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The 1999- 2000 Wisdom and Haflinger Humor of Jenny
Rausch of Brush Prairie, Washington
2002 2004
2005 2006
April 2000--Dealing with Fear
Does anyone else out there chuckle and say; " WHY do we DO this to ourselves??"
I do.
Oh, boy; We are talking about my good old friend and mentor, Fear. He has been almost as constant of a companion as my best friend, Jesus. Matter of fact, we have had some pretty good three-way conversations when I was on horseback during the last twelve years or so.
See, many moons ago, I was one of those hot-dog, neck or nothing kid riders that thinks they are CONTROLLING the horse simply because they can stay on just about no matter what.
Ha.
Life happens, and when I was about that age where it catches you, I went on for about 7 horseless years, in college and with a job full time. Got married, started spending MONTHS out of doors in country that would make a Sidehill Winder shaky just to look at, and thought I WANT ANOTHER HORSE! Husband had serious knee surgery about then, and lo and behold, he wanted a horse, too. Otherwise, no more months of hill gazing and chasing elk and beautiful views over the backside of mountains for him. So; We got a horse.
Now I found out that even the advantage of an Elmer's glue seat had left me, with the fickleness of early youth. I no longer bounced (though I still have a really hardy series of leaps!!) and I still didn't really know how to safely make a horse obey me. I am also a card carrying member of the 'What If' club. Gold card. Two million shriek limit. People with imagination should never try to learn to ride horses. Especially people with a medical education that REEEEEEEALY know how bad the human body can be messed up.
I spent the first year of my getting-back-into-riding trying to avoid any speed. Also any situation that excited my horse at all, a very green QH gelding I intended to train for my ridden-twice-in-his-life husband. Oh, and any situation that scared me, which was most any of them involving our horse. Yeah, right. I am a sure a realist........ Dang it, I remembered so clearly what it was supposed to feel like, but I couldn't DO it that way anymore. I do not remember any fear from way back when. Well, I remember mom's fear pretty well I guess.
I am fortunate enough to have a family (excepting Mom) that consists of horse people that actually know what they are doing with horse/rider training and are very good at it- I found out that my little sister was willing to put in time training my gelding and scraping me off of rocks and stuff, and that was one of the best things that I did. This gave me some confidence as to how Tiny (The QH) was going to respond, without it scaring me so badly. I still think that if your seat hasn't caught up with your brain, either spend as much time as you can on a real safe horse getting your balance, or get someone to put in some miles on your greenie so that you are a little less likely to get in a situation where BOTH of you are scared. I recommend both, if you can do it. Fear is a good thing, it is common sense rearing its head and saying LOOKIT STUPID YOU ARE RISKING SOMETHING IMPORTANT HERE AND I AM NOT IN THE WILL. It has it's place keeping us from killing ourselves outright. You can't make it go away, but you can learn to live with it in peace and harmony, if you want to badly enough. A little like a good marriage-It takes real commitment.
If you are so in love with horses that you are willing to go through the pain and fear that they will potentially expose you to, there are some things that you can do. Read the book that Jane Savioe (sp?) did on facing fear/riding with fear- it is pretty good. There are others out there that are good, too. Try any way that you can to find a person to mentor you to ride with. My sister CARED that I learn properly, and that my self image (and body) was affected by how I succeeded at this- she was willing to encourage me, push me, and ride with me, offer me good books to borrow, laugh at me, scold me, ride out an attitude problem if my horse had one. She was able to feel confidence in me when I felt like pulling my hair and the horses mane out, which was often for the first years. Having someone local or long distance, like this group, really helps to motivate you. Outside involvement is going to help. We really do understand. We have probably all been there at some point. If you have been around horses much, you have to deal with these kind of issues.
Educate yourself, like the people that I am hearing talk about fear on this list seem to be doing. Read, take lessons here and there, try to spend as much time on horses as you can.
Emily- I think that the most important aspect of coping with deep fear is accepting that you are simply going to feel it. You will, but don't let that stop you. Things do happen, and you may get injured. Okay, so it could happen. I bet you were afraid when you had children born, but I am sure that you would not go back and change that part of your life, right? How important to your life is riding and enjoying your horses?
