Pat Parelli invited the Vaught family to come and ride with him for an entire month this summer in Colorado. \u00a0All the extended family are thrilled that the Vaughts have this great opportunity. \u00a0This is just thrilling.<\/p>\n
The 2013 Spring went by and the great adventure was thought about. \u00a0Finally, real plans were in the working and finally, the making! \u00a0They left near the end of July and the first day of riding with Pat started July 24th. \u00a0I am very blessed that Jenny and Tony decided to take Powder and Nova with them along with four other horses. \u00a0They have to compete in the Missouri Fox Trotter 2013 Celebration. \u00a0They have to be ridden. \u00a0Working with Pat Parelli coaching them on cow work is my version of an a staggering opportunity for my horses.<\/p>\n
The six horses get to stay in a small pasture that contains meadow and mountain. \u00a0It’s a long way from the Vaught RV. \u00a0The whole family is going to get a 30 day high altititude \u00a0workout in their riding and fetching horses to and fro. \u00a0Pat is a workaholic and so are the Vaughts. When they return from Colordao, they will be so physically fit and able to jog a full marathon everyday, but why would they want to?<\/p>\n
On the morning of \u00a0their second day, the Vaughts were headed out on a conditioning trail ride in the mountains. \u00a0Pat Parelli was up and about riding. \u00a0He asked if they would also gather the cattle..all 64 of them including three bulls. \u00a0How fun can it get!<\/p>\n
Nova and Powder were part of the group. \u00a0Nova has been a little nervous about being on the trail, and now she gets to be on A TRAIL. \u00a0Nova led and followed on the mountain trail. \u00a0And, of course Tony has to break the trail riding rule. \u00a0He and Powder leave the group. \u00a0Nova got a little ancy when Powder left, but Jenny managed to convince her that she was safe.<\/p>\n
Then the cow gathering was implemented. \u00a0They found nearly all the herd and started gathering them back to the ranch. \u00a0Nova was placed in position and away they ambled. \u00a0All the cows decided they didn’t want to amble back to the ranch. \u00a0Instead they decided to head off in the direction that Nova was guarding. \u00a0All the cows turned and started on a direct line to Nova. \u00a0Nova is experienced with ten or so cows, maybe as many as 15. \u00a0Sixty four cows heading straight at her made her think, ” I want out of here!” \u00a0She telegraphed her desire to Jenny. \u00a0Jenny is a horse whisperer and read Nova’s thoughts loud and clear. \u00a0In her horse whisper voice, she told Nova, “Nova, you can do this! \u00a0Just put your ears back and look fierce!” \u00a0Nova trusted Jenny. \u00a0She put her ears back, way back. \u00a0Her head was ready to snake and mouth ready to eat any cow that had the audacity to even think about coming her way. \u00a0The cows thought… ooooooh. \u00a0That horse is not to be fooled with. \u00a0Let’s head the way that she wants. \u00a0The cows resumed their slow amble to the ranch for a day of cow work.<\/p>\n
That evening started cow play with Pat coaching the Vaughts. \u00a0First Nova and Jenny worked with the electric cow…the one that runs up and down the string. \u00a0Nova has played with this kind of cow all winter. \u00a0The idea is that’s it’s the horse’s idea to follow the cow. \u00a0The rider’s job is to provide help with the speed, not help with the reins\/mouth.<\/p>\n
Pat decided Jenny was doing too much with the reins, so he had her close her eyes. \u00a0Can you imagine riding your horse with your eyes closed? \u00a0Pat has done this for a long time. \u00a0He has people ride at all speeds with their eyes closed. \u00a0He says it really helps to improve your balance.<\/p>\n
Jenny used to have us ride with our eyes closed in our group lessons. \u00a0We never went faster than a walk. \u00a0Much time has passed and I think she forgot that training lesson. \u00a0Well, she had a great opportunity to learn it again. \u00a0This winter, Pat had her ride one of his cutting horses when cutting cows. \u00a0We have a video of that. \u00a0The one where it looks like Jenny is jerking around in the saddle… \u00a0She really did have her eyes closed, riding a top cutting horse, while cutting a cow. \u00a0my thought is “EEeeek!” \u00a0But I digress<\/p>\n
Pat had jenny ride Nova with her eyes closed, while Nova was cutting the electronic cow. \u00a0When he was happy with that, he had Nova and Jenny go into the cow herd. \u00a0Usually the rider focuses on the cow to be cut out from the herd. \u00a0But Pat always has a better idea. \u00a0His idea is to let the horse pick the cow! \u00a0Nova went into the herd, put her ears back and snaked her herd at certain cows that interested her. Then Nova got to follow that cow and cut them out of the herd.<\/p>\n
Oh the fun. On Thursday morning, the Vaughts were planning on heading out on their conditioning trail ride with their new job of gathering the herd.<\/p>\n
____________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pat Parelli invited the Vaught family to come and ride with him for an entire month this summer in Colorado. \u00a0All the extended family are thrilled that the Vaughts have this great opportunity. \u00a0This is just thrilling. The 2013 Spring went by and the great adventure was thought about. \u00a0Finally, real plans were in the working and finally, the making! \u00a0They left near the end of July and the first day of riding with Pat started July 24th. \u00a0I am very blessed that Jenny and Tony decided to take Powder…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,125,3,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jennifer-vaught","category-missouri-fox-trotter","category-nova","category-powder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4157,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions\/4157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}