she reminds me so much about her mother, Alma. Alma is very vocal and has a for me never before heard vocabulary, from small squeeky noices to deep murmurs.
Now Astra is developing her own variety of unique sounds.
Last night when Astra really made the most strange scream-hollering like sound when she submitted to my command. It was exactly the reaction of a four year old that in rage and despair scream and cry when she has to submit to her parents.
I should have recorded it!
Astra is a personality, she can have those fits and the second later she is totally calm and submissive.
It doesn't matter how many Tekes you have worked with, most of them come out with strong and different characters, it so much fun to figure every new Teke out.

1. maria03/30/2007 07:32:24

Our most vocal resident is Spinney, the 27-year-old cob. He makes the same noise as a mare makes to a foal. It invariable means "I want..." - fill in the dots. Spinney is a simple horse: he wants to eat, go out and come in. He is not an Akhal-Teke. Mualim, on the other hand, has a versatile AT mind. He makes a "holler" noise (high-pitched neigh) when I arrive at the yard. He makes a threatening snorting noise when Spinney enters the adjacent stable. But most recently, he appears to have picked up from Spinney the mare-to-foal rambling noise which he makes when he has done something right in the manege and is about to get a treat. We have started having problems with stopping lately, he doesn't want to stop to a light aid. Very disappointing but we are working on it. I decided to follow Leonid's traditional method "knutom i prianikom" (carrot and stick, in English), so when he DOES stop as soon as he is asked, he gets a prianik, and out comes "prrtrr-prrtrrr-prrtrrr".

2. Jessica04/01/2007 20:51:22

Maria, I think with Mualim being so vocal you might be to avantgarde for the dressage circuit. I'm, not sure the dressage judges are ready for this kind of communication yet.
On another note, our big time photo model Rosanna tried to make a fuzz over having a rose water, bubble bath (yes it is true, no 1 st of April joke) before world renowned photographer came out, like she had never had a bath before, I smacked her with my hand on her wet skin, I guess the sound and feeling shocked her into total submission!
Then I suddenly remembered that her mother used to do the same thing, work herself up until you smacked her and then she came down to earth and actually listened to you.