I am getting to where I might feel adrenaline in a bad situation, or I might not; but that shaking-I-want-to-get-off feeling that I initially had is pretty much a thing I haven't felt for a long time now. I have developed a reasonable amount of confidence.( I am still very safety conscious, though. I like my bones to remain in their original order.)
Carol, and other green riders of exceptional common sense and courage, I recommend that if you can't stand teaching your green horse to canter yourself, have someone do it for you, as a safety measure. Green horses are going to break into a canter on their own at some point, absolutely, and you don't want it to be with a terrified rider that panics at all when it happens. You don't know exactly how your horse is going to react when they take those first steps of canter with a body up on their back, and you want them to know how to stop when they are moving faster and feeling excited. They develop brakes by working at speed, more than by going slow. Get your green horse enough of an education that you will be as safe as possible. Then, if you want to walk and trot for the next three years, go for it! I did a lot of slow work. I just now feel like I have enough of a seat on a horse to really ride however fast I and my horse jolly well feel like going. S'a lot of fun!!!! And, there are a lot of times where the best thing you can do to train your horse to listen or get past their own fear is to channel them forward. This requires movement, sometimes faster than a walk..I did a lot of fast trotting. Trotting is a really good speed for the horse to work at.
There IS merit to pushing yourself, and having people push you a little, as long as it is just the fear of falling Vs the fear that you cannot make your horse mind safely. I have had to push myself hard, but I was able to work through it because I was motivated by love and a desire for this lifestyle. I want my kids to know it. I want to share it with my husband and the kids around here that long for a chance just to touch a horse. I want handicapped people to experience it, if they want to. If you can get up early in the morning when you don't feel like it, you can get past fear in your riding etc.. It is largely a matter of discipline mixed with a large measure of priority, like most things in life.
That dear sister whom I love but could still smack for doing this to me, signed me up in a class at my first show last summer on a green horse that had cantered once or twice, for a few steps, in a class that I had to canter. I had been messing around with little short spells of speed, when I had hills to slow the horses on and felt safe, but I had done NADA on the flat, which is a whole different ball of wax. She told me as I was going in "Oh- this is a canter class- You are ready to canter her, you will be just fine, your seat is great and so what if you fall off? She will be okay too." She had broken this horse for me, it was DD, and she did know what we were ready for, but I was really REALLY reluctant to do this. I didn't have a lot of trust in this horse yet, just broken and all. Well, we cantered. And cantered. And cantered. This judge wanted us to CANTER by golly. At one point, I looked up and saw my sister with her hands over her eyes, peeking through her fingers at me- She was scared too! Gee, thanks, Sis. :) Here, Jesus, YOU take the reins and sit in the front-I'll just squeeze in here all cozy-like next to Fear, behind you..... I have always heard that the back of the vehicle is safer in the event of a major crash.....
That 'push' or opportunity was enough to convince me that I really could control my mount at higher speeds, within reason, and that I was ready for what 'life' brought. I think that if I hadn't been ready I would have flat refused, but I knew inside that I was ready to advance and just needed a push to do it.
I have had a few accidents and injuries over the last several years since I got back into horses- I have been so scared that all I could do was initiate one of those heart to hearts with my friends, at the top of my lungs sometimes. No terrible owies (Thanks to one of my friends!) though a few that sure ache in rainy weather. Sang a few off tune sea-chanties too...Makes you remember to breathe normally even when you are scared if you sing.
I am no hotshot trainer, never will be, and there are certainly many riders that are better than I am, but I am getting to the place where I am pretty relaxed even on our green horses that I have no real trust or relationship with. I still ride in a saddle big enough for all three of us riders, but we have far more interesting conversations now, with only the occasional blast of freezing cold instant terror to interfere with my basic body functions.
So, I recently took up driving. Fortunately, I got a carriage that seats three.....
April 2000--Training Sessions
For those of you who don't remember, we recently bought two haffie geldings to add to our collection of haffies.
One is still recuperating, very successfully, from an injury. The other one we have, named ''Jeep'' ( Avallon to those who want to know real names!) we have teamed up with a young lady of a certain orientation ( horse crazy as all get out!! Bless her!) named Esther. ( Esther to those who want to know real names!)
Esther has been pretty faithfully working Jeep out in the pasture, over obstacle courses including plywood, logs, plastic tarps, white barrels, etc and some assorted cavaletti for good measure. She has had the happy opportunity to be the one that gets to teach him that, No; people's feet are not there for a horse to walk on, and No; you aren't supposed to crash into your people when they lead you. Well, she also has decided that Jeep is nearly ready to break. With this in mind, she stepped up the program this week.
