Isn’t it amazing? I mean, the connection you can build with an animal…and in our case, a horse? Today was another example of that. I was fortunate enough to spend a couple hours with my horses this afternoon. If you haven't heard already I have a broken leg and arm; getting around isn't all that easy. I walked - well, hobbled is a more appropriate word - out into the pasture where my gelding Ty and his buddy Ono were feeding. Ono spooked at the crutches causing Ty to be wary. They trotted behind a shed in front of me, emerging on the other side, saw me and ran back around.
They circled the shed four times.
I chuckled watching them – it really was amusing. Their actions raised the curiosity of my mare, Belle, and her two pasture-mates. They walked up to the opposite side of the fence, to see what was going on. As soon as they were close, Ono trotted by me, up to the fence to join the safety zone of the others.
Ty didn’t. He looked at me, looked at all the other horses and looked at me again. Then he dropped his head and slowly walked up to me. I gave him a good scratch and let him nuzzle me – hey he’s got a broken neck – I can forgive his lack of manners. We stood like that for some time. Maybe it was payback – I spent days on end with him after his injury…now it’s his turn. I left then and let him return to his lunch. I ‘crutched’ over to the other pasture where Belle was. I caught her without much difficulty – which is good since I’ll be catching her on crutches for the next couple of months. I put her halter on, and she followed me over to the corner of the pasture near the gate. I wanted to do a couple exercises with her, namely seeing if I could stand in one spot and ask her to move around me. When I get back into the saddle NEXT WEEK we’re going to need that, since I’ll be unable to quickly move around her on crutches with two casts. I’ll need to put her in a position on the fence so I can get up on her, and have her move around me for grooming and saddling. My leg was getting sore at the time from being ‘vertical’ for so long, so I sat down in a lawn chair I'd brought. I first tried moving her by gently touching her side with the end of the crutch.
She stepped over smartly, and stood attentively when I quit asking. We practiced that a couple times in both directions. Next we tried the same thing but I just made motions with my hand. No problem there – she stepped over just the same as when I made contact with her. After rehearsing that several times, with hand motions I asked her to back up straight, then stop and walk back to me. All good! I thanked her with a, “Good girl,” and gave her a good scratch. At that point she really relaxed. I sat there quietly enjoying her company, and her mine. There are moments that I wouldn’t trade for the world – and that was one of them. It might be a while before we go cantering through the forest, but I know because of that horse, that I’ll be back there before anyone expects it. Here’s a picture a friend of mine took of Belle and me this afternoon.
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I had a great time and the people I met was amazing! In the barn was a para-olympic's dressage rider (Jennifer) who has & is travelling the world competing. I wished I had my camera that day, as she was off to Australia to compete. She was cross country jumping when she was younger and her horse stepped in a gopher hole hurting her brain stem. She doesn't have much feeling in her one side and yet she goes on to ride Dressage for Canada! wow...cool to meet her! I also ran into Jim who use to wrangle for Irvin Palmer at the Hummingbird, had a great visit with him! Enjoying the vacation...
