I haven’t gotten a chance to work with a four year old horse at the barn in a few weeks. Actually, outside of feeding him and running a hand over him every day to make sure there’s nothing seriously wrong, no one has had the time to work with him in a few weeks. It’s just too hectic with projects preparing for winter. So when the person feeding said that he threatened her with a kick during feed time as she asked him to back off the food, I was surprised because that’s not really like him, but then realized that maybe it was time for a long overdue training session.
When I went out to work with him he haltered and led just fine. Actually, he seemed pretty eager to be going places. He followed me out into the flat part of the field, his patient older gelding pasturemate trailing after us at a distance. I had brought the dressage whip to gain a little distance between us if things got weird, and I used it to point at his hip, and gave the cue for “step over.” Instead, the young gelding kicked out with that foot. “Ok, weird.” I stated. I was glad it had been at the dressage whip and not at me. Now he was standing still, looking confused. I tried again, lifting the dressage whip even with his hip and motioning with my body to move. “Step over” I intoned. He once again gave a half-hearted kick at the request. I just repeated it, not increasing pressure, just waiting for him to change the response. He finally decided to try the tiniest step over, and I stopped the ask. “Good! Good boy.” And he started rubbing his head on my hand vigorously, following up with a snort and a sigh. From there we went through stepping over with the hind feet on both sides, stepping over with the front feet, backing up a few steps, and coming forward from a draw. All the maneuvers that I need to be fairly automatic for safe ground handling. He did fine, remembering quickly what each cue meant. Afterwards I let him off lead and he followed me happily around the pasture.
Sometimes I think young horses must have the same sort of relationship identity crises that human teenagers do on occasion. They relate to their parents, their friends, their teachers in one way as children and then suddenly start having days where they go “WHAT ARE WE?!” and begin trying out other ways of relating. This can get pretty hairy if the mature parties involved don’t keep their composure, because the young person is sincerely upset by their sudden internal world shift. So if it’s just a young horse having one of these small identity crises, I try to reassure them with the basics and an expected and consistent response. In this case I’ll try to remember that it only takes five minutes to go over basics, and do it more frequently now so the horse can be reassured more often that nothing has changed externally. A good reminder.
Don’t forget that Standing in a Field With Horses is now in audiobook format! Good for listening on the go. Find it from Spotify, Audible, and other audiobook providers.
Maeve Birch Home 