What an amazing horse is Cisco!
Cisco is doing great. I loaded him and Lucky into the trailer and we went to play some ground games. Lucky was fine tied to trailer and eating grass while Cisco and I played the seven Parelli games. Cisco is wonderful. I decided that the last game would be me sending him into the trailer. He’s fine with being led into the trailer, but me asking him to load is just a little different. I won the game when Cisco loaded him self into the trailer and stayed in there until I asked him to come out. Then I loaded Lucky and Cisco into the trailer and came home. Cisco and Lucky like each other. They spent a couple hours in connecting stalls. The big event was a non event when I turned them loose in the pasture. Lucky tried to bite Cisco once and then they ended up standing in the same stall together for a few moments. Now that was amazing. No blood was shed.
Today was the first group lesson with Jennifer Vaught and many of my extended horse friends. Everyone bragged on how beautiful Cisco is and we all shivered in delight when I told everyone what great training he has had with Charles Lindsey. Cisco has been trained with love, language and leadership.
Jenny took him into the round pen so we could see what his canter looks like. She pronounced him to be a willing horse. How long has it been since I’ve had a willing horse? I think it might be going on the long end of three years. What fun to ride a horse that won’t argue with me! I can’t wait.
Cisco yields hindquarters, his forequarters, backs and side passes with steady pressure and with rhythm. He has passed all the seven Parelli games with flying colors.
The big ground game we played at this group lesson was a game at liberty. All the participants and their horses make a circle. One person takes their horse into the middle and takes off the halter and walks away from the horse. The horse is to follow. Many horses don’t realize that they are to follow their human. They think they need to go over and chat with the other horses. However, the humans around the circle encourage the horse to find their human. They make it uncomfortable to be anywhere but close to their human. We had quite a time today with a few horses running around, having a great time instead of looking for the human.
I did get some practice with Cisco in the round pen at liberty for about 5 minutes before the game in the large arena started. When it was our turn, I took off the halter and Cisco left me. I didn’t even get the chance to walk away from him. I got to trot around for a while finding out how uncomfortable it is to be separated from his human. I would guess that it took him all of five minutes to find me. I loved on him and walked off. He followed. It’s quite an amazing game, both when your horse is in the middle and when he is an “outside” horse experiencing his “mother” go a little bit crazy with stick and string and a horse running around.
Since Cisco has passed all my ground tests, he is ready for his 30 day training with For the Horse Ranch! Cisco is so well trained, that I could ride him right now, but I’ve never had a horse that wasn’t trained by the Vaught’s for at least 30 days. We have another group lesson tomorrow and then he leaves for Fair Play. I intend to take Lucky Star and visit him once a week!
Yee Haw!