Deal With the Horse that Shows Up!

Today's lesson: Deal with the horse that shows up!

My intent was to continue with saddling work today, using the 22' line and getting Dublin relaxed at the canter while carrying the saddle.

We've had a big weather change. Lately it's been in the 90s every day. Today it switched to windy, cloudy and chilly. I spent the day house shopping with a friend and didn't get home until mid-afternoon, and with the weather not being all that inviting, I wasn't that anxious to get started with horses. Finally dragged myself out to turn Cowboy out on grass and to work Dublin. As I led him toward the saddling area, I noticed he was a bit "up". It seemed to have something to do with the neighbor's pasture, where the local wild turkeys were apparently staging a love-in. Now Dublin was not fond of the turkeys when they showed up after their winter hiatus, but he has gotten accustomed to them to the point where he will chase them a bit for fun. But with the wind and colder weather, it seems he was not up to tolerating a full-fledged turkey orgy in plain view. He was, shall we say, disturbed. And when he is disturbed, the 16-hand Thoroughbred has the ability to grow at least another 2 hands. That's intimidating. It is nice to know that he sees me as a source of comfort, but that comfort does not extend to having him leap into my arms, and that is what he wanted to do.

Change of plan. Forget saddling. Let's work on keeping the giant horse out of my personal space. The trick is to appear to be bigger and scarier than he is. I'm a pretty mild-mannered person, but when a whole bunch of agitated horse is headed straight toward me, I can summon up a lot of attitude. Get those feet moving in some sort of organized fashion, preferably away from me. Circle one way. Circle the other. Go touch the saddle with your nose. More circles and direction changes. Look at me! Forget the turkeys! I'm at least as scary as they are.

Finally, the head came down and I got some blowing and a sense that the equine brain had reconnected with the giant equine body. Truly a comforting feeling. I put on the 22' line and we went out of the paddock and did some work in and out of the ditch, over poles, and sidestepping.

So no saddle work today but still a worthwhile exercise. I called it quits and put him out to pasture for some grazing.

When grazing time was over, I went to fetch him and got my reward. Dublin is not all that receptive to being taken off pasture. It's really a game of catch. But tonight when I went to bring him in, he saw me at the gate, whinnied, and cantered directly up to me and put his head down for the halter. Truly a "Lassie" moment! Now if only I could get that on video.