The Horse/Cow Thing

["Karen J. Zelinsky" <kjz2@juno.com>]

Speaking of spooking.... a few years back, good 'ol Champ, my 26 yr-old
retired NYC police horse could handle ANYTHING -- these critters are
trained to do elevators, escalators, crazy people, mobs, running up
steps, noise, you name it (and this horse did the '60s scene in Manhattan
and was ridden by the cop who trained the others)... except EXCEPT...... 
Well, one day, when I first had him, my boyfriend got on him (ha! the guy
that's afraid of horses, doesn't ride.. et al.) and we're ambling down
the gravel lane in front of my cabin.... and then, as we're approaching
the neighbor's dairy farm... voila!  Mr. Cool-Hoofed Luke almost flew
straight up (and my 6'3" guy on that 16-- real--hands horse somehow
immediately knew how to dismount at incredible speed)!  Champ spotted
dairy cows!!!!!  Remember, this horse was NOT a hot arab-type of critter
- Champ was a mellow TB-maybe warmblood cross - whatever, he was as calm
as a horse could be.  I have a film of him doing PR for NYC Mounted
Police loping through Central Park looking for a lost kid, cantering
(eeeek!) up embassy steps, standing by busy city traffic being petted by
herds of kids, etc.  So, what I kinda learned from that experience is, if
you're going to spook the police horses (and one mounted policeman is
supposed to replace 10 regular beat, two feet on ground cops), show them
a cow.  Not in their anti-spooking repetoire!!!  (Or, as the policeman
told me, the worst thing for the horses that he had seen done at a
demonstration was someone throwing marbles towards the horses' feet. 
Ugh!  Try walking on rolling marbles.  And you think rocks are hard on
the ERs!!  

Hope ya'll find this interesting (and horse-related!)...
Karen in PA
(ugh - I SMELL the cows outside right now - must be fertilizing the
fields out here -- now THAT smell is scarey to ME! -- give me the
horse-poop smell anyday....)

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