Who's That On That Hill?

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday on Crittendon Hill

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Dearth of Blog Posts--

SUMMARY: --but--but--so much to say to myself, to keep notes on, to share photos of, not to mention the photo themes from assorted places on the web!

So pretty much I don't post anything.

As a stopgap, here are a few quickie shots from this week from my corner of San Jose, CA.

Last Saturday--Who puts candy stores like this in my nearby mall? WHO WHO WHO? WHY? It goes on and on like this, and worse! Lucky to have gotten out for under $20 and under 20,000 calories! Yikes!

Later Saturday--Zorro and Chip play The Stupid Tunnel Game. Plus, considering that I haven't had an actual functioning agility dog in a year and a half, I sure do have a lot still lying around instead of put away. (Including a pile of rotting tunnel sandbags & containers--)

Sunday-- Mom is ill. Modern technology comes to the rescue--camera-microphones in key places in the house and a wireless monitor, so when I'm over there on a Sunday morning and having Diet Cherry Coke^tm and brownies for breakfast, I'll know if she's trying to sneak up on me and tell me that that is NOT an appropriate breakfast, Young Lady! Plus, meanwhile, my screensaver shows a photo of all of us "kids" wearing tshirts that she gave us one Christmas many years ago.

Monday-- 106.9 F (41.6 C) in my yard around 3:00.  That's also about when what is now known as The Loma Fire breaks out on Loma Prieta peak. By 5:30, the mushroom cloud has spread eastward across the south valley. Although that's about 12 miles from my house, I can see this clearly and also the flames at night. (As of last night, it had over 2,000 fire personnel working to contain it, had consumed almost 7 square miles (18 sq. km), and was anticipated to be contained by sometime this coming Monday. Contained, not out. I can smell the smoke. I can cough on the smoke.

Tuesday-- The story here, among those who have a prime view, is still the Loma Fire. I refuse to use a tripod, but still can clearly see flames and their glow in the thick, drought-fed smoke in the distance.

Wednesday--Don't let Chip pull the wool over your eyes, all innocent and pushing his Kong Wobbler food dispenser around like a neat and tidy dog--half an hour before the carpet wore a mantle of crumbled dirt clods and chewed-up sticks, and it will again half an hour from now. And WHO with dogs would have carpet that color ANYWAY?!

Thursday--I love my kitchen clock. Still makes me smile, 15 years after I found it at an art & wine show. Can you see how the second hand is like a little red corkscrew? Happy happy happy time!

Yesterday (Friday)-- Us iz bored, Human Mom? Nooooo! No pay usses no mind, H.M., go on work your computer on, on couch, iz OK.

Today--2nd annual Martial Cottle Park Harvest Festival. Walking distance behind my house. How cool is that?!

And WHO KNOWS what tomorrow will bring?! Maybe a movie? Some popcorn? Dog antics? Maybe even dog TRAINING? Sleeping? Good thing I have a camera to record it all!

Dog Agility Shows vs Horse Jumping Shows

SUMMARY: Compare and contrast.

Went to watch my sister compete today. It was fun.  I was surrounded by horses and riders, so of course, what did I take photos of?

But, SERIOUSLY now--I did note that dog agility shows are exactly like a horse jumping event--except (a) a whole lot smaller and (b) with a whole lot less money involved in every aspect. I'm used to being at dog agility trials and having someone yell "Loose dog!" and then we all try to catch it. I was much surprised to encounter "Loose horse!" and then have it charge straight at me down a narrow aisle. For a moment I considered trying to stop it, then realized I had no idea how, plus it was a whole lot bigger than a dog, so I stepped aside. Apparently I was supposed to stand in front of it and look big and in charge. Next time I'll know.

Here are some of the comparisons:


Dog agility-- transportation:

Horse jumping -- transportation:

Dog agility -- looking out of one's enclosure:

Horse jumping -- looking out of one's enclosure:

Dog agility -- putting your animal friend over a jump:

Horse jumping -- putting your animal friend over a jump:

Dog agility--waiting to run:

Horse jumping--waiting to run:

Dog agility -- Draperies around one's set-up:

Horse jumping -- Draperies around one's set-up:

Dog agility -- jump bars:

Horse jumping -- jump bars:

Dog agility -- typical canopy set-up (note feeble attempt at matching teals and purples):

Horse jumping-- typical canopy set-up (note art, urns, potted plants etc.):

Dog agility -- ribbons, kind of randomly arranged and slapped up there with clips:

Horse jumping --ribbons--how organized and obsessively neat can one be?:

Dog agility -- birds decorating jumps:

Horse jumping -- birds decorating jumps:

Dog agility:
There's just no comparison to all the...
Horse jumping-- matching gear boxes, stalls, chairs, etc.:

But--horse jumping can't match these!

(I should note that the photos of me and my dogs doing agility are by an assortment of other people; the rest are mine.)

Sister's Family and their Really Big Jumping Dogs

SUMMARY: In which my nieces and sister do some fun stuff with their animals in the heat, and I watch.

Saturday morning, I tossed my borrowed SLR camera into MUTT MVR and swooped up to Portola Valley to finally (after meaning to do it for years) watch my nieces and sister ride their horses. It was wayyyy too hot to consider taking my own beasties along, so they stayed home.

It amused me to see how very similar to agility class their jumping classes are, talking about the line that you use to get from one jump to the next, what lead the animals are on, how your body affects the critter's actions, how many strides the dog--er--whatever--should take between obstacles, being careful about memorizing the obstacle sequence so you don't go off course, whether they should be bounce jumping (well--sort of--), watching the instructor change the jump heights (I'm tellin' ya, those are REALLY big dogs they have up there)--

I espied these nifty but humongous jumps in one of the fields.



In dog agility, it's the *humans* who wear the ankle and knee braces. (My sister's jumping animal.)
My sister didn't actually tell me that she was jumping *before* my nieces' classes, so I got to admire her animal up close and quiet after they were already done. He had to sniff my hands very carefully, just like normal dogs, except with nostrils about the size of some dogs' heads.

Here are my nieces, cantering their really big horse-sized dogs:


What ranch would be complete without a ranch dog? (Shaved just in time for the summer heat wave.)

Or a rambunctious lab puppy helping with the grooming?

Or a visiting dog, watching his human practice her horsework, and expressing his opinion about the whole thing (in between bouts of being a cute corgi)? (Owner claims this dog is sitting. With corgis, who can tell?)

I took a squillion photos of the riders and jumpers and will get around to posting the rest on my photo site sometime very soon. Really. Any day now.