That's what the horse said....
I don't know if it's the weather or what but communication has been spotty this week, at best.
I think I have raised an eyebrow at least a dozen times this week when someone asked a question I already answered in the email they just responded to, but also seems to have bled over to horsey time. Don't you hate when adulting follows you around like a dryer sheet stuck in your pants....la sigh....
So Pistol was 100% a Pistol this week.
He was throwing around Mustang, I'm gonna F You Up Postures to his pasture mates and then 10 seconds later making huge detours to avoid the actual bully in the pen. He was trying to walk off when I was getting in the saddle (his usual trick is to take a big step backwards, so going forward instead is new and equally annoying), he was pretending he was steering the ship and that he got to do what he wanted, go the speed he wanted and eat when he wanted - all of this is a lie and he knows better. Then when I told him politely 'No' he decided that throwing his head like a hopped up bobble head was gonna somehow win his argument. He decided to do this no matter what we were doing, riding, walking, standing, didn't matter, he wanted me to know his opinion on my apparently stupid ideas for our time together.
He was also super sweet and cute and did things to tell me that he was listening and that he cares. Like while loping I got a little tense and he immediately slowed his roll without me having to actually ask, or when we were walking back from our ride and his pushed his muzzle into my hand and just breathed a cute little sigh. So it was a week full of give and take, a week of in depth arguments silently fought between me and a 1000 lb horse that I adore.
Some weeks are like that, some times we are in sync and move together with no problem, other times it's like trying to get your hair to lay down with you take off a stocking cap - mostly pointless.
Just like communicating with humans, horses are complex and they take in all the signals we're giving, and the conversations have depth. It's a thing I didn't notice when I didn't have my own horse, but now that I do, and I spend so much time with him, I see all these exchanges we have and I try to hear him when he 'speaks' to me.
Often you see riders who aren't listening, just like how you see coworkers, friends, parents, spouses, or whoever who just aren't getting the message you're putting out there. We have to take our soft skills to the barn with us and use those subtler talents to tune in to what our horses are saying, they have lots of opinions and they aren't particularly good at keeping them to themselves, so if you don't listen they will say it louder until they get the message across. It's up to you to decide how much of a fight you want, the more you listen the less fight you have to conquer, the more you ignore them the worse it gets.
We often think that because horse time is our time away from all things human, that we don't have to do all kind of internal hard work, but we actually need to do more of it, not less, when we are with our horse partners we have to tune in and pay attention. It's one of the billion and one challenges of horsemanship!
Pistol totally not into the kissy face I'm making or the pic being taken - he mostly thinks I'm silly.
I think I have raised an eyebrow at least a dozen times this week when someone asked a question I already answered in the email they just responded to, but also seems to have bled over to horsey time. Don't you hate when adulting follows you around like a dryer sheet stuck in your pants....la sigh....
So Pistol was 100% a Pistol this week.
He was throwing around Mustang, I'm gonna F You Up Postures to his pasture mates and then 10 seconds later making huge detours to avoid the actual bully in the pen. He was trying to walk off when I was getting in the saddle (his usual trick is to take a big step backwards, so going forward instead is new and equally annoying), he was pretending he was steering the ship and that he got to do what he wanted, go the speed he wanted and eat when he wanted - all of this is a lie and he knows better. Then when I told him politely 'No' he decided that throwing his head like a hopped up bobble head was gonna somehow win his argument. He decided to do this no matter what we were doing, riding, walking, standing, didn't matter, he wanted me to know his opinion on my apparently stupid ideas for our time together.
He was also super sweet and cute and did things to tell me that he was listening and that he cares. Like while loping I got a little tense and he immediately slowed his roll without me having to actually ask, or when we were walking back from our ride and his pushed his muzzle into my hand and just breathed a cute little sigh. So it was a week full of give and take, a week of in depth arguments silently fought between me and a 1000 lb horse that I adore.
Some weeks are like that, some times we are in sync and move together with no problem, other times it's like trying to get your hair to lay down with you take off a stocking cap - mostly pointless.
Just like communicating with humans, horses are complex and they take in all the signals we're giving, and the conversations have depth. It's a thing I didn't notice when I didn't have my own horse, but now that I do, and I spend so much time with him, I see all these exchanges we have and I try to hear him when he 'speaks' to me.
Often you see riders who aren't listening, just like how you see coworkers, friends, parents, spouses, or whoever who just aren't getting the message you're putting out there. We have to take our soft skills to the barn with us and use those subtler talents to tune in to what our horses are saying, they have lots of opinions and they aren't particularly good at keeping them to themselves, so if you don't listen they will say it louder until they get the message across. It's up to you to decide how much of a fight you want, the more you listen the less fight you have to conquer, the more you ignore them the worse it gets.
We often think that because horse time is our time away from all things human, that we don't have to do all kind of internal hard work, but we actually need to do more of it, not less, when we are with our horse partners we have to tune in and pay attention. It's one of the billion and one challenges of horsemanship!
Loved this! Thanks for sharing... :)
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