{"id":1555,"date":"2010-06-21T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2010-06-16T13:51:41","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T19:51:41","slug":"the-call-of-the-wannit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/06\/21\/the-call-of-the-wannit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Call of the Wannit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"…Monday<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Or, in Duncan’s case, the call of the modest fenced pasture.<\/p>\n

He. Wants. It.<\/p>\n

Duncan loves his pasture. Doesn’t matter how scarce those grass blades or how studded with prickly pear. He has a south flat shared with agility equipment and junipers and one gorgeous pi\u00f1on, a north flat of yucca and prickly pear in which we sometimes ride, and a rugged, offset connection corridor curving around behind the house–the little arroyo, full of pi\u00f1on, juniper, snags, and cactus.<\/p>\n

Beyond that fence line, he can only gaze upon the plunging deep true arroyo, which is really just as well.<\/p>\n

The paddock itself is plenty generous–different shade choices, flats and slopes and the barn. Zones for winter hang-out, zones for summer hang-out. Room to cut loose now and then.<\/p>\n

Say, when he has a serious case of Pasture Wannit.<\/p>\n

Because it doesn’t matter how dry, it doesn’t matter how sparse. He loves his pasture.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for him, although this land is meant to be grazed–by antelope, deer, elk, and bunnies–it isn’t meant for heavy use. It’s meant for animals who wander through, nibbling along the way. So that means while he’s good for this land, he’s also bad for it. (If he wasn’t a barefoot horse, he’d be even worse for it.) And in this dry, pre-monsoon season, that means he has only a few hours out, every other day or so.<\/p>\n

This is, he says, not nearly enough. So he has a procedure through which to satisfy his Wannit.<\/p>\n

First up: The determined and steely stare over the gate.<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> You. Will. OPEN.<\/p>\n

When this fails, a quick circle around to glare with stare part 2:<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> Feel my wrath building! SNORT!<\/p>\n

I have to say the gate is seldom impressed. Even the universe seems to have other things to do.<\/p>\n

Next? Pawing at the gate. He doesn’t do this for any other reason, and he’s not pawing the ground. He lifts his front leg remarkably high and scrapes his hoove along the metal.<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> Must. Develop. Opposable. Digits.<\/p>\n

Sadly, he does not.<\/p>\n

And so the fun begins.<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> Wrath! SNORT! FLING MY HEELS! SPURT AWAY WITH AMAZING POWER! STOMP! STAMPEDE! LEVITAAAAATE!<\/p>\n

Somewhere in that process, I often amble out to enjoy the show. Somewhere in this process, he becomes bored with himself, but doesn’t want to admit it. There follows a great spate of snort! Snorty snort!<\/p>\n

And then suddenly, it’s…<\/p>\n

Flirt. Flirt flirt flirt.<\/em><\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> Am I handsome?<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> See my eyelashes?<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> See my curvy neck?<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> The gate is right there beside you…<\/p>\n

Nice try, Duncan. Here’s a hug, a pat, and a cookie.<\/p>\n

DuncanHorse:<\/strong> Kiss my nose?<\/p>\n

Always!<\/p>\n

\"power

The Power Snit: That there is the Lippie Engine at work. Also, that is what we call "the Neck of Annoyance."<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sprint-off\"

The Power Snit Sprint upon take-off. Not a great angle, but that is one hard-workin' butt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"gallop\"

Proof of the butt: Suddenly--full gallop! In rather tight quarters, you may notice.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"First

"See? See my flirty neck?"<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Flirting

"My super flirty neck! Here I come! Time to kiss my nose!"<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…Monday Or, in Duncan’s case, the call of the modest fenced pasture. He. Wants. It. Duncan loves his pasture. Doesn’t matter how scarce those grass blades or how studded with prickly pear. He has a south flat shared with agility … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[40,39,54,21],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duncanhorse","tag-barn","tag-duncan","tag-land","tag-lipizzan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb2lc3-p5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/03\/01\/cactus-forking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":0},"title":"Cactus Forking","author":"Doranna","date":"1003.01","format":false,"excerpt":"posted on Monday Not a word combination that comes often to mind. But the agility area is rife with a low-lying prickly pear and hoo boy, it's gotta go. \u00a0It starts with the hoe: \u00a0lift the flat pads of the winter-shrunken cactus with hoe, find that tap root...and then just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Arroyo"","block_context":{"text":"The Arroyo","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-arroyo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"prickly pear","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/1002.27cactus.SM_.2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/03\/03\/and-your-little-hatchet-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":1},"title":"And Your Little Hatchet, too!","author":"Doranna","date":"1003.03","format":false,"excerpt":"posted on Wednesday Yup. Got me my cactus fork. Got me my little hatchet. And today, the juniper nursery and I gave each other a nervous hairy eyeball and faced off. I\u00a0like my little hatchet. \u00a0Buh-bye, little trees! Of course, I feel guilty. \u00a0I always feel guilty, cutting trees. \u00a0But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Arroyo"","block_context":{"text":"The Arroyo","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-arroyo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"juniper nursery","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/1002.27cactus.SMM_.6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2660,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/10\/18\/all-hail-everything\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":2},"title":"All Hail…EVERYTHING!","author":"Doranna","date":"1010.18","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're on my FaceBook or Twitter feeds, you watched this one unfold.\u00a0 The evening clouds\u00a0 coming in over the mountains weren't a surprise--we knew about the rain. When the hail started, that wasn't a surprise, either. Biggie marble-size hail is common enough around here.\u00a0 It squalls through in pretty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DuncanHorse"","block_context":{"text":"DuncanHorse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/duncanhorse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Scrub Oak, scrubbed","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/101017.hail2oak.20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":214,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/01\/01\/fence-me-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":3},"title":"Fence Me In!","author":"Doranna","date":"1001.01","format":false,"excerpt":"The Friday Post Happy New Year! No, seriously...do it. Fence me in! And do it right! Last Thursday, I had a Christmas gift I've been looking forward to for a very long time: I took a walk with the dogs around the new pasture fenceline on the new property. Oh,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous!"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous!","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10786,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2014\/05\/26\/trees-flowers-desert-rain\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":4},"title":"Trees & Flowers & Desert Rain","author":"Doranna","date":"1405.26","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doranna The fire season is coming on early, dry, and hard, so I've been working as I can on the arroyo fire clearing project (which is much bigger than I am any way you look at it). Last fall I addressed the overgrowth along the back of the barn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Arroyo"","block_context":{"text":"The Arroyo","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-arroyo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"tree.flowers-2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/tree.flowers-2-150x126.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7231,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2012\/10\/24\/the-herding-beagle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":5},"title":"The Herding Beagle","author":"Doranna","date":"1210.24","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doranna ConneryBeagle has a Twitter feed (Because of course he does.\u00a0 That boy has been online since the day he came home with me).\u00a0\u00a0 He doesn't tweet religiously, since I rarely give up the keyboard, but he likes to talk about his adventures. Over the weekend he did that,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ConneryBeagle"","block_context":{"text":"ConneryBeagle","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/connery\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"paddock gate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/20121023.bloggate.poo_.6.SM_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}