Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Trust In the Wind

The weather today is crazy. It started out this morning in the 50's and they are predicting the temperature will drop to 29 tonight. The horses really feel the change. As I turned them out in the pasture, the wind began to whip up. Yesterday, they spent the whole day in their stalls and corral because it was raining. Siete was frustrated and paced around, like a little kid who wanted to play outside.

In the interest of fairness, I always lead Silk out first to the pasture, and when I bring them in, Siete goes first. It teaches Siete a bit of patience to have to wait for her mama to be walked calmly to the pasture while she watches eagerly over her stall door.

Today, Siete was desperate to get out there. Based on past experience, I was expecting her to try to charge out of her stall. I don't let her do that, so we have had some battles of will. Instead, to my surprise, she waited all pent up until I gestured for her to follow me and then pranced like a circus horse next to me. With each step, she squealed with excitement. I could see how hard she was working to contain her energy. The squealing reminded me of my daughter and her friends when they are revved up over something. I started laughing.

Once I opened the pasture gate and we danced politely inside, I unclipped the lead rope. Siete waited for me to step out of the pasture before she leaped straight up in the air with all four feet off the ground. I felt a definite difference in her acceptance of me as her leader, a new trust that probably resulted from our experiences with the antibiotics and the Lyme Disease. Even though she could hardly wait to kick up her heels and take off, she knew that as long as I was in there, she should stand still.

My horses notice every move I make, so I try to instill respect and calmness into everything we do together. Now, if I could only do that with my daughter as well.

2 comments:

Trail Riding Cowgirl said...

Victoria,

Your description of Siete sounds so familiar to me. Harley my five year old QH is such a little kid. He does the merry go round in his stall as I lead out the pony (only to give him a chance to run away)first. If I stall Harley for the day his stall looks like a blender. He does the jig, politely of course all the way to the pasture gate and then does his imitation of a lippizan going through the dancing horse program.
Congrats on teaching your young horse respect, it will go a long way later down the road.

Victoria Cummings said...

Thanks, trc - It's reassuring to know that those five year olds are still just kids at heart. Siete was still higher than a kite today. It's in the air. I can feel it.