Johanna Speaks

I have been reading horse books. I do really like to read and I want to learn more and more about horses. 

The book that I am reading is called " How To Think Like A Horse " by Cherry Hill.  It's about where a horse can't see and how much they can see and well, to think like a horse and just a lot of interesting things!

 I am only on chapter two right now. But each chapter is a lot to read!! 

Here are some things they talk about in the book:

Sounds that trigger anticipation.

Horses link certain sounds to specific activities, such as feeding. Just like Pavlov's dogs that salivated when they heard a bell ring before being fed, horses anticipate being fed when they hear sounds they know precede feeding. Here on our ranch, the horses respond by becoming more active physically or calling for feed when they hear: 

The very first word or morning yawn from the house.

The back door to the house opening and closing. 

The barn door sliding open or the feed room door opening or closing. 

That is a little bit of what they have in the book. 

Horses can be restless when there are in the wind because of what they hear and what they can't hear. 

Yesterday I went to my brother in-laws parents house to ride horses! I got to ride Cameron’s sister Elianas horse! The breed was a beautiful painted horse!! The tail was very long and beautiful! I got to trot it around the arena with me on it of course! :)  It was so much fun! I would love to do again sometime. 

Coyote Peterson is in Kirtland Ohio. 

 Hadley Hofbauer is going to be joining Coyote Peterson on his adventure. They are going to be trying to see if they can catch a snapping turtle and a Painted turtle. 

They see a  baby Painted turtle!! They sneak up really quietly and bam! Coyote Peterson caught the baby Painted turtle. Hadley said," it looks so cute!". 

 Painted turtles are omnivorous which means that they eat different types of foods of things like tadpoles, little tiny fish, and plants.

 The carapace is the top of the shell and the plastron is the bottom of the shell. It's light so something's coming up from underneath it like a snapping turtle, the snapping turtle might not see it, and then it wouldn't get eaten.

Hadley named the turtle rainbow. 

They said goodbye and let it go back into the water. 

Next, they found a Northern water snake.

 Hadley got to hold the water snake. But Coyote Peterson did not want her to get bitten, not because it's venomous but he just does not want her to get bitten anyway, so he put on some gloves so if the snake does bite then she can't even feel it at all. Hadley has always been afraid of any type of snake.  After she got to hold the Northern water snake she was not really scared of snakes anymore and she thinks that they are actually kind of cute! If people are scared of water snakes, it's called ophidiophobia and a lot of people are afraid. The reason why people are so scared of snakes is that they don't understand them. 

They said goodbye to the Northern water snake and kept going. 

They see a snapping turtle!! Coyote Peterson went into the water and caught the snapping turtle! It is a Mud snapping turtle. 

People don't know how old snapping turtles get but Coyote Peterson said " it's estimated between 30 to 70 years old". And he thinks the one that they just caught is probably 20 or 25 years old.  Are all snapping turtle habitats in ponds? Snapping turtles love swamps but they can also be found in rivers and sometimes along the edges of lakes. Because they're a freshwater turtle species, if their body of fresh water, there's a good chance it could have been a snapping turtle.

They said goodbye to the snapping turtle. 

Hadley's favorite part of the adventure was holding the water snake.