My good friend Erin came out to the pasture with us this morning. She brought along her two sons who are close in age to my Hunter & Sage. They wanted to feed some carrots to the horses and see them for a bit during a time when Chris and I would already be out there to work with Whisper and groom Promise.
I tied Whisper and started to shed out Promise. Whisper was acting really strange from the moment we got there. She was acting like she did when she first came off of the trailer. It could have been the boys, it could have been the feed bag laying near my car, it could have been the strangely humid breeze blowing... who knows.
I should have taken that as a warning sign, as I was shedding out my red pony on the other side of the hitch Whisper fought the tie once. She calmed back down and I stayed very near her. Not even a full 2 minutes later she did the same thing and did not release tension at any point. If you aren't familiar with horses fighting the tie, picture what a horse (who's head is about 8 feet high) would look like if a bee stung it's face while it was restrained an unable to free itself.
Straight back, full force. My arm moved for the rope calmly to release her but I wasn't fast enough. The break away halter did exactly what it was designed to do. The leather crown-piece snapped.
The sudden release of that tremendous tension caused Whisper to sit full back on her haunches in the dirt and in her next forward movement, bolted to the side. She stopped mid-pasture by Beauty and began to graze.
I went back to focusing on Promise. Let Whisper calm down, let me calm down.
Promise was a good pony, tolerated the shedding blade and the anti-fungal spray (she's showing alopecia in areas and I'm using a broad-spectrum anti-fungal to cover the bases). She also took carrots from the boys. I was impressed with her manners though they did not attempt to pet her beyond her nose pats while munching carrots.
About 15 minutes had passed and I needed to see what could be salvaged on Whisper today. Walking across the pasture I was racking my brain with what mistakes I made. What made her so spooky to start with? Why did I choose to tie her while she was acting worried? Why was her neck rigid and her personality gone today? and my personal favorite : How the hell am I going to catch her now?
Apple cookies in hand, leadrope hidden behind my back, I went for it. She was taking treats, but not relaxing. Finally I was finally able to just slip the rope around her neck and keep her calm enough with treats to prevent another round of mud skiing.
Working with animals timing is everything. You have to be quick, aware, and always on your game or the training efforts are pointless. Working with large cats and my breed, Siberians, you also have to do it in a relatively short time span or you lose interest and attention. Once lost it can be almost impossible to get back. Horses are a whole other animal. Horses are the Masters of Time. The longer you take, often the better the outcome. Get a horse bored with a situation and you'll overcome it.
It worked. Whisper got bored. Bridle went on. No one was traumatized. She was beginning to settle.
We walked, her head dropped. We stood by the hitch post, she dropped her head and relaxed again. We walked over to the boys at the fence who she happily nuzzled and took carrots from.
I decided to ride for one lap up and back and then we would stop for the day. I took Whisper over towards my truck and she began to get rigid and blow. She's seen the truck every time I've come, she knows it's full of squealy happy kids and apple cookies. The truck itself sports smears all across the windows courtesy of Whisper and Promise together. Today, it made her spook. We walked off, we walked back. We walked off, we walked back. She got close enough for me to get my saddle pad.
She didn't fully spook at the saddle pad but she did jump. Her muscles trembling. 2 minutes later I produced a saddle and she was back to herself again. Totally fine. Like any other ordinary day she stood perfectly for saddling, protesting only slightly when I adjusted the girth.
Chris brought over my milk crate/mounting block and I was up. She waited until I was seated to move and Chris held her on his line while she walked off and I found my stirrups.
Whisper was completely relaxed. The stretched-to-the-point-of-breaking rubberband feel was gone. She felt like any other schooled mount. She kept contact with the bit but didn't lean on it. She didn't flinch and dance when my leg was against her. She was perfect.
Chris unsnapped his lead.
We walked around him, and for the first time it was just Whisper and I together. I asked her to move in a full circle around Chris and asked her to halt. There. That's the end of the day for her. THAT is perfection and there's no way I'd ask for more.... though I desperately wanted to. I was enjoying riding her and it was highly tempting to stretch that moment out as long as possible. This is my favorite picture of her and I to date, what a moment!
If I had learned anything today it was that in a 5 minute time span Whisper could change, dramatically, how she perceived the world around her. There was no reason to chance that my 5 minutes of perfection with her could be up soon and change again.
Before we left I watched Beauty come up to where Whisper stood, moving at a canter. A completely adorable pony canter. All of her little legs stayed right under her in short strides of her three-beat gait. What a darling little one she is. Couldn't catch her if we wanted to, and the boys did want to give her her share of carrots, but adorable none-the-less.
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