One thing that gets in our and our wild horse’s way – namely in the way of building a relationship based on mutual understanding and trust, of making lasting progress without lots of big fireworks and having to go back and repair damages – is being so focused on the outcome that we forget how important it is to pay attention to the process of getting there.
My old mare Blanca is an example of that. She’s always been forward and I love that about her. The problem is that she gets so focused on getting somewhere (to the top of the ridge, down a hill, to some cows) that she doesn’t pay attention to what’s under her feet, so inevitably she trips and nearly falls on her face.
Riding Blanca – who was older and well but not gently used when she came into my life – down a hill used to be terrifying with how chargy she was.
That wasn’t good for her, not fun for me, not safe for either one of us. It’s taken considerable, deliberate effort to get her soft and tuned into me enough that she’ll actually settle down and listen when I ask her to take one step at a time and pay attention if not to the ground then at least to my requests to calm herself, be in the here and now, and take it one step at a time. That’s how we haven’t crashed and gone a** over teakettle in all these years of mountain riding.
More often than not it’s us doing the rushing, not the horse.
Pictured here is Schatzi, 11yo Sand Wash Basin Mustang gelding. He was with Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy for his introduction to being handled and trusting humans and has since gone home to For the Love of Aria to live out his days peacefully and well cared-for in a herd of mostly older Sand Wash Basin Mustangs. I hear he will have some of his mares from the range re-joining him soon.
Schatzi was weary of people at first. Not panicky but definitely reserved. He wasn’t excited about allowing touch behind his eye, on his legs or about picking up his feet. He spent 9 years on the range, who can blame him?
Had we focused on “just getting him to do it”, it would have been a fight I had no way of winning and one that would have given him an ugly taste about interacting with humans. Instead we focused on the process, the journey towards being able to catch and halter him, to lead him, to touch him all over and pick up his feet, allowing him to understand and be ok with each step along the way.
I remind myself and our volunteers often to not “get greedy”, but to focus on breaking things down and making sure the horse is ok with what’s going on in each moment, rather than somehow getting to the desired outcome, missing all the small signals and steps along the way. The former creates a relaxed and trusting horse (with practice), the latter creates holes in their foundation that will come back to bite us and that we’ll need to go back and fix.
We’ve probably all done it, we’ll probably do it again. But to remember to focus on the how, not just the what, to be present and listen to the horse, addressing issues in the moment rather than ignoring them as we’re aiming for some greater goal, to pay attention to the journey as we work towards an outcome is what makes the magic happen.
And yes, that’s Schatzi enjoying a good butt scratch. That’s a handy way of getting them used to and ok with us being around their hind end without always suspecting we want to move them, pick up a foot or take their temperature.
Thank you to our partner organizations, Mustang adopters and owners for entrusting us with gentling and training your wild ones. We appreciate it and we love all the updates!
PC: Linnea Helander , Tay Martin
Training halter and lead rope: Rowdy’s Ropes
