Firstly, who is Murrum? Murrum is a beautiful black cat with striking white markings. She lives at the barn, fending for herself all alone in a world of off-leash dogs, coyotes, raccoons, and whoever else appears with darkness. She is a great mouser and rather acrobatic. And she is unusually dog-like. When Lindsay takes her horse for a walk with her two dogs, the cat comes along like a third canine, for miles!
But more about her acrobatic endeavors. Sunday morning, private lesson, Princess and I were doing a simple exercise jumping a small plank jump, proceeding straight for 2 strides, then forming a perfect circle and coming forward to the plank again. I saw Murrum on the jump right next to my goal. All these thoughts raced through my head in succession.
1. Will she stay there or move forward to my jump?
2. As predicted, she did, sauntering across this top of the jump as nonchalantly an The Man on the Wire.
3. Will Princess jump the jump with the cat on it?
4. How high over a moving feline will that effort be? Can I stay on her with that level of surprised effort?
5. No, better to pull up and wait for kitty to complete the crossing.
I pulled up and said "I can't do that" though I was secretly tempted but thought better of it. Everyone else in the ring could not understand why I wouldn't jump a tiny obstacle with everything seemingly set up so perfectly. Then they saw the cat and finally understood I was not being chicken.
Moral of the story: Say something more clear, like "There is a cat walking across my jump and I don't was Princess to get Post-feline-traumatic-stress-jumping-disorder" so your buddies don't think you are a wimp. There is always a back story.
