Remi's Task Of The Day

Usually Remington gets bored when he's been in the stall for several days. It's such a challenge cleaning his room while he's been in lock up because he insists on having all the attention while you're there. Pet me, scratch me, hug me, kiss me and on and on and on. Oh, and don't bend over the water bucket to check it, or you just may find a swift nudge of his big nose pushing you in it face first. It has happened and I can just bet he was laughing at me.

Today, the sun was shining and the temperature was in the high 80's. Not bad after suffering through 100 degree plus weather for several days in a row. I guess he decided it wasn't any fun to ramble around in the pasture and since he was bored, he set his sites on getting attention from me, while I was trying to work.

I was in one of the stalls cleaning, when a huge shadow blocked the light, and there standing at the gate was Remipup. He was cleaning up the hay by the gate and it's ok for him to do so, but he knows he's not supposed to come inside and get in the way. However, today he decided to forget that rule and come inside for closer look at what I was doing and perhaps get a kiss on his nose or something.

"Get back, Remington", you know you're not supposed to be in here. Since he stepped back, I turned my back and went back to work. But true to form, he came in again. "Ok buster, I'm not playing with you, get back". And he did. Instead of turning around again, I stared him in the eye and told him that I needed to get my work done, and to go away for now. Well, he didn't. No surprise there.

He decided that the stare down wasn't fun so he took hold of the gate with his lips and closed me in the stall. Before I could say another word, he pushed the gate open and that got me to laughing. "Oh, you're trying to be cute, huh"? Well it's not going to work. However, it was working and he did have my attention, but do you think I'm going to admit it to him? Nuh uh, I'm not going to do it.

He closed the gate again, so back to work I went and decided to ignore him. Wrong! You don't ignore Remington. No sooner had I turned my back when I heard a loud BANG!!! He had pushed the gate a little harder this time and it hit the stall wall. "Ignore me, will ya, I'll show you". And, once again, my attention was on him. "Ok, I'll scratch your neck". But, before I could get over to him, he had shut the gate one last time. All right already, will you make up your mind? Open or closed, sheesh!!!

So Remi completed his task. He got my attention and he made sure he was just funny enough to stay out of trouble. What can you do? Although it took me longer to clean the stall than it should have, it was funny and he did make me laugh.

He's such a big goof ball, ya gotta love him.

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.

My Favorite Remi Game

My love for horses goes back as far as I can remember. Ah, what memories of Saturday mornings in front of the television, eating my cereal and watching back to back episodes of horse adventures with My Friend Flica, Fury, Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger. All those amazing horses and the wonderful things they could do made me want one of my own every time I watched the shows.

Since my father was in the military and we were never in one place for very long, there was absolutely no way I could ever have one. So I transformed my bunk beds into a stage coach, and loaded up the bottom bed with stuffed animals for passengers. With lines made from a jump rope, I would drive that stagecoach and my super talented horses everywhere. We'd travel for hours, never stopping for anything, uh well, except for when my mom would call me to come set the table. That always put a halt to the trip.

It took a long time to finally get my very own, real live horse which of course is Remington. And although he was taller than any horse I had ever ridden, I once thought, hey, maybe we'll get a saddle and I can ride him sometime. Wrong! He grew so fast, I took another look and thought, am I crazy? I am afraid of heights and he is so tall that just climbing on his back would scare the bajeebies out of me.

So, since I don't drive him and I don't ride him. I bet you're asking, ok, so what do you do with him? Well, since you asked, I'll tell you. Mostly, I feed him, clean his room, help give him baths and sometimes help fix the stuff he breaks.

Besides giving him big hugs on his neck and kisses on his soft nose, my boy and I have shared a special game of peek a boo. Yes, that's right, peek a boo and no, he doesn't cover his eyes with his front hooves, he's not quite that talented :)

It all started when he was in the stall next to the feed room and I would go in to mix up the feed. He would peer at me through openings in the panels to make sure his food was coming soon. Remember "it's all about the food". He was so cute and such a clown doing it, that I decided to make a game out of it.

