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Untacked May/June 2015

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20 M AY/J U N E 2 015 UNTACKED Around the Arena t i d b i t s f r o m a c r o s s t h e i n d u s t r y Cocktails For A Cockatoo Apple, the angelic white bare-eyed cockatoo, begins each day with a cup of coffee, heavy on the cream, and ends it with a relaxing Crown Royal old fashioned. In between, she squawks out "good morning!" and "pretty bird!" and a fair number of expletives— picked up during her college years in a frat house—as greetings to visitors of the Red Rock Hounds in Reno, Nev. After a foxhunting trip to Montana three years ago, Red Rock's joint MFHs Angela Murray and Lynn Lloyd brought Apple back to their ranch (repeated tiffs with the host hunt's other bird had resulted in the search for a new home), and she's been a feisty fixture there ever since. At 45, Apple is now middle-aged for a bird of her breeding; cockatoos commonly live up to 60 years. When she's not welcoming visitors from her roost in the tree outside the hunt office (her wings are clipped, so she can get around but not fly too far), Apple oversees riding lessons from atop a golf cart or a jump standard, chirping apprecia- tively or, as may happen, cursing out a rider. Apple also does a bit of her own catch-riding here and there. "The horses love her," Murray says. "She rides with the children on some of them." But the hounds, not so much. "They're scared of her as she feeds with Lynn every day at the kennel," Murray adds. "She does everything with us," explains Lloyd. "Angela always wanted a big bird. She's really fun!" —Jennifer B. Calder PHOTOS COURTESY ANGELA MURRAY Apple loves to be the center of attention, whether it's on Lynn Lloyd's shoulder during morning feeding time for the Red Rock pack or dressing up for a benefit party thrown by Red Rock clients to support the local FieldHaven cat shelter run.

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