4.20.2009

My Horse Fix

Isn't it funny how God arranges things for us? I decided to part with a few more horse things and placed an ad on craigslist. Long story, but the lady who wound up purchasing the equipment was trying to start a horse rescue. She had 7 horses at the time, including 3 pregnant mares. She was having some difficulty though, as a horse had kicked her in February and broken her leg. So she was still accepting rescues, but was unable to do any training with them. She was desperate for help, but had been unable to find anyone with any training experience. After we conversed for a while, she invited us to join her family for Easter lunch and get to know each other, which we did. Yesterday, my wonderful husband offered to take over my household tasks and to watch the kids while I went out to help her.

I couldn't believe how nervous I was. It has been 2 years since I trained a horse! It was somewhat hard to believe, but once I got to training some skittish, frightened mares she had, it all came back to me. I was embarrassed, however, to find how completely out of shape I was! I used to thoroughly groom 5 or 6 six horses in one shot, and after a basic grooming on my first mare yesterday, my arms felt like they were going to fall off! I am just thankful she had 20x20 stalls for me to work in instead of having to use her 80-foot pen. There is no way I would have had the endurance for that! Despite my workouts here at home, I re-discovered muscles I had forgotten existed! So humbling.

It turned out to be such a great situation, as, I was free to train the way I feel comfortable, using the gentle techniques I have found work best and fastest, and have the owner just trust me to do whatever I felt necessary. After doing some training with 2 of her horses and helping out with a few other tasks, I got to go play with this little 4-day old filly:


I cannot express to you how much fun I had yesterday! Today, my face and neck are sunburned, my back and arms are so sore I can hardly lift my babies, and I was so exhausted that I overslept this morning. But it is all so worth it! There are few things as thrilling to me as walking into a pen with a horse that is so scared of me that I can't even walk up and touch it, and, after working for a bit, being able to walk out of that same pen after not only approaching and petting the horse, but also being able to groom, lift her feet, have her follow me around without a halter or lead rope, and generally have her comfortable with my presence.

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It was a wonderful experience and I thank God for the opportunity to refresh my skills. I look forward to returning in the future.

2 comments:

..... said...

So happy that you got to be apart of it! The picture is beautiful!

If you get a chance - could you send me an email on the agencies you used to adopt your boys? I am starting to research agencies for our next one! Thanks!

OurCrazyFarm said...

What an awesome day! We've met some fun people from Craigslist, too. Hope you get to go back often and work with the horses.