I started saying "peek a boo, Remi-pup" and kept repeating it over and over. After a few days, whenever I said peek a boo, he would lower his head and peer through the panels. I kid you not, my amazing boy would play the game when I said the words. He could be on the other side of the stall and if I said peek a boo remi pup, he would come over and play. Really he would. Ok, maybe not every time, but pretty much every time. Isn't he brilliant? I think so...tee hee.

Of course, now he's been moved to the middle stall and we don't get to play the game anymore. So, I'll have to come up with something else that he and I can share. Any suggestions?

I don't have to drive him or ride him to enjoy him. I am perfectly happy hugging his neck and kissing his big soft nose. And I don't have to stop to go set the table for dinner either. Gotta love it!

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.

Remington's Record Update

I received word from Guinness yesterday that they have received the materials I submitted and the claim is now in queue to be reviewed. It may take up to eight weeks to hear something from them as they view all claims on a first come, first served basis.

So, the wait continues and we'll let you know when we hear something.

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.

Is Remi home??

Here's a story from when we first brought the bouncing boy home.

At that time we had two horses here for him to meet and greet, Princeton the shire we had hoped to pair him with and Sara a 15.2 Belgian/Arab crossbred. Princeton, although a gelding, was none too happy to see what he perceived as competition for his girl. His answer to that was to be aloof and keep him at hoofs distance; Literally. We weren't too worried about this as Prince has always been a big bluffer. Most of what he did was for show. A little flattening of the ears, show the teeth and a two step charge was all it took to convince the baby Remi that Grandpops wasn't in the mood to make friends just yet.

Sara, on the other hand was a whole 'nother story. Having always been (to put it nicely) a big flirt, we fully expected her to try to impress the tall, handsome new man with her girlish charms. No one could have predicted her reaction. When we turned Remi loose and she got an eye full of the bouncing baby she let out a whinny like I had never heard from her before, and trotted right up to the towering child (remember he was 17.2) and began to sniff and nuzzle him all over. She had just come out of season and now she thought that somehow this was her baby. It was plainly obvious to all who saw her with him that she thought this was her child. He had such a playful coltish attitude toward everyone and everything that she somehow failed to realize that(a)she hadn't had a baby (b)he wasn't really a BABY (c) he was waaaaay too big. She began to intercede between Remi and Princeton, often fighting Remi's battles for him, she followed him around everywhere hardly ever more that 3 to 4 feet away. That was comical as we would tell people who witnessed this that she was just following the shade.

Now I have to tell you that we did have some concern for Remi with Sara for about a week. You see we never could figure out whether she did this because she was teaching him, or because of her "Devil made me do It" personality. Every morning when the horses were turned out of the stalls she would herd him towards the fence. Once close enough she would turn and charge at him till he hit the hot wire and jumped away. She would then just walk away. I never could figure out if she was trying to teach him about the wire, or if she just wanted to know if the fence was on. Regardless in about a week he learned to never be between her and the fence. To this day, be it horse or human, he will never let himself be caught between a fence and another. He'll just calmly move around till he is out of fence position.

He is truly a creature of habit. I have to be careful in teaching him. Once he gets it, he's REALLY got it. I found this out in driving him. On his very first job I arranged for him to follow another carriage for a while. This meant that when we stopped to load passengers he was in the second position(Approx 20 feet back). The next year at the same job he pulled the first carriage position. He however remembered where we stopped to load passengers on the previous year, and that was where he would stop every time. Neither Cheryl on the ground nor I as his driver could convince him to move forward from that spot. The entire loading station, line of people, and four other carriages had to be moved back about twenty feet as Remington had learned it this way and this is the way it would be.


posted by trainer mom Bunny

More Remi Fun

It's been so hot here the last few days that we let Remington and the other two big fur kids play in the sprinkler yesterday. Oh, ok, it wasn't really the sprinkler, and they didn't really play, but getting cooled down with a garden hose doesn't sound like as much fun, does it?

