Training A Horse Is Like Writing A Story

I am a writer, and one of my favorite things to do is to tell a good story. I have often said that getting a horse is like getting a brand new notebook. You open it up, and it’s blank….just waiting to be filled in with adventures, experiences, knowledge, sentiment, good memories, colorful adjectives, and whatever else comes your way. So it is when you get a horse.

I went for a ride with Cowboy Dad yesterday. We had talked about trailering out to some trails or something, since we had a whole afternoon and warm sunny weather. But with the melting snow and muddy footing, we figured it would be safer to stay on the gravel roads around the farm…we have learned the hard way to not venture out on unfamiliar trails when it’s muddy. So we left the kids at his mom’s and went out to ride.

I know I’m getting old, because it’s not so easy to just run out, grab a horse, and go. Just like jogging, the hardest part is just getting out of your front door. But to ride, we have to load up all of our gear….saddles, bridles, boots, a drink…oh, and don’t forget the camera! And haul it all out to the farm. Then the horses have to be caught and led out through the calves’ pen, which is really muddy and cumbersome when you’re leading two horses and you have three others trying to get out with them because they don’t want to be left behind! I’m working on getting a gate installed at one corner of the horse’s pen directly to the farm yard, so we don’t have to go through the calves’ pen and the corn crib to get the horses out. But everything’s a work in progress….

So I catch up Cricket and the buckskin mare, whom we’ve started calling Girlie. We aren’t sure if the name is going to stick, and we aren’t sure if we even like it as a name, but it’s what we call her for lack of anything better. She is just so docile and sweet natured, and stands there close to you when you’re putting hay in her bunk, and I always say, “Hey, girlie,” affectionately, out of habit. So that might end up being her name…it’s hard to tell. We had thought we were naming her foal “Rex”, but my brother in law started calling him “Cletus” as a joke, and now the kids are calling him that, so I’m afraid it is set in stone! His registered name will be Cooke Commander, so I guess Cletus can be short for that. Ha ha!

But I get the two mares all brushed off, with a little help from Cowboy Dad, who explained that the only reason he wasn’t jumping in to help me was because I never like how he puts the saddle on. This was a shocking admission but I knew it was the truth…I have criticized his work a few times before on the exact placement of the saddle, or whether it is cinched tightly enough or too tight. I have perfectionist tendencies, and while my comments are tempered to those I am befriending or don’t know very well, those who are very close to me often bear the brunt of my nit picking. I don’t know why it is harder to use tact with those we love the most! So anyway, I had to backpeddle a little bit and resolve to let my husband saddle his horse however he wants. After all, my corrections were only within eighths of inches anyway…it’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing…and he’s the one who’s nice enough to go riding with me, so I’ve got to work on being nicer.

We decided to ride along the highway, over the river bridge, and into our little town. It’s only about a mile or so, and we haven’t ridden in that direction for a long time. The horses were eager to go, Girlie stepped right out in a trot away from the farm, and her foal didn’t even whinny after her. When we got to the bridge we had to watch for traffic. The horses are very good with cars passing them along the roadside, but the bridge is narrower of course, and there is no room on the sides to be safely away from the cars. The horses really don’t like that first step onto the bridge. They can sense it is different footing, and they need to stop and sniff and make sure it’s okay to walk on before stepping onto it. But we passed that without mishap, and rode on into town.

We live in a really small town where pretty much everyone knows each other. We got the dogs all barking as we clip-clopped down the street. Kids rode past on their bicycles, waving, and the horses didn’t really even blink at them. When we got to Grandma’s house, Cowboy Dad went up and knocked on the door. Our kids came out and wanted to ride a little bit. Cowboy Dad told our daughter she could go to the neighbors and offer to give their little girls a quick ride, since she’s best friends at school with one of them, and they love playing together. So they all came out and we let them ride Cricket, and put our kids on Girlie and led them around for awhile.

We were walking along behind the elementary school, and the grass was thick and still green, so the horses were snatching bites of it once in awhile. I was leading Girlie with just our daughter on board, and once when she stopped to eat, our daughter kicked her sides with both feet! Girlie jumped, and I yelled and told her to not kick the mare! The buckskin actually only moved about an inch, which was incredibly fortunate, because she could have bucked or bolted without warning and really hurt our little girl. We explained to the kids that if someone is leading a horse, you don’t kick or try to control the horse at all. I think our daughter, who is five, was kind of trying to show off in front of her friends…but we’re lucky it didn’t cause a wreck.

On the way back to the farm, leaving town, I thought about letting Girlie lope. But Cricket is kind of older and we usually take it slow for her sake. So after trotting for a good length, I started to slow the buckskin mare up, and she really wasn’t ready to slow down–she kind of tossed her head to go faster, and when I shortened my reins further, asking her to slow down, she kicked out with both hind feet in rebellion. I laughed and looked back at my husband, who was a safe distance behind on Cricket. He said it wasn’t just a kick, she had bucked! But he said she didn’t miss a stride, and I told him it didn’t even feel like a buck. So evidently our mare has a little spunk to her, but that’s the first sign of any rebellion I’ve seen yet. She does get “hot” at a fast trot or lope, and you can feel that she’s ready to kick it into high gear and boogie out of there. But after that, I asked her to slow down and walk, and we walked slowly on a loose rein the rest of the way home.

I keep saying how incredible it is that we have only had her a few months and she is such a good horse. The more I ride her, the more convinced I am that she had some serious training when she was younger, before being turned out with the broodmares. Because it’s showing up in her response to the neck rein already, and how she is just “common sense” about everything I ask her to do. It’s really nice to get to enjoy a horse, rather than fight with it or struggle constantly.
I have often said that getting a horse is like getting a brand new notebook. You open it up, and it’s blank….just waiting to be filled in with adventures, experiences, knowledge, sentiment, good memories, colorful adjectives, whatever comes your way. So it is when you get a horse. That first time you see it, you take it at face value: it is what it is, and you have no idea how good it’s going to be. But the more time you spend, the more knowledge you have of that horse’s nature. Even watching a horse eat its grain can tell you something about that horse. Every moment you’re around the horse, you’re both learning, both evaluating each other, both acting and reacting to each other’s motions. And it’s just like writing a novel when you train a horse…you are giving and receiving, and you are learning and sharing what that horse is like, and who it is, and what it will become. After you’ve been around a horse for a number of years, you may have volumes of information on that horse, and you can work with that horse as easily as you can put on a favorite t-shirt. Because in the time you have spent with that horse, you have written that horse’s story. And it’s a beautiful thing when you can read that horse’s story and know that it’s a good one.