wait for it to arrive – as I have actually been dying to see the video. I will be sure to post a full review on it after I watch it.
If you would like to read the rest of the winning entries click here.
Boomerang is a Painting Pony
There are three Trick Ponies of Chincoteague, but up until now there were only two PAINTING PONIES. I am now pleased to announce the addition of our third painting pony, Chesapeake Boomerang aka Boomer.
Boomer came to live with me in August of 2008, and he began his official painting training in September of 2009. Now to elaborate on this, Boomer was introduced to the easel, paints, and various equipment it takes to make a painting pretty much the day he arrived to live with me. With months of watching Chincoteague Minnow paint, and then watching his older brother, Chesapeake Lightning, go through the learning – Boomer had many many months of being acclimated to the painting environment.
Boomer learned to play fetch and pick up objects in his mouth, he learned to target and stand stationary in different spots. I then introduced him to holding a brush in his mouth in September of 2009. Then winter hit, and none of the ponies painted for months.
Fast forward to April 19, 2010, and I finally was able to break out the easel and paints again. Boomer stood overlooking his stall as Minnow and then Blitz created some fabulous works of art. So naturally when it was his turn to come out of his stall, Boomer went to investigate the painting supplies and find out how he could get some treats too. 10 Minutes later and Boomer was making marks happily on the canvas. I think he was proud of himself. Its hard to be the youngest, and most often the last in line to learn something.
Hopefully by next weekend we will have some great new paintings by Boomerang available in the shop.