Unfortunately, Remi's ranchette doesn't have a pond for a refreshing break from the hot summer sun, nor does it have very many trees. Thanks in part to Sir Remington and his fondness for uprooting them, we have had to use other methods to keep the horses comfortable. They have a nice mist system in the aisle of the barn and fans blowing a cool breeze their way. And we did plant some trees in the back pasture to give them some shade, but it has taken a while for them to grow.

Now, it hasn't been easy to get them to grow. First of all we had to barricade them with a fence so the huge girhorse (that's part giraffe, part horse) couldn't reach them. Well that was fine and dandy for a short time and it gave them some time to get a little taller.

They were doing pretty darn good, until......Drum roll please.....Yep, you guessed it, the big donkey pushed in the fence and was having a great time tearing off the leaves and bending the branches. I was on my way down to the barn, when I spotted Destructo Pony in action. "REMINGTON, STOP EATING YOUR SHADE!" I yelled.

Did he stop...noooooooooooo. He just had to do it again! Wow, what a surprise, huh...NOT!!! So once again, Remi changed the chore list. Instead of doing other things, trainer mom now had to move the fence back a little and straighten it up. That didn't exactly thrill her, because she had other things in mind for the day. But, with Remington, it is a way of life around here.

Despite two droughts and Remington's efforts to destroy them, the trees have grown taller and are now throwing a little shade. He still cruises by them now and then, and fondly eyeballs the branches. I know he'll loose his mind and try it again sometime when the branches come within reach. But for now, he's behaving around them. We'll see how long that lasts. Any bets?

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.

Remington's Early Days

So far you've heard about Remi's adventures since he came to live here. We have often wondered what he looked like as a baby and where in the world he picked up some of his funny habits. These were questions we thought would remain a mystery, until now.

We are now in contact with his first mom. Her love for this boy sent her in search of where he was, and led her right to where he is. We are busily trading stories about THEN and NOW, and I can tell you that Remington was a character right from the start.

Take a look at the picture. Can you see the big smile on his face the day he was born? From the get go, he was already thinking about mischief. "Hmmm, I'll rest here a minute and then see what kind of trouble I can get into". C'mon, look at that grin, can't you just see him plotting his next move?

The first 24 hours of his life were filled with love and exposure to all sorts of things like flags waving and whistles blowing to see how he would handle them. Apparently they didn't faze him. "Wheeeee, this is fun, what else do you have to show me? Does any of it taste good"?

Mystery number one solved. This totally explains why he's so laid back and why he loves people. She and her kids handled him with love and kindness and he responded back. His sweet nature makes you want to just give him a big hug.

By day two he was already sampling grain from his mama's feed bucket. Keep in mind a foal isn't weaned until 4 to 6 months of age. But with Remi, it's all about the food and he went straight to the big kids menu. Mystery number two solved. His huge appetite and never ending feeding frenzy started way early. Mom's milk was fine and dandy, but a growing boy needs some solids ya know. At least he thought so.

Another mystery was about his fascination for picking up things? Oh, oh, pick me, pick me, I know the answer to that question. Remi bonded with another clyde named Simba who loved to pick up everything he could. I guess Remi thought this looked fun and started to do the same thing. Of course, we're not really fond of him choosing healthy trees for toys, ya know.

Here's Simba with his bucket. I'll just bet Remi is around somewhere watching and learning.

Isn't it nice to find answers to your questions? I think so and when it comes to my boy, it's fun too!

There's more to come, so stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.

Remi's Paper Work Is On It's Way

This morning I finally put everything together and sent the evidence packet off to Guinness. It will take about a week for it to arrive in London and then more time to receive the official results. We are not sure exactly how long it will take. We sure hope not long, because the suspense will drive us bonkers!

It took some time to gather all the material from witnesses, photographers and the videographer and then make sure all the guidelines were followed to the letter.

So, now we wait! We'll let everyone know as soon as we receive word. Thanks for all your support, your comments and your visits. We appreciate you all and hope you'll stay with us for more of Remington's adventures.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed, ok?

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.