The itinerary has included:
TIME REQUIRED TO TEACH:
To walk over black plastic on the ground ..... 30 seconds, after first pawing.
Walk/trot through stuff on tarp on ground..... 01 seconds.No pawing.
Walking past rolling white barrel.... 00 second. Who cares?:)
Walking to, stepping up to/standing on stump.... 2.5 minutes, people are weird!
Standing tied quietly.......... 8,937, 293,927 minutes; Now THIS is hard!!!!!!!
Standing still letting people jump on/squeeze him..... 5 minutes, surewhatever.
Carrying large piece of black plastic on back......... 3-4 minutes + big sniff
Bathing............................................ 14 seconds, and people are weird still, I see..
Staying in his own space, stopping instantly, starting instantly, turning, paying attention to person, ditto all of this at the walk and trot, about 6 sessions.
Not bad, for either beginner! Esther keeps complaining that it is kind of boring to work on him, because he just refuses to play the typical game. Nothing scares him.
Gee, honey, that is too bad, huh? I should get her a really spoiled non-haffie and let her learn to appreciate this boy. :) Nah, I like her too much to do that!
This is a neat breed of horse, and all the training times listed here are very true and serious to the best of my knowledge. ( Except the standing tied- I may have understated that by a few million minutes.....Hey- bear with me here.)
Tomorrow, we may hook him up to a surcingle and begin him ground driving.
Still waiting on that durn (*@$&! mare to foal. All I can say is that it serves her right to have to stay pregnant so long, for keeping us hanging like this! Needs a skate board under her belly to keep the foal under her when she walks now. Twitty horse.This is our 10th night in the barn with her.
Yawn. Well, as Paul Harvey would say if he were here....That.....is the middle..of the story.
February 2000:Pushy Haflingers and proper training
Speaking of pushy haflingers and proper training......Heh.
Today, I decided that this life of ease and luxury needed to stop- enough time
out to pasture and eating with no real work- it was time to get up and start our
new gelding , three year old Avallon ( Jeep to us ) . After all, the horses need
some work too. Ahh, thought I, he needs to be groomed, we'll start there. Heh.
Well, we did. I really have to say that he is a jewel, I love his attitude, but
like all young horses, he need proper training to establish respect for his
people. Well, He is going to see the vet with his brother tomorrow, and was so
deeply mudded, I thought that I would hose his legs, and do his tail. Kind of
dissolve the hairy mud balls on his belly fuzz. He was not too happy about this,
and here, right here, started what most people new to horses tend to miss when
dealing with their haffies. You see, he didn't do a thing that was obviously
aggressive, just little side steps that varied in size and strength. But; he had
it DOWN that if he moved over to me slowly, and sort of rotated at the end of
his tie, I unconsciously moved out of range so he wouldn't step on the hose. He
probably assumed that I was respectfully getting out of his way. Worked for
him... for the first couple of times. Then, as I was sort of "moving with him"
doing the Baby-Haffie Shuffle, it occurred to me that I was systematically
teaching him that I get out of his space when he invades mine. Hah. He was very
subtle
about this, folks, this is what haffies excel at! Seen it with all 4 of ours,
and several of the ones that are owned by others.
We all know that trying to swat at a previously "trained" haffie that has
learned how to do this is a sure way to get them to lean on you, and I like
to have my thumbs intact so I have a good excuse for my typical clumsiness-so I
located a short, rather thick, blunt stick and stuck it in my pocket. Heh.
