Day Four - Beware the Fire Ant!

After my last lesson before I left for Florida, Jane Bartsch, my local Parelli instructor wished me well, told me that she was sure I was going to have a great time and then, before she climbed in her truck said, "Watch out for the fire ants, they are nasty little buggers."
"They have fire ants at the Parelli campus?" I shot back.
"Yep." She answered. "If you see a little mound of sand anywhere, stay away from it. It's probably a fire ant nest and you don't want to get mixed up with them."
Fire ants were about the farthest thing from my mind when I dragged myself out of bed on day four. Despite being exhausted from the all of the activity of the first three days, I hadn't been sleeping very well and besides that, I hurt all over. I was doing a lot more walking than I usually did and I had sore muscles all over my body. I fed Sonny and cleaned his pen before dragging myself up to the classroom where our day four lessons were to begin.
`John Barr greeted us with his usual cheerful demeanor and told up that this morning we were going to have to endure a few lectures before getting out to play with our horses. I have never been so happy to settle down on a folding chair and listen as John covered the history of man's involvement with horses. John's delivery was entertaining as he brought us from ancient times to the modern era and then gave us a little bit of history on Pat Parelli's development.
After a short break, John's wife Linda gave us a lecture on Horsenalityä, a concept developed by Pat and Linda. Because each horse is an individual, Horsenalityä is a way of describing a horse's personality by applying observable behavior traits. The traits are fit around a grid with one axis describing the horse on a scale of confident to unconfident (left brain to right brain) and the other axis describing the horse as more energetic to less energetic (extroverted to introverted). By observing the horse, recognizing the behaviors and plotting them on the Horsenalityä, you can develop strategies for working more successfully with your specific horse.
After a break, John Barr was back to describe what he referred to as a "Bit o' Savvy", which was the evolution of the use of various hackamores and bridles/bits to Parelli Natural Horsemanshipä. He told us that as we developed in skill in riding our horses, we would move from hackamores and bridles/bits designed for giving control, through those used for created contact and finally on to those used for creating engagement. Finally he talked bout tool savvy and the use of spurs.
By the time John had finished lecturing, it was almost 11:30 and time for our first demonstration at the arena. Glad that the lecture had given me a much needed rest, I hurried over to the bleachers and found a spot in the shade. John was out in the arena with his horse as were several other members of the faculty. While John was explaining the correct way to halter a horse, other faculty members were demonstrating with their horses. From haltering, the demonstration moved on to things you could do that would prepare your horse for visits from the vet and the farrier. Ryan, who is currently the barn manager for Pat's performance barn, had trained to be a farrier at one time and he demonstrated several techniques that could be used to ultimately lesson the stress of farrier visits.
After lunch, it was back to the arena for a demonstration of working with horses on line. By this time, I had caught my second wind and was anxious to get a chance to actually play with Sonny. That being said, I knew I had a lot I could learn from watching the instructors playing the Parelli Seven Gamesä on line with their own horses. John placed a lot of emphasis on the Circling Game, telling us that it was the most important game in terms of giving the horse the chance to develop his responsibilities of maintaining gait and maintaining direction. He pointed out the importance of maintaining a neutral position after we send our horses onto the circle because if we are constantly micromanaging our horses to keep them going on the circle, they don't have a chance to develop their own responsibilities.
By the time John sent us off to have free time playing with our own horses, it was nearly 4 PM. As I walked back to Sonny's pen, I kept a eye on the sky, which had looked threatening during most of the afternoon's demonstration. Sure enough, just about the time I had finished giving Sonny a drink and was walking out toward the playground area, the skies opened up.
I don't mind playing in the rain because I have enough Gore-Texâ to keep myself relatively dry, but I am a complete coward when it comes to thunderstorms and the rumbles of thunder I heard were enough to drive me under cover. Retreating to the tack room, I practiced throwing and coiling my 45' line while waiting for the storm to move away.
By the time I finally did get Sonny out of his pen and over to the playground, things were pretty wet and in the waning light of day, it was a bit difficult to discern anything that could have looked like small mounds of sands. I was working with Sonny on the 22' line, dragging the tail of the line through the sand as I walked along playing with various object and that's how I stumbled into the fire ants. Before I knew what had happened, both of my hands were hurting. The aggressive little buggers had climbed right up the rope and were all over my hands. They were apparently also on Sonny's legs, as he had started hopping around. Franticly brushing the ants off my hands, I beat a hasty retreat for some distance before stopping and making sure the ants were off Sonny's legs.
Once the initial stinging stopped, I didn't think too much of the bites but on Friday morning, I found a series of nasty little welts on my hand and fingers. Although fire ants do bite, it isn't the bite that is the problem. They grab on with their mouths to get a grip and then proceed to sting multiple times around in a small circle. Their sting is something like a wasp sting and it causes a welt that swells up, blisters and itches. The blisters reminded me a little bit of what it looked like when I had gotten mixed up with poison ivy. It was pretty uncomfortable. The stings are, apparently prone to infection, so not wanting to take any chances I called my brother-in-law, Dan Harshbarger, who is a physician's assistant for some medical advice. He gave me the skinny on treating the bites and it turned out that I actually had some medicine with me that would do the trick.
Most of the discomfort is gone now but I can tell you that I am avoiding that section of the play ground. And if anyone tells you to watch out for the fire ants, take it from me, it would be a good idea to pay close attention to where you are walking!