A Small Victory

It's always the litttle things that we either don't notice or that we appreciate for their simplicity. It never ceases to amaze me how both things could happen at the same time for different people, especially when it comes to horses. After spending just 20 minutes with a horse whose owner had been struggling to simply walk him back to his stall, I noticed that the horse's emotions were dictating his every move. He wouldn't walk forward without looking back at his pasture mates, he would stop and pull his head down to the ground, and his feet seemed to belong to another animal, because he continually slipped or tripped over them on his way. His owner commented several times that he was typically fighting her and overreacting, pulling and throwing his head during their short walk together.

Having made the observation a long time ago that horses react differently to different people, I was now able to prove to this horse that I was someone different from his owner and I was going to offer him a chance to trust a human for more than just this one time. It had to start with something as simple as getting from his safe haven at the paddock where he "hung out" with his buddies all day, to his other safe place, his stall, without feeling threatened, harassed or intimidated. He had gotten very good at intimidating and threatening his owner as a pre-emptive strike and that's where the battles began.

Having walked him back and forth several times with slow deliberate effort, offering him a chance each time to stop and relax, he finally walked the entire distance with his head low and made it to his stall with what I think was a different perspective. The real test would be how he would act the next day, first with me and then with his owner.

Today, it was my turn to bring in all the horses and it was strange for me to doubt whether I could bring in the young horse with whom I'd worked just the day before. Was he going to remember what we did and would it have impressed him enough that he would trust me without hesitating? Only one other horse owner saw me walk the gelding back to his stall and I'm sure to her it was not a notable event. But to me and to this young horse, it was a huge accomplishment and in its simplicity, made me smile. I will ask his owner when I see her again if she was able to walk her horse the short distance back to his stall and more importantly, did it put a smile on her face when their journey ended without their usual battle. Ah, a small victory!