Settling Cisco In

Rocking some boots with the fur

Fun, fun day with my Cisco boy Sunday! Came home from church and ate a little lunch, let little girl take her nap, then we hoofed it over to the grandparents! Thats little Chlo on the right, how much cuter can you get?? Not much, friends.

Cisco and Stormy were chilling right by the front of the house so I grabbed a lead rope, a step stool for Chloe, and a chair to set my bucket of grooming tools on. I sat Chloe on the chair and told her to stay put while I got the monster out. Then I parked Cisco in front of her chair and set up her step stool (its a mini sort of scaffold thing the FIL got for Christmas, pretty neat!) right next to him. I thought he might give it the hairy eyeball, but he barely sniffed it. I plopped Chlo up there and a brushing we went! She likes the mane brush so she did that while I used the soft brush. Her interest waned pretty quick though so I put her down and she spent most of her time playing with the cowboy magic bottle and spraying anything in reach down, lol.

My little helper

We had to be back at church for a singing that night, so I just planned on grooming him. After I gave him a good rub down I tackled his chestnuts. They were pretty long and gross looking. As I tried to peel on them they came off in puzzle pieces, instead of a long strip! Weird! So that took awhile, but he was so good and just stood there. I know some horses pick their feet up a lot when you do that. Really the whole time we were messing with him he just stood there with a foot cocked and head down, sweet guy.

After I got his chestnuts looking good I braided his mane over, hopefully it will start deciding to stay on the right side! Some of it does, but most of it hangs out on the other side. As I was doing that I noticed he has a lot of crest up there that flops around, I'm hoping as he loses some weight that will go down too. He is definitely an easy keeper. Also, looking at the picture I probably should have braided it quite a bit tighter up top, oh well, I will have to redo it in a few days anywho!

So after that I worked on his backing with a wiggle of the lead rope and then some lateral flexion. He remembered a little of it, but still wanted to lean on me a bit. Then he thought he was supposed to be moving so we had to work through that. By the time I was done he was doing pretty good. And I started looking at that big fluffy back, oh yeah, gotta jump on! I had the little BIL bring me another lead rope and stood him next to the mini scaffold and hopped up! He didn't even bat an eye, although he did move right off, lol, how embarrassing if I had slid off right then! But I manged to gather myself and just let him walk on. Um, anyone else out there rode a gaited horse bareback?? HARD. They move so lateral that I was sliding off every other stride! Thank goodness for those braids, lol, I grabbed one and got my bearings a little. We were also traveling in a pretty much constant circle, so that didn't help.

Maybe its just him, I don't know, but he does have a very long and low ambling stride. Aside from that I had a great time! He just strode along with his big head hanging, except when we went by the patch of green grass, lol, then he thought he needed to stop for a snack. Our woahs weren't the best in the halter, but not surprising.

After I had my fun I jumped off and did some more flexion with him. Then I decided it would be fun to try to teach him to park out. I had loaded up my pocket with cracked corn so every time I stepped forward when I tapped his fetlock I gave him a bite. He was VERY happy about that! He even started watching my pocket, lol, he knew where it was! Well that didn't go too well, he would move his front foot but his back would usually come up too. Then he was so excited about the grain he would get frustrated and try to paw. So I got a few good moves and left it at and tossed him back in with his girlfriend, who definitely missed him, lol.

So good time by all!! Stay tuned for more, hopefully I will get a real ride in soon.