Remember, I am working here, and have my hands rather busy. The next little
hip-swing, I casually got the stick out, and pushed it toward his ribs just
enough that I knew he could feel it. Then; HE LEANED. I mean leaned on me with
one hind foot off of the ground, and the other three pushing hard. I am no
weenie light weight, so I stood there, quietly waiting. After about 3 and a half
minutes of grunting and pushing against me, he ( gasp!) backed off of me about 2
inches. I immediately took the pressure off and Voila! He immediately leaned on
me again. Smart horse. :) We went through this about 7 times. My husband was
standing there watching,
(This is what I married him for- it is in the fine print right next to
"justifying real need of wife by leaving nose hair trimmings on rim of sink" in
the marriage contract) making helpful remarks to us in our silent struggle, like
" Is da meeeean lady bullying you, poor widdle hoesie?" and "If that was ME, I
wouldn't be BAD to you, only MOM is a BAAAAD person, daddy FEEEEEEEDS his widdle
Baby-Wuv vums!" You have no idea how hard it is, holding a stick against the
side of a 13-ton
teenage horse-with-attitude while retching violently. We did get it completely
resolved by the time #8 rolled aroung, and interestingly enough, all of the
impatient generally puu-ey fidgeting and mouthy-ness quit too. He now had it
pretty well understood that he stays in his own personal hemisphere, and only
dad can get away with making inflammatory remarks to mom with impunity. The
scary white towel that ate his hiney was a snap to deal with (you just eat them
first) and he learned that he can only reach the bottom tie on the fleece
cooler, no matter how hard he tries. Oh, and that he will need to learn to speak
Chinese for those times when he
is standing tied, and pawing to amuse himself...... Jenny Rausch in Vancouver Wa,
where the hubby is witty, the woman is tired and smells like a dirty horse, and
the horses are cleaner than the exceptionally wonderful children.
February 2000: Happy Trails
I just returned from a ripping good trail ride. WOW! I went to
check out the access road that I got permission to ride on, and found out that
the owners
were also willing to let me ride all over the miles of trail that they have cut
out in their 30 acres or so. This is very, very good!! Then, in the middle of
exploring the trail that runs through the bottom of the crick in this area, I
got onto a trail that is a part of the adjoining housing development, a trail
that loops for about 7 miles in the green area that the developer had to leave
when he put in those 150 extra homes. Broke my heart. :)=) I rode for nearly
three hours and still haven't seen half of
the trails I have access to!! I also get to use a very long gravel driveway for
driving if I want to as well as the access road and catted out trails they put
in last summer. I feel like I died and went to heaven. I have water hazards,
hills, areas to run full out, and just plain have FUN on that I didn't even know
existed. DD isn't QUITE as thrilled about all of this as I am, but she will be.
She really likes to go, but right now is going through a herd bound period. I
now have a place that I can ride to where I can tie her up and read a book till
she realizes that we don't go anywhere till she quits focusing on her herdmates.
This was about the most productive ride on her that I have ever had- I kept
turning her away from where she wanted to go, and was able to keep her good and
busy looking at new stuff where she had to pay attention or land on her head on
some very challenging trail, which as far as I know is the best way to deal with
this kind of immaturity. When we finally started for home, she was totally
waiting for ME to tell her where we were going and at what speed. Nice! DD
thinks that I am the meanest owner in the world, why did she have to go in that
nasty wet stream and hold STILL while I moved debris and logs out of the way?
The only part that I could have done without is where I looked down and saw a
pretty good sized print that looked suspiciously like cougar pugs in the mud by
the stream bottom. Saw raccoon prints too- cute! There are freshwater mussels in
the stream there. This is a real animal highway for the local wildlife- a long
stretch of timber undisturbed by roads or houses Neat!
Hoping that everyone else gets to ride where they can really enjoy it and get
huge stickers in their hands and soaking wet riding boots too!
June 2000: On a personal note
I took my younger mare, D.D., out for a spin tonight. Really
nice way to end a day, though I could have done without all of the stupid
rabbits that kept exploding from nearby clumps of brush and grass. D.D. had to
pound on my chest several different times to restart my heart. Very
embarrassing. I got my own back when that little spike buck startled her,
though. Heh, heh. The good news is, she is very soft and willing to come out of
a hard gallop and back into a soft trot. The other good news is that I
remembered to ask her to slow down out of a hard gallop. Yup. The brakes
work...... I also enjoyed letting her out in a canter a few times, where the
road let me-DD loves to canter, (Gee, I remember when it felt fast to trot!) and
I find it is easier to teach her to bend and soften from behind in the cart than
when I ride her. Go figure. I think it really helps to be able to concentrate on
what I am SEEING instead of primarily what I am feeling, and you don't have a
lot beyond your hands to concentrate on, as far as your own body goes, when you
are driving.
I have decided I will drive my haffies 'till I can no longer con some good
looking young fella' into wedging me up onto the seat of my carriage. My own
good looking fella' is way too smart for me to con much, though he is really
great about getting the horses in from the pasture for his pathetic
wife......For a man who doesn't drive, he has been pretty helpful, I must say.
