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| The arena before horses enter. |
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| "Are you sure this is the right place for a tablecloth?" |
Our obstacle course looks like a busy circus. It has hula hoops, black tarps, white tarps, tinsel curtains, a bridge, jumps, a yoga ball, tires, flowers,
pinwheels, barrels making a chute, poles, "the sandbox" full of stuff
to walk through and play with, tablecloths and rain slickers, and of
course The Ring of Fire (pool noodles tied to jump standards to make an
arch to walk under). Further items on the wish list include a plastic kiddie pool, a mattress, a soundtrack for noises and music, sparklers, a sprinkler, a horse-sized teeter-totter, and a pedestal. The goal of all this nonsense is to teach the horses how
to be brave in the face of new scary things. It doesn't matter if they
actually do the obstacles as they are designed to be accomplished, it's more important that the horse stay calm and leave the course more confident than when he entered.
Cecil is the master of the course. He can do any obstacle in any order, while being ridden, while haltered and in-hand, or while free at liberty being directed by my voice commands and hand signals. Because I'm the photographer and also the one working with him I don't have any pictures of us. Same with Garmin, he can do all the obstacles in hand, even wearing hula hoops dangling from his ears and worn around his middle like a belt. If we have a nervous horse or one who has trouble with an obstacle, Cecil or Garmin is called in to demonstrate and assist, which is good for both the nervous horse and the demo horse as it builds everyone's self confidence!
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| Plastic bags are a nemesis of many horses |
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| "Horse soccer, anyone?" |
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| "Is this pinwheel edible?" |
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| A little big for a bandana |
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| Hula hoop practice |
3 comments:
Don't you mean Cecil can do any obstacle, as long as it is bovine-free?
Wow! Your "circus" looks more like a school. Do you think there is such a place for people to practice overcoming their fears? Keep up the good work!
Alexis - Cecil can even do the bovine based obstacles now! He is much braver and more aggressive towards cattle.
Susan - yes, this is exactly like a school! and I do more "coaching" and "teaching" for humans overcoming fears than I do horses... Usually the horse is afraid of something because the human is fearful of the horse's potential reaction. So this is actually as much for the people as the horses!
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