Just wanted to share an experience that I had recently. A
new person to our little riding group recently purchased a 10 year old Quarter
Horse gelding. To say she made an “emotional decision” is a true understatement.
What she told us of her experience before, during and after purchase sent up
some “red flags” to my (and my wife Laurie) mind. Hindsight being 20/20 and
knowing we all have made that emotional decision before we could empathize and
did our best to help (if we could).
Fast forward to a group gathering. Got a call from this new
person who said her horse would not load in the trailer. She and some “helpers”
had tried for over an hour to get this boy in the trailer. Everyone was
frustrated and the horse was now mad as heck. So the group heads over to the
facility where horse and human are. It is just 15 minutes down the road from
our original meeting spot so no big deal. We meet up and have our session. We
advised human not to ride horse that session, just focus on the ground work
(leading exercise, backing exercises, body control, lateral/vertical flexion
and lunging exercises) that we felt would help the horse and human connect and
communicate. We learn more about the horse and do our best to help the human be
effective, patient and fair in her communication. Session wraps and folks are
getting ready to head out so we take horse in hand over to said trailer. Nice
trailer. There is even some alfalfa in a manger. We (the horse and I) do some
groundwork around the trailer and I let him investigate it for a while. When we
groundwork he got to relax by the opening. Lots of rubs. He eventually seems to
be relaxed around the trailer and a bit curious. Then, on a whim I step into
the trailer. With some steady pressure I ask him to step close to the trailer.
When he does I release the pressure. We do this for about five minutes or so.
Ask, give, release, investigate, repeat. On my last “ask” I was really hoping
for one foot in the trailer. Surprise! He walked right in! We hung out, he
snacked and got rubs. I then asked him to back out. No real clue about that in
his mind but we worked it out. We do this about four times, each time it gets
easier and easier. Total time invested in trailer loading = 15 minutes.
Everyone was stunned. Horse was calm. I was calm. No one was frustrated. My
thought was that the “helpers” were not listening to the horse. He was pretty
clear about needing to check things out on his terms. Once he felt things were “okay”
he was pretty mellow about the process considering what he endured at the same
trailer earlier in the day.
Lesson learned. This fellow has had some rough handling in
his past. He is a defensive overall and more so on his right side. He wants his
human to take time and reassure him things will be okay. These two have some
work to do but everyone in the group felt like if they stay consistent and the
human acts in a fair and kind manner that they will connect and be a good pair.
If nothing else drove the message home that we, as students of the horse, need
to be adaptive and practice active listening with our horses, the issue with
the trailer that became a non-issue certainly did.
Thanks for letting me share. Have a great week everyone!
