And so, its near the end of the month, the time in which I put the ponies through their paces and Pete does the video work. In advance, I set up, and take all the mares through the course, informally, several times. I always think the courses will be easy – but inevitably there are challenging obstacles.

Horses lack a prefrontal cortex. Humans have a prefrontal cortex. This fore portion of the brain allows us to plan, organize, and put our wonderful time management skills to work. The problem is, we forget that horses lack this ability. All they want to do is eat what’s on the ground before them, or in their enclosure. They at times do show some interest in the task at hand, but it’s fleeting and therefore has to be rewarded copiously.

Alys and Tyra

I know the theory, but at times I’m pretty piss poor at putting it to practice. Raudi let me know this today, by attempting to yank the lead out of my hands when she had had enough. She had no other way of letting me know that I had been asking too much of her, in having her repeatedly go through the same course.

Tyra and Hrimmi were far more polite, but they had to have been feeling the same way. They tend to just go along with the program. I can tell they have had enough when they cease to care about the obstacles, for instance, the poles. They will just trip over them rather than lifting their feet and walking over them nicely. Then it’s time to quit.

Me, I then think about how little time we have to get the videos done.
And Pete – yes, he has a prefrontal cortex. He, like the mares, is also a very patient individual.

So how does one acquire patience? I am not sure. I have, at times, focused on my breathing and this has helped, as has laughing, and also stopping and praising the horses for their good work.

The completed videos (and somehow we get three decent ones, every month) are a ruse in that it appears as though the horses and I, in a single session, did everything or near everything right. Now if we had all the outtakes in a given month, this would be an eye opener for viewers.

Yes, so once again we did get the videos completed. Tomorrow, Pete will send them on to the evaluators. And in a week’s time, the horses and I both will be scored, a one indicating that horse/human did poorly, a five indicating that the horse/human did very well. The scores are accompanied by a one-sentence evaluation/summation. The phrases are always pretty much the same. If we score high, the evaluator will write, “good round this month.” If we score low, the evaluator will write, “just a few things needed polishing.”

The scores mean nothing to the horses, who have no prefrontal cortex. Being allowed access to the grass sprigs in the Playground of Higher learning, this is really where the rubber hits the road/hoof meets the ground.

Next: 180. 6/30/21: An Oddly Productive Day