Posts by Susan

I can lead Cisco into trailer just fine.  He follows me.  When I turn to leave him in the trailer, he gets a little less confident.  Trailers are not a horse's most favorite place. Early on in our relationship, Cisco  learned how to load in the trailer with me outside, sending him in.  I park him at the trailer, pick up my left hand and send him in.  We had quite a time about that the first couple of times.  He goes in but is still uneasy about staying in…

Five Day Natural Horsemanship Clinic at First Step Farm in St. Louis Cisco and I left on Friday noonish to get to destination clinic near Eureka, Missouri.  It takes 4.5 hours to get there.  I don't think Cisco has ever been in a trailer that long. First Step Farm is in the mountains southwest of St. Louis.  The roads are narrow and wind around rock formations.  We were in Eureka and when a truck and big horse trailer pulled ahead of me into my road.  Interesting...the trailer made the same…

Cisco is destined to be a versatility horse because that is what I love best in the show world.  Cisco has the latent talent to be a performance horse. I also show in certain classes in the Ranch Horse Events.  I can show at the Kansas City Pony Express shows in the "rail" classes.  People have asked...what are versatility, performance and ranch horse show events?  I'm here to tell you the great opportunities we have in the fox trotter horse shows.  I'm not getting into a discussion of all the…

Cisco's birth mothers recorded his birth, recorded him being imprinted and recorded his first steps and nursing.  When they found out I had gained possession of Cisco, they had the recording made into a DVD.  I received the DVD a couple of days ago and have been watching it. I feel like I was there when the cute little bundle of energy was born.  I was there when he came out of the sack.  I joined his imprinting.  I rooted for his struggle to stand and remain standing.  He was…

I rode Cisco a couple days ago and encountered the "hard trot".  We were doing a fast turn and run exercise and we spun into a hard trot.  Us gaited horse people call the trot, a hard trot...maybe to distinguish it from the fox trot.  But we also like to emphasize the hard part of it.  When you are not used to "bounce", bounce is a shock to our bones.  It's the suspension that we are not used to.  I don't believe Lucky Star has ever hard trotted.  He paced…