The day started like any day when I was to take a lesson with Erin Patterson. \u00a0Excitement to be learning on my horse journey with Cisco.<\/p>\n
Cisco and I arrived at the arena and got ready. \u00a0Jackie came to ride Tuff in the lesson with me. \u00a0She brought toys!<\/p>\n
After our gaiting lesson was done, Jackie went to get her first toy. \u00a0Regular people call it a tarp. \u00a0Horse people call it “A TARP”! \u00a0Jackie has a three year old Missouri Fox Trotter. \u00a0She bought the horse because of many things, but what finalized the deal was that his then owners had been out in the wilderness to round up some wild pigs. \u00a0They had the wild pigs in a trailer. \u00a0Jackie was there to see Tuff to decide if she should be his new owner. \u00a0Here’s what sealed the deal. \u00a0Tuff’s owner decided he needed to tie Tuff up to something. \u00a0He tied Tuff up to the trailer with the squealing wild pigs. \u00a0Tuff just stood there, unconcerned. \u00a0Jackie bought him. \u00a0Wild Screaming Pigs in a trailer! \u00a0Good Lordy.<\/p>\n
Jackie left Tuff to get her first toy, the Tarp. \u00a0She came back into the arena and mounted Tuff with the folded tarp. \u00a0Jackie was preparing to unfold the tarp. \u00a0There had been no ground work preparation. \u00a0Cisco and I were standing nearby. \u00a0Egad! \u00a0I told Jackie to go slow as I didn’t know how Cisco would take the crinkly thing. \u00a0I was thinking about getting off but there was nothing in Cisco’s body that seemed concerned about the folded tarp. \u00a0Jackie unfolded the tarp. \u00a0Both Tuff and Cisco did nothing. \u00a0Both horses remained totally relaxed, as did Susan… \u00a0OK, I was making my body relaxed, but mentally ready to spring into action.<\/p>\n
Jackie unfolded the entire large tarp and proceeded to shake it over Tuff. \u00a0She whipped the tarp all over Tuff with the resulting loud crinkly tarp noise. \u00a0Cisco remained totally unconcerned, so I rode him in a circle around the whipping, crinkly tarp. \u00a0There was not a frizz of concern in Cisco’s body. \u00a0Jackie rode Tuff around the arena with the tarp crinkling.<\/p>\n
I am amazed at her three year old Tuff. \u00a0He is an amazing horse. \u00a0He will be an awesome trail horse.<\/p>\n
But, we were not done. \u00a0Toy #2 is an umbrella. \u00a0Jackie got off and got her umbrella. \u00a0She mounted Tuff and rubbed him with it \u00a0She was getting ready to open the umbrella. \u00a0Again, I am amazed. \u00a0I live by ground work preparation. \u00a0Cisco and I have had no ground work preparation for an umbrella! \u00a0But, we had such success with the tarp, I’m thinking that maybe I don’t need to get off. \u00a0Jackie opened the umbrella slowly. \u00a0Neither horse was concerned. \u00a0Jackie waved the open umbrella all over her horse. \u00a0Cisco and I were standing about ten feet away. \u00a0Not a frizz of energy emitted from Cisco. \u00a0After Jackie was done with the umbrella, she handed it to me. \u00a0I rode Cisco with an opening and shutting umbrella. \u00a0Good Lord! \u00a0I certainly never thought I would be riding Cisco holding an umbrella today!<\/p>\n
What a Horse<\/p>\n
That night I remembered the last test in the original Parelli Level 1 test. \u00a0It’s named “Controlled Catatrophe”. \u00a0Someone rattles something around your horse. \u00a0If your horse startles, you turn and face the scary object. \u00a0You face the scary object until the horse is no longer scared. \u00a0This prevents the horse from bolting. \u00a0I’ve practiced this for so many years, that it has become instinctive. \u00a0I forgot the name of the game, but if Cisco would have had a fizz of reaction, my hands would have turned him to face the scary object.<\/p>\n
I’m so thrilled to have such a horse who didn’t react to the crinkly tarp and the umbrella. \u00a0Cisco is an amazing horse. \u00a0Tuff, the three year old horse, is an amazing horse. They are both Missouri Fox Trotters.<\/p>\n
Later in the arena, Jackie had dropped the tarp in the middle of the arena. \u00a0It was lying on the ground in a pile. \u00a0After playing with the umbrella, I turned Cisco to venture into the arena \u00a0and he stopped, ears forward and a body expression of \u00a0concern. \u00a0“What was that pile in the arena! \u00a0It was new. \u00a0It wasn’t supposed to be there! I didn’t belong in the arena!” \u00a0If it moves, Cisco is prepared to react! There is no body frizz in him yet, just worry. \u00a0I say, “we don’t have to go to the tarp pile, Cisco. \u00a0We can walk around it. ” \u00a0“No! \u00a0I don’t want to walk around it. \u00a0I want to stare at it for a while to see if it will turn into something that wants to eat me!” \u00a0We stand there for a while. \u00a0Cisco ventures forward a couple of steps. \u00a0He hesitates. \u00a0The tarp pile doesn’t move. \u00a0Cisco then walks slowly to the tarp, puts his head down and finally touches the tarp with his nose. \u00a0He relaxes. \u00a0“It’s just a tarp, not something that will eat me.” \u00a0We then proceed to walk over the tarp, back over the tarp and side pass over the tarp. \u00a0I guess we showed that tarp who was boss!<\/p>\n
Horses are prey animals. \u00a0Humans are predators. \u00a0Horses react to different things than we do. \u00a0It’s quite amazing that Cisco wouldn’t be afraid of the tarp when Jackie was moving it around, but he was quite concerned about it when it was a pile on the arena ground that had not been there the last time he looked at the middle of the arena. \u00a0I didn’t yell at Cisco and tell him it was the tarp, for goodness sake. \u00a0I didn’t kick him and make him go touch the tarp. \u00a0Nope. \u00a0I was willing to go around the tarp. \u00a0But Cisco has been taught to be brave. \u00a0He wanted to make certain it was not something that was going to eat him. \u00a0I let him do it on his own time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The day started like any day when I was to take a lesson with Erin Patterson. \u00a0Excitement to be learning on my horse journey with Cisco. Cisco and I arrived at the arena and got ready. \u00a0Jackie came to ride Tuff in the lesson with me. \u00a0She brought toys! After our gaiting lesson was done, Jackie went to get her first toy. \u00a0Regular people call it a tarp. \u00a0Horse people call it “A TARP”! \u00a0Jackie has a three year old Missouri Fox Trotter. \u00a0She bought the horse because of many…<\/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":[106,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cisco","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145","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=3145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3147,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions\/3147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}