Everything I Know

Yesterday I was thinking that when I take Dakotah into the arena that he always wants to jump out - of the arena. From what I understand it would not be difficult at all for him to clear the fence in my arena. Um, they have a reputation. I thought that if I became more interesting to my horse than what was out side the arena then he might start to want to be in there with me. Sounds daunting trying to be more interesting than grass.

I started our play session with my own little game of Look at Me, Just Kidding, I'm Leaving. It involves getting my horses attention, taking the pressure off, then breaking the connection so we can build a new one which will be stronger. Pretty soon Dakotah started to trot toward me. When he got close to me I put my hands up to stop him so he would know where my boundaries were when playing this game. Pretty soon it got to almost be a game of hide-and-seek. He waited for me to ask him to look up and then also waited for me to take off the other way. After a while we were walking and trotting around the arena together at liberty. He wasn't so interested in what was out side the fence. At the end of our play time I walked over to say hello to my husband. Dakotah was at the far corner of the arena, I called to him and he trotted over to me. I looked at Joe and we both just smiled.

Now I am not going to start with "Oh these guys are so smart, these horses are so much better....blah, blah, blah". But I will say that the response that I get from this horse is always so much different than what I would get from horses that have been raised around humans. His instinct is always in high gear, and not in a bad way. I wonder how much of that natural instinct gets dulled when horses are born and raised in captivity. One thing for sure, their flight response doesn't seem to dull, but I digress here.

In the beginning, I was so excited to bring this horse home and "teach" him everything I could. I am quickly learning that he is my teacher. Every day is an experience and it has helped me in my relationships with all my horses. Having never started a horse from the very beginning I am always thinking that I don't want to screw this up. My friend Jack told me a couple of times that I wouldn't, but I know I have so much to learn. - I'm just wondering during his first trailer ride home, if I was listening, I might have heard Dakotah say "I can't wait to teach her everything I know".