Sometimes You Just Gotta Trust

I’ve said, and I’ve heard other horse people say, they want a partnership with their horse.  That’s not a bad thing depending on how you define partnership.

This past Monday we got out early to ride – still hot – and there was a big digging machine (how’s that for a technical name) roaring in our neighbor’s back yard.  It was huffing and puffing and throwing dust up into the air.

She has been having some work on her septic tank and the machine was out there last week and we knew it was supposed to come back today.  So, we weren’t surprised.

We saddled up the horses, did our usual desensitizing routine and worked with them a little in the back.  They seemed to be OK with the machine working next door.  They were aware of it, but didn’t seemed too concerned about it.

Since it was another hot day we decided we would ride over to the arroyo that’s South of us.  It’s a nice ride with a good view of the mountains and only about 40 minutes so we could get back before it got too hot.

We headed across the street to walk through our neighbor’s driveway to get to the arroyo.  Betty was on Morgunn in front.  About half way down the drive Morgunn stops and won’t go another step.  It looked like he was seeing something but we couldn’t see anything.  He wasn’t being obstinate or trying to return home he just didn’t want to go any further.

This is very rare for Morgunn as hardly anything bothers him and we’ve gone through this spot hundreds of times with no problems at all - ever.

I asked Sugar to go ahead and she moved OK until she got to the same spot and she did the same thing - the exact same behavior.

After talking for a few moments we decided it didn’t feel right so we took them back to our back lot and worked with them there with the machine still working next door.  So we accomplished something in getting them more exposed to that kind of heavy machinery.  Any day riding is better than not riding.

In my earlier riding days my attitude would have been, “Nope, you can’t balk like that.  We’re going ahead.” And I would have forced the situation.  You got to be the leader.  You can’t let the horse win, you know.

Well, over the years I’ve changed my thinking.  Morgunn is Betty’s partner and Sugar is my partner.  On this particular day there was something bothering them about what we originally wanted to do.

We still don’t know what it was, but, instead of forcing them through it, we decided to listen to them and trust their instincts.  Sometimes you just gotta trust.