Mike Jackson is a retired electric lineman and supervisor from Battle Ground, Indiana, who has trained English Pointer dogs for horseback field trials for many years. For this episode of Heartsong Fit, I interview Mike, one of our farm neighbors, in his barn as he is preparing for a trip from Indiana to North Dakota and Montana for training his dogs and younger horses.

He rides and trains Tennessee Walkers, a gaited horse breed, and he raises and trains gorgeous English Pointers. This breed of dog is popular for bird hunting.

Whether you are a dog lover, horse lover, or you are specifically, an enthusiast of English Pointers, Red Setters or other "big running dogs," I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing Mike talk about his adventures.

In this sport, the animal handlers and trainers, work from horseback as they communicate with their highly trained hunting dogs who are broke to wing and shot. The horses, who are also broke to a variety of distraction from gun shot to dogs biting at their tails and winding around their legs, to the flush of birds from the terrain, are very key partners within the team required in this sport of field trials.

Both the American Field and the American Kennel Club (AKC) have divisions for hunting dogs in this sport. You will find categories of Shooting Dogs, Gun Dogs, All Age Dogs, Puppy, Derby, Amateur and Open.

Check out www.dogsunlimited.com for articles about the sport as well as:
www.akc.org
http://americanfield.villagesoup.com
http://www.aftca.org

I continued my interview with Mike in a discussion about teamwork. To hear our conversation on teamwork that he and his fellow competitors have with their horses and dogs, check out the episode in my other podcast, Agile Digital Business.

"Pulling the help chain" is a phrase I describe in Episode 23 of Heartsong Fit. In the Toyota Way, this phrase is related to Andon. The help chain, help cord, or yellow stop button, is a mechanism that line workers can use to stop production and call for help. It's also used to notify the line that something has gone wrong in the manufacturing process.

In this solo show, I record my thoughts about pulling the help chain if you're a caregiver and need help from family and friends. I recorded this episode on a Saturday while in the barn and hanging out with the llamas. They munch their hay and communicate with each other, and with me. I share with you about what it was like to "pull the help chain" in the previous week. I reflect on how helpful my friends, coworkers and family members were in a week of "caregiving on steroids." I thank my friends for stepping up and helping out.

You can hear the llamas' activity as if you were in the barn aisle with me. They munch on hay, stomp their feet, chortle complaints to each other, and give me kisses to make me feel better. Videos available here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dpfllamas

Several of the episodes of Heartsong Fit include short stories by my mom, Lucille Maris, about life in the US during the 1940s when World War 2 was underway. I have been interviewing her about how she dealt with the stresses of those times from finding housing, to scarcity of food and supplies to dealing with the deployment of her young husband (my dad).

This episode is an audio index of the locations of the stories in the podcast so that you can easily find them and listen. You will also hear a brief overview of the topic of each story.