Trust Replaces Fear

June 25, 2016Posted inCISCO, Country Frank's Lucky Star, Missouri Fox Trotter
It was quite a long time ago.  This might have been five or six years ago.  There was this horse, a fruit loop horse.  She is a sensitive horse and the wrong people bought her.  After six months, she was scared of anything human.  If anything human moved, she was scared of it. She is what Pat Parelli calls a "Hey Bob! Horse.  You are riding this horse.  You wave your arm to say hi to Bob and the horse bolts. Human arms to this horse are things that beat…

Cisco and the Two-Legged Jump

June 25, 2016Posted inCISCO, Missouri Fox Trotter
This is a task for the horse in the Level 4 Liberty Test: Jump Over an Obstacle with the Two Front Legs and then Sidepass Over the Obstacle Toward the Human.  ("Liberty" is the human on the ground with the horse loose...no halter or rope attaches to the horse.) This task is one that you have to sign your name and attest that your horse did this.  It is not a task to video.  Sadly, one has to attest with their signature that this has been done.  I could lie....sigh.…

Life in the Herd

June 5, 2016Posted inCISCO, Country Frank's Lucky Star
Four Horse Herd is: Sweetie-Paint mare with nearly no pigment on her face to block sunburn. Sweetie has become best friends with Delta....... Sweetie is low horse in the herd in domination in the herd. Number 4, Sweetie does not let on that she likes or trusts humans until you walk up and pet her. Then she may or may not trust you. I believe she has been a brood mare all her life and has not experienced any close bonds with a human. She did not have any friends…

Flying Lead Change on Cisco? Miracles Happen

May 17, 2016Posted inCISCO, Missouri Fox Trotter
Here is a horse never cantered under saddle until I got him at nine years of age. Never cantered under saddle with a human weight from zero to nine. There is a lot of balancing that a horse needs to canter while carrying a human. I remember when Nichole first cantered him during his thirty day "customize him for Susan training". She was happy to discover a canter! And the canter was comfortable! I remember cantering on him during a group lesson at Mary Brown's arena. I was shocked by…

The Mind of a Horse

May 16, 2016Posted inCISCO, Miscellaneous, Missouri Fox Trotter
You will be surprised to learn about Cisco's mind. Cisco is a left brain introvert. That means he thinks through things and isn't a big fan moving. He likes to move. He likes to stop. But what Cisco really is...is a worrier. He worries about things. It can take him a long time to get comfortable in a new place. His worry is very low key as he is thinking while he is worrying. During his worrying phase, he likes to move. That keeps him relaxed. When he moves, I'm…

Cisco at the Park

March 5, 2016Posted inCISCO, Missouri Fox Trotter
When I got Cisco, he had been trail ridden for three years solo on the trail.  His spook was a stop and brace his front legs.  His entire ridden life had been as a trail horse.  Cisco comes to me.  I turn him into an arena horse.  This might be the start of our third year and he has been on two trail rides as my horse in those three years.  He now is a rail or fence bound arena horse. I decided that Cisco needs to revisit the trail.…