{"id":1039,"date":"2020-02-25T22:20:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T22:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2020-02-25T22:32:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T22:32:30","slug":"puddle-shark-lesser-spotted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/puddle-shark-lesser-spotted\/","title":{"rendered":"Puddle Shark, lesser spotted."},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1039\" data-postid=\"1039\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1039 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_ilqa741 tb_first tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col-full tb_dmxe742 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_9yy1260   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p>I&#8217;ve posted this video on a FB group&#8230;and it practically went viral.<\/p><div style=\"width: 400px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1039-1\" width=\"400\" height=\"230\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Oz-Jaws.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Oz-Jaws.mp4\">https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Oz-Jaws.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_wiqu41 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col-full tb_7clt42 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_lan349   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p>Here&#8217;s a little context. \ud83d\ude42<br \/>This bridge is in the woods near Esher, not even a mile from the yard where Oz was boarded.<br \/>If you wanted to go to Prince&#8217;s Coverts or Claygate &#8212; this is the route you had to take.<br \/>Now&#8230; this is a live railway bridge. So you kind of learn the timetable by heart, to avoid the trains roaring over the top. Alas&#8230; we\u00a0<em>are<\/em> talking about Network Rail in the UK, and time tables are a little &#8220;Speculative&#8221;. So chances are that you&#8217;ll get caught out at one time or another.<br \/>We&#8217;ve been caught out a few times, and Oz, hearing (or even seeing) the &#8220;Dragon&#8221;, was convinced it&#8217;ll be the end of him. So I don&#8217;t blame him for being apprehensive about the place.<br \/>However&#8230; if you then add a puddle into the mix &#8212; all bets are off.<br \/>Puddles rank as follows:<\/p><ol><li>Small puddle &#8212; snortworthy, but tolerable. You might get wet toes. Yuck.<\/li><li>Medium puddle &#8212; will bite the legs off small grey horses. Cannot step into that. Too dangerous.<\/li><li>Large puddle &#8212; infested by Puddleus Sharkus Minor. The Lesser Spotted Puddle Shark, and possibly alligators, which are very common in Surrey, England. Will eat small grey horses. Definitely not stepping in that.<\/li><li>Puddle stretching the width of the path &#8212; HELL no. 30ft sink holes. Oz has seen entire herds of Shires swallowed by those. Not a chance.<\/li><\/ol><p>So now you have the dragon bridge, plus a large shark infested puddle &#8212; and it&#8217;s dark under there.<\/p><p>He&#8217;s not afraid, he&#8217;s just super vigilant to protect me. Honest.<\/p><p>Every time I had to go under that bridge, he damn near freaked. But even though he&#8217;s hugely apprehensive, he tries because I&#8217;m asking. To me, that&#8217;s massive bravery. \ud83d\ude42<\/p><p>I do not (and never will) carry a whip. I don&#8217;t believe in them, and Oz is scared to death by them. When it&#8217;s just too much to ask of him, I generally get off and just stand with him, reassuring him, letting him look, sniff, and figure it out. It may take five minutes. I might take an hour. I honestly don&#8217;t care. He gets as much time as he needs.<br \/>I&#8217;ve never had an obstacle we couldn&#8217;t get past eventually. We&#8217;ve had plenty of 180&#8217;s. But we get past in our own damn time. Or rather, when he&#8217;s ready.<\/p><p>I do push him verbally, but I also let him have a relatively slack rein so he can move his focus where he needs to. (Landed me in a ditch once or twice&#8230;)<\/p><p>So there you have it. My brave little Paso, who&#8217;s really scared of everything &#8212; but soldiers on in spite of it.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve posted this video on a FB group&#8230;and it practically went viral. Here&#8217;s a little context. \ud83d\ude42 This bridge is in the woods near Esher, not even a mile from the yard where Oz was boarded. If you wanted to go to Prince&#8217;s Coverts or Claygate &#8212; this is the route you had to take. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales-from-the-saddle","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1042,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/1042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkstokeep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}