Please, please...don't ever look at me as ANY kind of authority in the field of horses! LOL! Nothing could be farther from the truth! All I know is what I know from my own experience, common sense, and what's working and not working with Willow right now.
You know how they say God loves fools and children? Well...that's why my first horse survived. All I knew was that I absolutely loved horses, I wanted one desperately, I found one I could buy, the time was right, and ...OMGosh...I suddenly owned a horse. On the arranged date, I arrived to pick up the little "stud colt" - okay, stop right there. Are you hearing what I'm saying here?? STUD COLT?? Challenge #1. Yep. Bought a little quarter horse stud. Next? He hadn't been getting his rightful share of groceries in between times, so he was a bit on the gaunt side. Next? Thank heaven he loads in the trailer like a champ, and we drive the 30 miles to our new home....make that 27 miles, almost to our new home. The kind gentleman I hired to trailer us to our house declined to drive the last few miles...it was a rather interesting dirt road. While I knew he'd be fine, he felt he needed to draw the line. Ok. We weren't that far from home. Except the horse didn't want to walk with me. He was totally out of his element. This was wild forest...new smells and sounds, and he was spooked and didn't want to go any farther, thank you so very much. Now what am I going to do? Take advantage of it being way out in the woods, off the beaten track, tie the horse and jog on down to the house for some grain to use as a bribe. Worked. Next? Colic, 2 days later.
Oh, we had a few rough times. The day I came home with his bridle was the day he escaped and disappeared. In the wide open wild forest, where there are real mountain lions and bears. I was terrified. But, we got lucky...he came upon the river...and he wouldn't cross water. He was found, and by that time everyone knew I was missing a horse. Little stinker...he was underweight and we had to ride him back home...bareback. Owww...! It was a long, slow trip!
I got the leg of the trip with the logging truck though...talk about scared! This was my first time on this horse, and my first time on a horse in probably 12 years. My horse philosophy comes directly from books I read (virtually memorized) as a child...King of the Wind...Black Beauty...The Black Stallion series. My heart told my head that if you treated a horse with love and respect, you'd get the same in return. So, when we realized this great big logging truck, thankfully empty, was heading for us, I figured we were both decidedly apprehensive. I moved us as far off the road as I could and made us as comfortable as I could where we stood. I took the slack out of the reins just enough to have a connection with his mouth, and started talking to my horse, patting him on the shoulder, letting him know we were ok. As the truck approached, I tightened my legs around his barrel just enough to be prepared, and continued to talk and pat, but allowed him to turn and watch the truck as it passed by us. We watched it for a few moments as it went on down the road, and then we turned back the direction we were going, coughed out the dust, and went on about our business. We bonded a lot in that 90 seconds!!
Rai was my big baby...and I loved him dearly. We played all kinds of games together. We played a kind of hide & seek game, and he had a game he played with us...I can get out 3 nights in a row! I learned a lot about the intelligence of horses during my time with him. I learned a lot about their memories too...but not as much as our dog did!
A lot of the time, we were the only ones of our species on our property. There were enough dogs for them to pack together to protect the place, and they did. They'd station themselves at strategic points on the property and yip back and forth in the evening to secure the perimeter. My son was usually either gone to school, or sleeping. He had a short period in the afternoons for play or chores, but during the winter, there wasn't much of that. I was also Rai's primary caregiver. He had his snotty moments, but for the most part he tried very hard to please me. I was cautious to make sure he always went to his shelter before I fed him, and I fed him from outside the shelter so no accidents could occur. I was about 26 to 33 or 34 while we lived there. I also made sure I didn't work with him during his most excitable time of my cycle. It became obvious. I had to sell Rai when my mother got sick and I had to leave my home to be with her. I never quite got past that.
There was one thing Rai taught me though... I let him down. I violated the trust we'd built out of being naive. It won't ever happen again. I learned. It cost me a relationship with the horse I adored. He never quite trusted me again, and with good reason. You see...the crusty old cowboy who graciously brought the farrier out to my place simply reacted to my little "stud colt" the way the old cowboys of his time did...no nonsense, hurt them into it. Rai had never been mishandled that way with me. I rarely needed a lead rope! This guy wanted to know where my chain was...What chain?? The next thing I knew he'd tossed a chain over my poor boy's nose and he was miserable and I was in shock! We did our best to be well behaved until that ordeal was OVER! That was a most horrifying experience for both of us, and we quit being "friends" with Crusty Cowboy.
So, those are my lessons and experience. Once I decided I was going to start looking for another horse, I started reading up on this and that on line. I started ordering a few books to see what the "horse whisperer" thing was about. I neither read the book or saw the movie. Life happens at the wrong time sometimes. The next thing I know I'm reading about Pat Parelli and some other gentlemen, and I'm seeing video clips on YouTube of horses doing amazing things with their handlers...and those handlers being even very young... It excites me! So, I read a whole lot more.
I still don't know a pinch of what I need to know, but I do know that everything I ask of Willow she's willing to do. If I can be patient, she'll usually ask to do what I want once she understands what that's going to be, and that she's not going to be hurt by it. I put a lead rope on Willow while I checked the fit of her saddle, but when I fitted her headstall and bit, I didn't bother. We just made a game out of it. Next comes putting all the pieces of the puzzle together at one time. This part gives me butterflies. LOL!! I need to study up on how to fasten, cinch, mount and all that fun stuff! But don't think for half a second that sometimes I don't get absolute butterflies over the next step!!
