How often do we refer to re-training an ‘animal’ as “re-habbing”?
Well I have a young mare that sees what I don’t see in myself anymore. Reading ‘things that change life’s directions’ first may help understand what she sees as wrong with me. Her name is Faith. She was born in 2008, she was a ‘bun in her momma’s oven’ when I got hit. So I didn’t have a great deal of contact with her when she was growing up on pasture with the mares. She has ‘delicate sensibilities’ much like I do. I get frustrated with her, I am in a hurry all the time to make up for ‘lost time’ that I cannot get back. She knows when I am holding my breath, so she runs, she shakes when I reach for her. I am slow, deliberate and gentle with her. We were friends once. Now she is not so sure. She makes me slow down and breathe. When I stop, let out the breath I am holding and take a deep breath and let it out again she relaxes and does exactly the same. She willing does any scary thing I ask, as long as I breathe.
She is phenomenal, jet black, short coupled, long dark legs, and a trot that any Olympian would give their eye teeth for. She is the epitome of collection. Loose on her own, collected work naturally. Her parents corrected everything they did wrong when they created her brother Donovan and I thought ‘he’ was the “IT” I had looked all my life to create. His photo graces the FB page Iberian Dressage.
But she corrects me. Makes me breathe again. Shows me that I am not always ready to work the colts again. We have several on the way this year. We cannot support the ranch/farm if everyone isn’t pulling their weight. That means that the mares need to have babies to sell (and those foals must be worked with) to cover their expenses and their share of the taxes on the land they live on and that supports them. Are you starting to see the full circle of the farm yet? I will remind you often, of the bills that need to be paid with cash. Trades and bartering don’t pay taxes. It takes cold hard cash. Gone are the days of paying the government in livestock or produce for the kings table for the right to eek out an existence on land that you call yours. I guess she is the barometer I must work by and up to her standards to get back to where I was. The stallions don’t show me what she does. They are much more like men. Even if there are really responsive they are not ‘delicate’. And we say that we train them… what a laugh.
I am often asked if I am a horse trainer. I always say ‘no’. People look at me funny. I cannot explain what I do, but I certainly don’t train them. I ask them to do things. If they don’t understand, we go through it, over and over until they understand what I am asking and are not afraid to offer a guess at it. We both know when the little light of recognition goes on. And they say. “is ‘that’ what you wanted, oh, ok”, “I still think its scary to walk on that welded wire panel laying on the ground, but if you say it wont entrap my legs, then ok”. Then we practice it a few times. Ah, the word practice, we will cover that another time. We just communicate well together. I always got great results, before my life was changed forever. DH always says I am more horse than human. That’s a label I can accept and live with. Horse trainer, on the other hand I will not.
Please, it is unnecessary for anyone to comment about her being abused. She has not been. She, like her now 19 year old dam, was born with us. She is just emotionally sensitive. I post this because I feel strongly that animals are our emotional mirrors. Her father, Merlin, had a similar reaction when 3 ILAHA Judges could not agree with each other about him wearing the same snaffle bit that he qualified for a Regional Finals class in because he had turned 5 years old. The rules had changed mid season (a whole other story for another time). I was upset under my professional persona and he knew it. He didn’t want to work in that arena anymore because it upset me. He just didn’t know why, he just knew it was a bad place to be. But once talked into doing his professional job, he had the best scores of the class anyway. These are ‘War Horses’. I am honored and often humbled to be their servant. And, apparently, being re-habbed.
Stablefood 