Let's hear it for wonderful, supportive mates married to inveterate horse
crazies! When I think of it like that, I can almost forget my annoyance with
people who don't drive but tell you how you ought to.....
Rather a rough day here. Had to put a very old and special friend down. A cat
that we have had since Frank and I got married. The usual cancer/nasty suffering
etc. Poor old thing, it was time. I stood there holding our cat with tears
running down my cheeks (I hate crying, let alone publicly) as the vet injected
him. Then I got a horrible case of the giggles because the vet tactfully
suggested that I not use the main door out of the waiting room past the other
clients as they waited for THEIR turn with the vet. I felt awful, but it
really seems funny in a gallows sort of way, to me. In a last ditch effort to
help our very kind, not-very-quick-on-the-uptake vet
understand my real mood, I picked up the cage containing the young tom cat we
were picking up at the same time from being neutered, and said "I bet this
little guy behaves a lot better now that he knows what happened to the OTHER guy
that messed up!". The vet didn't laugh....He patted my shoulder and looked at my
husband with real concern, while Frank stood there and shook his head in a
commiserative fashion.... Help me out here. Am I sick, or is it a problem that
everybody else has? I think I will go and brush someone who REALLY understands
me. What have I got to lose- D.D. and Mac already know that I am totally weird,
but being haffies, they love me anyway. They have to, I feed them..........
June 2000:Making sun when the hay shines
Yeah, it's interesting what people around here do for hay.
Suffer, mostly. We don't raise our own, but we buy/haul out of the field, which
is nearly the
same. Still totally dependant on the weather,equipment, etc. This year, Frank
and I again decided that we had to have a whole years worth and a bit, as we
cannot count on pasture for real feed. Wanna see haffies that still have ribs??
Kinda nice not to have too much real pasture... Still, that means that we had to
have about 24 tons of hay. Last year, I got in the first 12 or 13 T with myself
loading, stacking, driving, and trying to motivate a 16yr old boy that we had
rented. It wasn't much harder than teaching a sloth bear to run- a couple of
times, I actually detected movement! It was wonderfully helpful, but then Frank
came home, andwe co-op'ped labour with a sister/bro-in-law for the
remaining 7 tons. Awful. I think I went from 9am to 1:30 am without stopping
except for dinner which I was too tired to eat.
This year, my family did hay alone- Frank, myself, our 9yr old son Daniel, and
daughter Kate (age 7) and my German Shepherd. We ended up with some
really really great hay - I haven't seen weather as good as this for hay since I
was an 8 yr old trying to help stack hay at home for our old welsh pony cross
mare.
It took us 4 days in this 90 degree weather to do it all. Well, 3 days, if you
don't count that one day that we had to rebuild the whole corner of the old
dairy barn where we keep our hay reserve stored. SOMEBODY-for the sake of common
courtesy and marital peace we shall keep names out of it and refer to this
person simply as "Frank"- just turned a teeeeeeny bit too soon and PULLED OUT
THE ROOF SUPPORTS AND WALL ON ONE SIDE OF THE WHOLE BARN WITH OUR TRUCK as they
were leaving the alley way. We couldn't put any more hay in until it was fixed.
I guess that took most of one day; all of it really if you count the two hours
of sympathetic screams of wifely laughter and loud wailing before we could bring
ourselves to get the repair started. Then there was 7 ton load
that we were just finishing off, ready to tie and take to the barns that FELL
OFF in the hay field when I turned a corner, because of not having been stacked
in a good tying-in formation....I cannot tell who was in charge of stacking, so
I will just say it wasn't me. I was trucking and throwing at this point.....
After that I was stacking, loading, and rubbing ashes on my head.....You always
CRISS CROSS the Bales, city boy! (City curmudgeon, actually.) I didn't not
actually dare say this, at this point, mind you.. I am a lot slower when running
than my dear husband is. So, three intense days of get up, get dirty pants and
old shirt on, find holey shoes, put them on the wrong feet, feed kids stale
bread and coffee with promises of real food sometime later.......(Does Gatorade
count as real food?) Then, step outside, wince at the blast of hot air hitting
your face, think about hitting your spouse for letting you buy your first horse,
but you can't because your arms hurt way too badly to reach him ( WHY did you
marry such a tall man??) Then kindly tell kids for the 12th time whose turn it
is to sit in the front seat on the way to the hay field. Sit for 7 minutes
trying to convince yourself to turn the key in the ignition. Man, it's hard when
you know whats coming.... We got it all in, it is definitely great hay. Looks a
lot better in my barn than it did when it was on the truck still. There is a lot
to be said for getting your own hay in, it is an experience that I cherish.
