From Then to Now

“No sense keeping a hose you can’t catch.”

Horses require one to be patient, compassionate, and understanding. This was even more true with Ruby. I mentioned in an earlier post that Ruby would rear/run backwards when you tried to halter/bridle her or just touch her ears and face. This is called “head shyness.” Head shyness occurs when the horse has been taught to think that touching of the face/ears will result in pain. Although we do not know for sure what happened to Ruby (she was only 2 coming 3 years old when I bought her; all I know is that she came from a western barn), but we assume she was ear-twitched. It took me about six months to get her to trust me enough to let me reach up and grab her ears. From there, we worked together to address her other issues*

*Note: I don’t like calling them “issues” because they are not her fault. No horse is born “mean” or “bad;” a horse develops based on what it has learned from us humans. Despite some frustration I still have with Ruby, none of it is her fault. It takes a pretty terrible person to hurt an animal, and Ruby’s psychological damage at such a young age disgusts me.

We worked on communication, aids, vocal commands. We built trust. We developed respect for each other. The pony that would break the cross-ties and run down the aisle will now ground tie with a single command: “stand.” I can leave her standing alone in the middle of the barn, ask her to stand, leave to get lunch, come back, and she will not have moved. The pony that dragged me around the ring will now stop with just a slight weight shift back and a command to “stop.” She slows down by one gait immediately at “whoa.” She slows down her current gait at “easy.” The stiff pony that made boxes now bends in and circles at “circle” depending on the direction I am looking. She shoulder-ins. The pony that balked at jumps and floored it over ground poles now does complex gymnastics beautifully (we have done every single exercise in Linda Allen’s “101 Jumping Exercises for Horse & Rider”…a few times over) and will let me bareback her over jumping courses as high as 3’3”. The pony that wouldn’t let me touch her face now lowers her head into the bit/bridle/Christmas wreath/necklace/anything with the word “head.”

Sounds like a perfect pony! I love her to death, and we have come so far together, but there is one “issue” I have never been able to fix. Ruby can NOT be caught from the field outside of meal times. Yes, we did joining-up exercises. Yes, we round penned her. Yes, I sat in the field with her for hours at a time trying to get her to come to me. Yes, I paid trainers to take her and help her. I ALWAYS, without fail, got my pony and money back (and it was always significant chunk of change I might add). No, she does not come for grain. No, she does not come for treats. No, you cannot bribe her with her best friend (Angel). She simply will not come in (with you). She is not mean about it- you can walk up to her, touch her back, and talk to her. The second your hand gets near her neck/face (she is turned out with her halter on), she bolts. If she wants to come in, she runs away and will actually come back to you at the gate. Try to touch her, and she runs off again. If I were to open the gate (I refuse to do this unless there is a hurricane/tornado on the way because it is teaching her the wrong behavior) she would walk to her stall and put herself in. If you corner her (also something I avoid), she will realize she is stuck, put her head down (act of submission) and walk to me. She does this to everyone, myself included. So what is the issue? Don’t ask me, I still don’t know even after 5 years!

I paid handsomely for a well-known western trainer to come work with Ruby. For four hours he worked with her (in the snow!) in a round pen. For four hours Ruby ran from him. Not once did he even touch her. He gave me my check back, told me Ruby should be an endurance horse, and said “there is no sense keeping a horse you can’t catch. She would rather die out here in the pen than let me catch her. Get another one.” HA. Yeah, right.