About 6 months ago a couple of ponies came out to our farm. A white one was chosen by my youngest daughter, who desperately wanted a pony. He was old and beautiful and had come from a now defunct petting zoo, so I figured he'd be a good teacher. None of us are horse savvy... I know dogs, and I'm not bad with goats or ducks...but horses...nah, I knew nuttin.
"In the deal" also came a pinto. She was only about 2 and she came bolting off the truck, rearing and fussing. I immediately liked her spirit. I thought she was beautiful. She would run the fenceline with her head high and every muscle flexed, looking for an exit. She has kept me fencing for much of the past few months. As soon as she found a hole, she was out...skylarking through the neighbours properties, dancing down the road...snorting and shying from strangers. It wasn't long before folks started shaking their heads at her. In our quest to learn, we sought out the folks with reputations as horse handlers (and bumped into quite a few who told us they had such reputations). We received a series of discouragements. "Get rid of that one, she's no good".
And we thought about it. Humbly accepting that we didn't know enough to disagree.
Then slowly we began to realise that she seemed different. Something was changing. She still shyed from strangers, and backed up when folks tried to pat her...but she was finding the courage to stand when we walked by. She began following us about somewhat hesitantly. She was learning to trust.
Attempts to halter her had always been met with a forceful head shake. The halter flew off in all directions. We thought it would never happen. But it did.
One day she was ready. She looked nervous but she stood and let my daughter put it on. Then reared when we all cheered and took off to hang with her mate. It took several week before anyone could touch the halter again, but she made no attempt to get it off or indicate it was bothering her. So we just kept telling her how pretty she looked. I encouraged my girls, you're doing a good job with that horse.
A few more months past and her adventures into neighbouring paddocks continued. Usually me, the kids and the dog could just push her back in, but this time...nope. She was standing her ground. With a full goat nagging me, and night creeping closer, I began to get impatient. "Right," I said, "Bugger you and your misbehaving. Spend the night at Al's, I'm not playing anymore! I've got goats to milk, who don't carry on like this." And we headed back up. Instead, she decided that despite going out a fence, she was coming back with a little more grace, so she bounded out of Al's, down the road and started singing out at our gate. I went down and opened it, and she rolled her eyes at me in that intimidating way, as I called her a few more names as a greeting.
"Put her in that round yard!" I grumped when I finally made it back up the blasted hill. "And feed Silver Bell out here, so she can watch!" I went off to do the milking and settle down again. While there, I started thinking about when I was young and wild and running riot...how I never really knew what was right, and kinda just found out, by doing what was wrong. All I really wanted was someone to guide me, pull me up before I broke the laws, upset people or hurt myself. As a teen I didn't have parents around to do this, so I kinda just mucked my way through, eavesdropping and borrowing bits of guidance from other people and their parents. I'd been waiting for my kids to "sort their horses out", but I realised while I was sitting there, that the pony might just respond to me.
So into the round yard I went with the shiny new lead rope that had been hanging on a hook for 6 months with her name on it. I can't say there was a lot of fuss, she wasn't sure about it at first and we had to do a bit of talking and she tried lifting my arm out of its socket once, but the lead was on. The kids got excited and I warned they would have be quiet or bugger off. They sat by quietly and provided the rewards when she first walked and then trotted nice tidy laps. She looked to me like she'd been waiting for someone to give a shit for so long, she was just plain stoked!
Right on dark, we put both horses in their stall and came inside all excited by the way one session could pull together 6 months of work. We started counting all the little baby steps that had led to today.
...we reflected on the wild heart that had arrived, and how she had become more trusting...the little ways she showed us she was willing to trust...willing to go that bit further and change old behaviours...how she now enjoyed our touch...and how much fun she'd had in that round yard, showing us how clever she really was.
This morning I came out to do the feeding and the girls had let both ponies out. She met me at the gate and followed me on the rounds. She appeared a completely different pony...I do believe I have seen her become fearless.
It is truly wonderful to see things reach for their potential, isn't it?
It is a great share. It is often these things that happen to us that we take for granted. the program puts such a wonderful spin on the realities of life. To see the changes in life and to really see the depth of the changes is what i get off on today. That high is better than any high that i tried to induce chemically. Life is truely the best trip on earth, as soon as I got out of my own way to see it.