Three months
after I can stand fully erect again, usually. Our kids were begging us to get to
help- Isn't it amazing what deprived children will consider fun? Dan did a mans
work on the ground, rolling 65# bales for us when needed, helping to unload when
someone needed a third hand, running ahead of the truck to clear loose hay etc,
while his sister learned to drive a 2 - 4 Browning flatbed ( Two manual
transmissions to shift) that should have been put out to pasture 25 years ago.
She didn't hit any bales at all, unlike certain other people in our family who
in the interest of respecting anonymity we shall just refer to as "Frank"... I
wouldn't miss it. This is what life is about. Anyone ever read the book written
by Peter Hathaway Capstick called "Death in the long grass"? Just curious.
November 2000: Curses! Thrilled Again!
I had a chance today to go out for a pleasure drive again. This
time, my non- horsey,
why-do-you-do-this-wasting-your-time-with-these-smelly-beasts oriented
brother in law happened to have just come for a visit with us for a couple of
days. heh heh heh. An unsuspecting, not to mention deserving victim....... I
hauled DD out of maternity leave and hooked her up while my dear husband Frank
ever so casually edged his brother closer to the door. I gave the thumbs up, and
the next thing my poor Bro knows, he is parked next to me on the seat of a
carriage negotiating heavy traffic. heh heh. Other than a single, strangled
inquiry as to how fast would we be going, he was pretty cool and collected as he
sat with his hand draped over the seat back trying to make it look as if that
hand just happened to have fallen there, and that it was a strange twist of fate
that this hand happened to be gripping the bar uprights with enough force to
have whitened all 462 of his digital joints. * It is worth noting for those
people shopping for carts that it is easier to replace metal parts with finger
prints permanently embedded in them than it is to replace the wooden
counterparts. I was pretty proud of my mare again, she has been hooked or
saddled very little in the last several months, and yet she didn't miss a trick,
once again staying soft and obedient in a variety of scary situations. People
were raking leaves, dogs tried to chase us, traffic as always, plastic trash can
rolling down steep road behind us unexpectedly, ( that one had me levitating
about 4 feet straight up off of the seat till I realized what it was, which was
fortunate as it left me able to reach David and pull him back into his seat
while I was up there) you name it. That mare never flinched at maintaining a
steady, even trot pulling about her own weight up, down, and across some really
steep hills.( Oh I love those brakes- takes away the guilt factor when you can
just pull that slack out of the traces down a heavy hill with a load like ours)
She was having a ball, you could tell. The Bro is a BIG man, he would make the
rock of Gibraltar look little
standing next to it, though he is very fit. This was quite a good load for DD at
this point, being out of shape, but she never wavered, stopping for a breather
only when I asked her to. What tickled me so, above and beyond that willing
attitude of DD's was the huge smile on Brother in law's face by the time we came
back, and his joyful yells and laughter as we maintained what felt ( to the
passengers!) like an effortless canter back the last home stretch weaving around
obstacles both
imagined and real. He had to have Frank take several pictures of he and I in the
carriage, had to pet and scratch DD, thought I was barbaric not giving DD the
whole bag of horse treats that the shameless hussy was begging for with those
doe eyes of hers. Then, his eyes nearly popped out of his head when I left her
completely untied or held, telling her to stand while putting away harness and
such. (Fortunately he didn't see that baby step she took towards him, hoping he
was
going to feed her something yummy. My horses respond to the "Hairy Eyeball"
almost as fast as my kids do. They never imitate it, either, come to think of
it. Hmmmm. Course, horses don't laugh at my jokes, so I guess they stand about
even that way.) My brother in law is now totally convinced that Haflingers are
the bestest, smartest, perfectest horse that you can buy, and DD in particular
is the sweetest, most reliable horse to ever eat grass. He couldn't believe it
when I said that the majority of the Haflingers I know of that get a little work
are like her in temperament. He thinks that he may take up driving a carriage
instead of driving his motorcycle..... I was of course totally encouraging, as a
good sister in law should be;
I told him ''Go for it, David! Great idea!... Go get your own."
