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| Flickr Photo by cwwycoff1 Carl Wycoff |
This weekend, Blessi and I went to a
Police Horse training clinic. Blessi surprised me since I thought we could
encounter at least one thing that would make him nervous. There was nothing
that he spooked at or hesitated at. New items encountered: magnesium flares,
police dog following and barking at the horses, smoke bombs, whistles, siren,
police car driving around horses with siren going and police dog in window
barking at horses. And some of this happened while the horses were crossing
wooden bridges and going through car washes and between pool noodles. I spent
most of the day leading Blessi since I thought it was unfair to ride him for 6
hours when I have only been riding him for 15 or 20 minutes--plus I had a minor
gastro-intestinal problem.
Some of the things Blessi did give me trouble with:
- He politely but definitely want to hang at one end of the arena since the
last time we were at this stable we did cattle sorting. For the first half hour
he was convinced there were still cattle in those pastures.
- He also wanted to hang with the mini donkey who kept braying. He was
fascinated with that little guy. He put his head down very low and tried to get
the mini donkey to share his breakfast.
- I used to treat Blessi from a peanut can during trick training. Smoke
bombs come in similar cans and Blessi wanted to go over and grab the can. Now
that would have been a bad scene.
- The trainer kept lowering more sheets in the car wash as Blessi and I
were going through. Blessi kept stopping and tried to use his nose to help the
instructor untie and lower more strips in the car wash.
- The assistant trainer had a whistle hanging around her neck. Blessi had
never seen a whistle and he kept picking it up in his mouth.
I forgot to put my SD card in my camera so I have no photos!!
