Guess who came for dinner?

Now that mom is all excited about Hungarian cowboys (csikós--or "cheekoash"), here are some tricks she wants to teach our horses when we get home. I don't think we can do the first one until we have 5 horses the same size.

This is a handy way to have a seat when out in the middle of nowhere.

Here's a good trick when you need to be a little bit taller to reach something.

Ready for an afternoon nap when you don't want to sleep on the ground? It might be warmer if it is cold.

Standing on the horse's back makes you a little bit higher.

Of course, getting the horse in the sitting position makes it so...

you have something to lead against when you are tired and want to sit down and relax.

Of course, once you become pals with your horse and teach him all these tricks, who knows who might sit down and join you at the dinner table!

Watch the young csikós below put this into action so you can see how they crack the whip the whole time. They used the whip not just to keep control over the animals they were herding but as a signaling device over long distances, much like Morse code in telegraph days. Different numbers of cracks in sequence meant different things. Of course the horses had to be trained to ignore the sounds.