How a cardiologist spends Sundays about sheep

Five mornings a week, Dr. David Slotwiner, Chief of Cardiology at Newyork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, can be found in the treatment of human hearts.

But on Sunday mornings he is on the grass covered on a rural farm in Hacketttown, NJ, standing among half a dozen sheep, a whistle in hand, teaching its borders Collies Cosmo and Luna to the herd.

“It helps me think about what you need to be an effective leader, although doctors do not react very well to whistles,” said 58 -year -old Dr. Slotwiner, who specializes in the electrophysiology of the heart.

He began to come to the farm during the Coronavirus pandemic, after Cosmo began to show aggression and bit his wife, Anne Slotwiner, 60 years ancient. The trainer recommended a tiny sheep farm in Recent Jersey, a quilling farm that draws Colies abroad – and when Cosmo began for the first time.

Dr. Slotwiner divides the house with three bedrooms in Pelham, the oldest town in Westchester, with the wife of Cosmo, Luna and 15-year-old American rescue Eskimo, George. (He has two adult sons, Harry (28, and Peter, 25)

Sleeping in a sense During the week I get up around 5 am, but on Sunday I will sleep until 6:30 in the morning, I am not a morning person, but I was forced to become a morning person. I will start the day by reading the Recent York Times on my iPhone in bed.

Height and riding I go to class at 7:30 Soulcycle in Bronxville. It is always sometimes for the rhythm of music, which distinguishes it from other spin -in classes. Before Pandemia, I often took six classes a week, which was not vigorous.

Morning meeting Around 9am I meet my wife for breakfast about Caffè admi in Pelham. She will have dogs in her car because my car is not massive enough to take it to the farm. I will get a gigantic latte with full milk with one sugar and a scorching cranberry skeleton and if I feel a decadent-troving almond.

For farm I’m going for about an hour and 15 minutes Wayside farm. On the way I will hear the podcast – I love “Hard fork“And Podcast Newyork-Presbyterian”Health matters. “And I really like John Mandrola”This week in cardiology. “There is a bit of Curmudgeon and always slowly accepts novel technology, so I like to hear his critical perspectives.

Whistle while working We come to the farm around 11 am, grab the whistle and put the headphone set – the distances are very great on the pitch, so in this way I can hear people train me – and set off on the pitch with Cosmo and Luna.

Gene Sheninger and Teri Rhodes, who are the owners of the farm, train people at the highest level of competition on the international arena, but also take the novice. There are other herding breeds, but border coliens are usually the most common and are best for sheep.

Child’s steps The first thing you teach them is the clockwise, which is called to “come” or on the contrary to the movement of the clock guidelines, “departure”. And then you teach them how to ride sheep in a straight line, in a controlled way so that they do not push the sheep so quickly that they distract. And then you teach them to push sheep outside you, which is one of the most tough things to do, because Collie Border want order – they don’t want sheep to run away.

The ultimate challenge is to teach a dog how to divide the sheep into two groups, because sheep instinctively want to stay together as a herd.

Trade tools When you are at some distance, you need to give commands with a whistle. In competitions you sometimes do over 800 or 900 yards, where sheep can not even be seen. But dogs learn to trust you so much that they know that if you give them a command to go according to the movement of the clockwise, even if they do not see the sheep, they will go according to the movement of the clock tips on the edge of the field and run and run until they find these sheep, and then bring them to you.

Nostalgia novice It is great to be a novice my age, because I teach medical and residents students every day. I teach cardiologists how to perform invasive procedures. It is refreshing to be in something beginners, remember how to learn it when I teach people.

Entering in the zone I will pack around 12:30 or 13:00, then jump into the car and finish my medical podcast on the way back to Pelham. It helps me go to work.

Dumpling Detour If I am in a hospital that I am every fourth weekend, I will go to the Flushing center to snack before the change. I love soup dumplings at Juqi.

Dr. Bow-Tie see you now I come around 14.00 and change into thickets. I will usually have four or five patients to check, and then look after a paperwork or review a manuscript or two.

I usually sway a bow tie. Fifteen years ago, the patient gave me one and I decided to try. It took me some time to come up with how to tie them – it was a lot of YouTube movies – but then I wore them from time to time, and my patients really liked it. Then I went to the bow ties. I have over 50.

Date of dinner Around 17 or 18:00 I will return to Pelham to pick up my wife, and we will meet our son Harry and daughter -in -law for dinner in Williamsburg. One of our places is Ringolevio. If I cure myself, I will have a steak of a skirt and a glass of red wine. Or I can meet my parents who live in Battery Park, in the Greek restaurant down the block from them, Anassa Taverna. I love Grilled Branzino with white wine.

Fun with Frisbees You can’t just go home to Border Collies and say: “Ok, it’s time to go to sleep.” They grow from an hour and a half to two hours and work demanding. So I will go home and play Frisbee with Cosmo and Luna for about half an hour. Cosmo is very motivated by toys. Luna mostly wants feelings and interactions.

Kindle time I will go to bed around 23:30 and read for half an hour on my Kindle. At the moment I am reading the French novel “Faithful Place”, which I like. This is a book to spotless my brain. I also finished another book that I really love, “Demon Copperhead” Barbara Kingsolver. I love a function in which you can switch between reading to Kindle and Listening, because in this way, when I get to work, whether to work or on a farm, I can continue it.

Like featherlight I will usually fall asleep nearly midnight. I am a night owl. But I don’t go to Soulcycle on Monday morning because I had the whole weekend to exercise, so I don’t have to raise to 6.