They don't, just as honest as the day is long, as long as the truth is about us. Oh yeah, ever try to hide something from a horse, you can't. A horse knows when you are happy, scared, serious, and lazy. And they will take will show anyone around. Corrie tells Sensei much more than I do. It is rather annoying actually, to be tattled on by your own horse.
With my accident I now say that I spooked, so Abby spooked. She knew I was nervous and since she is a horse that looks to her rider to help her through things, she new something was up and spooked. I could tell it in her too. She was looking for the sound of the motorcycle in the distance. I remember just thinking: "please don't spook, please don't spook." She did.
I have to laugh when I think about riding a few horses after my fall: CJ, Bill, Drew, Corrie. The first ride on all of them was just awful. They barely moved, just walking as slowly as they could. CJ actually looked like he was afraid to take a step, but he did. One after another. I had such a hard time getting Bill to move forward, and Corrie almost went in reverse.
As a kid I had Hope. She was the best horse ever, and I was so much more confident then. When I went out to ride her she would get very up. She would have a little spring to her step and be ready for anything. Yet if I put a friend on her who knew nothing, she was as gentle as a lamb. I had a friend who would ride her when I was away at college. He would call me and tell me about how he took her out in halter and lead rope. I don't know why she didn't kill him, but she never took a misstep with him.
Corrie is showing some of my personal short comings right now. It is rather funny to have a horse tell you, "nope I am not going to do that, your not confident enough yet." Which is what she did today when I tried to get her to canter. She was going to trot as fast as she could, I could not bump her that final step up into the canter. Corrie was right. I'll wait a little more. She has also been showing me, where my personal weaknesses are.
As we are working with our horses, it is not a bad thing to take as step back and think about what the horse is trying to tell us. What are they trying to tell us about ourselves? What do we need to work on. Sure our horses barge past us when we lead them in from the pasture. Do we let others run over us too? When someone else handles our horse, how do they act differently? What does that say about them? About us? Maybe our horse become much more tense when we take the lead. Are we having difficulty letting the difficulties of the day go?
I have tried to hide for most of my life. I try to blend into the background and just go unnoticed. Corrie is actually calling me on this. She tells on me, I have a hard time bringing my energy up. I try, but she will totally match me. So if I let my energy drop she totally drops too. As we were doing ground work last week, I could barely get her to move. She totally matches my energy as I work with her. It was very frustrating. That is telling me something about myself. I need to learn to be more confident and not hide in the corner.
Later I went to Target to shop and I was working on walking around with energy. It was hard to keep it up so long. I walked down an aisle and a woman totally looked up as I approach, almost jerked her head up. I was rather surprised because so many people just ignore me.
Ahah this reminds me. Theres this british man I know. Hes one of those people that invades your personal hula hoop and seems to get whomever he is with riled up, animals included. It seems every woman he is around for any length of time has a really irritated story to tell about him. He can get any dead broke horse riled up beyond reasoning just by taking it's lead rope. Just after I got Indigo we were at a show and he took her out of the trailer and she became so wound up in an instant thank god my friend was there to take her and walk her. I've never seen her that wound in my life.
ReplyDeleteWe have a saying about him (I'll call him J) J stampedes the women and rapes the cattle. Hehehe.
That is soo true about how they react when certain people are around. Its sometimes sooo annoying to have a problem with my hrose and someone else takes the lead and they just do it, no questions asked, grr. But it lest me know what i need ot work on i guess.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about horses' honesty. So many people just don't realize and give horses the credit they deserve.
ReplyDeleteThe horse will pretty much tell you everything you need to know about yourself, if you're willing to listen.
ReplyDeleteAnd the horse will often challenge you to be more than you think you can, because they need you to.
Nice post!
HOrses may be honest, but they can also be unkind, too. Sometimes a polite and kind horse is better than an honest, but unkind horse. I learned that when my twinling rode Bella last week and was bucked off by her. He's a beginner rider, and tends to be quiet, meek, and gentle. Why then would a horse that is usually laid back and lazy, buck off my son with such force and attitude...and yes, anger, to cause my poor boy to go flying over 7 feet into the air and more than 15 feet away?
ReplyDeleteWhere's the honesty in that? A little kindness goes a long way, especially towards a beginner child who was never once rough or mean to Bella at all.
Why could she just refuse to walk instead of breaking into a gallop and then bucking him off.
The first time I rode Apache, she was like Corrie: cautious, feeling my trepidation and nervousness. She took baby steps as if to reassure me that she was a kind and gentle horse and she didn't want to feel me to fall off, so if she sensed that I losing my balance...she stopped and waited.
She refused to give me a canter until she felt I was ready. And I was. And it was so much fun!
I wish more horses were like Apache and your Corrie.....
~Lisa
And that's why Corrie is such a gem. :)
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