So much for family feeling.
12/29/99
Before I tell you what fun things I did today, let me first acknowledge that yes, I know that taking a horse through a very narrow, cluttered passageway overgrown with blackberry vines is stupid, especially when said horse is saddled already.
I am just getting used to this new barn that we moved our horses over to, and the surrounding area offers, shall we say, plenty of 'spook' training opportunities for our horses. The pasture and barn that they are in is great, but the aforementioned stupid alleyway that I decided to use to access my horsetrailer is awful! ......NOT safe. But, it is at least twice as close as the proper gate that a sane person would have led their horse through to get them loaded. So; I walked into it with my unsuspecting mare and Whammy! I was reminded of why I love this mare. She calmly, and relaxed-ly took squeezing through little tiny doors, with rattly latches that caught on the stirrups, stood calmly still, while I removed large noisy sheet metal trash monstersand garbage cans, and carefully picked out her own path through an area CROWDED with old radial arm saws and car doors, etc. on a loose lead. I would have taken her back out to the other gate, but once we were into the bad stuff, the alley was too narrow to turn her around in and we were committed!
The final thing that made me happy was her walking through the last door ( we are going through abandoned dairy barns, here) which was overgrown ,to the point that I couldn't fit, with heavy blackberry vines. She went willingly forwards, and then got several thick berry vines around one hind fetlock. She stopped with her leg extended far behind her, and waited patiently for me to carefully unhook her and slide the loops off of her leg. Then, off we go, and all of this was an area that she hadn't ever walked before. This, THIS is why I am happy and willing to own short Haflinger horses !!!!! They seem to have far bigger hearts than most other honking great long-legged things that I have owned. The other horses that were left behind in the barn were continually whinnying, and running, but she just buckled down and totally concentrated on what I asked her to do.
This was a good example of what NOT to do with your horse, but By Golly! It's nice to be able to if you HAVE to. This is a usable horse.
Then, we went off and had a great ride. I haven't been riding this mare for about 2 months, as she had a rock bruise that lamed her for a while. What a blast! It has been pretty cold here, for the Northwest, Temps in the low 20's at night, so everything was frosted over. We went through the woods, she had to lead for the second time on a trail, as the other rider was riding her horse on a trail for the first time, and we were (!) the "pickup horse". Ha. A case of the blond leading the blind?........ :) She was a trooper, as usual.
This was the first time that she totally got the concept that she is to go forward on the trail WITHOUT trying to troll for grass or leaves at the same time. Heh heh. Every time she wanted to stop and snatch a bite, I made her speed up and trot or canter. Worked like a charm. Suddenly, trying to eat on the trail didn't get her a short pause to chew, while I dragged her head around, it got her a swift kick and the command to trot on!!!!! Why did it take me so long to figure that out? :)
The view was incredible, and we had a ball. Looked at cows and squirrels and birds and deer and coyotes and dirtbikes. Very nice, and most everything was frosted over and white, sun shining through the trees making everything seem to clean and bright. --Even the cows, and we all know how difficult THAT is! She walked over ice and crunchy frozen brush for the first time, and threatened a couple of innocent trail markers, and generally had a good time.
DD started moving off of my weight alone, and after a couple of swift jogs up the trail to discourage the idea that trail blazing wasn't the same thing as trail grazing, I just gave her her head, and went along for the ride. I love how solid she feels at this stage, after only 8 trail rides, and rather minimal pasture/arena time. I guess I'll keep her. :)=)
I hope that all of you are getting a chance to enjoy your horses this week!
* That road cart is almost completely refinished, hurrah! And not only I, but my marriage survived it!!! I swear, people that havent even driven a carriage shouldn't think that they get to pick out their wife's cart stain color!!! Unless they have actual taste in such things! Sheesh. It has wheels, so he must know more about choosing colors, huh?!
Yours, Jenny Rausch in Vancouver, Wa. where for a change, it is sunny and her husband is stoutly protesting his innocence in any cart-color-choosing felony charges being brought against him. This is the man who thinks that grey goes with everything! He refuses to answer me when I ask him if grey goes with orange! Well, DOES it?! How about chartreuse?? Huh?