Re: The Horse/Cow Thing

["BE" <betndez@budget.net>]

So what does a NYC police horse know of dairy cows???  I can just imagine
his surprise and flight instinct kicking in.  Poor guy wasn't trained to
handle a mob of COWS!  And they smell so funny. . . those marble throwing
hoodlums in NYC didn't smell that way!

Betty
So. Oregon
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen J. Zelinsky <kjz2@juno.com>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 3:25 PM
Subject: RC: The Horse/Cow Thing


>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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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=