Blog 1 April 5 2018
“Humbled By A Horse, who wanted to whisper but…”
I was probably at my highest peak of ‘ego and arrogance’ as far as training horses in a natural or traditional manner was concerned. I had great mechanical skills and pretty decent feel and timing. It appeared that I could make almost any horse do a lot of things. I had been a horse owner, a horse competitor, a riding and a natural horsemanship instructor for over 45+ years.
What else could I possibly learn about horses? What else could there be that I needed to know that I didn’t already know? (Learning Lesson)
In Oct 2013, a traumatized 7 year old, Lipizzan/Andalusian rescue gelding, who I named ‘Rhett’, entered my life. He wasn’t recently traumatized from neglect as he had been, but he had been in 4+ homes/trainers since his rescue in 2009, so I think that was a bit traumatizing in itself.
Rhett was unlike any horse I’d ever owned. It started with no one ‘owns’ Rhett. He had so much anger, so much emotional fragility, so much mental baggage and a huge false sense of confidence. Some of the challenges with people, obstacles and equipment I was aware of, but the deeply rooted anger, distrust of people in a learning environment, lack of herd socialization, was a tad out of my scope of knowledge and experience.
“Humbled By A Horse, who wanted to whisper but…”
So I began looking for other methods of ‘training’ that I wasn’t aware of or skilled in. Since I had so much experience in everything ‘horse’, I couldn’t imagine there was anything new that worked or I’d already be using it. So I asked Rhett what “I NEEDED TO DO”. He showed me stillness, calmness, whispers. “Stillness, calmness and whispers aren’t training methods Rhett”, I said. “Oh, but they MUST be” he replied.”
Stillness. Calmness. Whispers. (Learning and Life Lesson :-))
When Rhett came into my life, he showed me how to be confident without having an ego. I in turn, have helped him find ‘himself’, the ‘who’ he really is destined to be and the ‘who’ he was born to be – Proud. Confident. Happy.
Do you see your lesson in this story so far?
Next: Our ‘first introduction’ was in TN……
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Karen, thanks for putting yourself out there and showing us your accomplishments with Rhett. No, its not a horse training video, or cookie cutter program where a horse makes huge changes in a matter of a few hours or days. Rhett is NOT your typical horse, but one who needs things broken down into small bits so that he can have lot of YES moments and not be made to feel “WRONG” because he cant handle excessive pressure. His confidence grows much better this way being forced to face his fears. Even though you have branched out and tried new things, you haven’t forgotten the basic natural horsemanship principal of Take the Time It Takes, So It Takes LESS TIME. Rhett is in the right place with you. I was so moved in the video where you followed your heart and threw your leg over his back and got to sit for the first time. I have a similar horse. It has taken two years to get him to let anyone but me touch his feet. Finally he can be trimmed. I wont say he is perfect, but we can safely get through that now. No one I have had “help” from has been able to get him to accept a saddle, while he will do so pretty well at home. Like Rhett, Cody has so much to teach me and I am learning to listen more through your blog with Rhett. Thanks again,
Wow I can’t wait to catchup on the blog. Very well written
Thanks Lisa! Looking forward to your thoughts and comments! Karen