Coming along

Today Molly came to me when I called her. It was amazing.

We worked on this while still at Duane's. She would stand at her gate, gazing out at the grass beyond. I stood about 15 feet away, waiting to groom her. Because I am supposed to be the herd leader, I wanted to see if I could get her to come to me instead of me going to her. So I used consistent hand signals and a consistent voice call, which included her name.

She seemed to figure out pretty quickly what I wanted, but immediately began to look all around, up at the sky, over at the other horses, anywhere but at me. I persisted, and she eventually came over. It probably took three prolonged attempts on separate days. I rewarded her with praise and petting; then again I was also standing near her hay.

Here, Molly is coming toward me as I approach her paddock. But this is because she thinks we may be going to go get some grass. She is wearing her new turnout sheet from JP's North.

This time, I was taking off her (new!) turnout sheet when she just ambled away with it all unfastened but still resting on her. To the gate. With her halter on. I was disappointed but tried not to get emotional. I hadn't called her in many months, but I figured, why not give it a whirl? Imagine my surprise when she obeyed me.

I did use the same motions and voice call as previously - they were simple so they were easy to remember. I tried to keep my energy low but still sound happy at the same time. The sheet slid off (mercifully not into the manure) as she headed back my way. She also stepped on the halter rope a couple of times, but she was moving at no great speed and has had this happen to her a lot, so she knew how to get out of it.

And there she was in front of me! She received much praise, kissing, and patting. I can hardly imagine that that is meaningful to her, but I do it anyway. To me it always feels like her outlook lies  somewhere between an understanding that I won't hurt her, a hope that I will give her food, and the knowledge that I won't shut up. In this I think she may share her ancestors' perspectives.

I am wary of anthropomorphism. She is developing a familiarity with and respect for me - I don't really get the feeling that she has much of an attachment to me personally. Much as I wish she enjoyed our exercises in some way or other, I don't imagine that she ever will. They seem to be meaningless to her. Also, she probably worked hard for many years and she has no desire to please me. But she does, especially when she surprises me.

Coats and Blankets

We’ve had our first snow already this year. I put a turnout sheet on Molly last night because it was  supposed to be a wet snow, with temperatures rising into the 40’s.

Molly grows a heavy coat for winter and keeps it through the summer (it’s unbelievable). Her heavier coat is gorgeous and rich. Connie told me that once you put a winter blanket on a horse, it needs to stay on because it flattens all the winter hair that has grown in and lofted to trap warmth. The blanket can also inhibit further growth.

This is a picture of Molly's coat in October.

Blanketing a horse takes more thought than I would have ever imagined. One of my coworkers once asked why some horses have blankets and some don’t, and I rattled on for probably 5 minutes about weather, weight, work, age, and breeds. She politely murmured that it sounded "complicated" and the conversation turned to another topic.





But horse people will talk about it endlessly, each and every season. What brand did you get, what color is it, how does it fit him/her, can she run in it, did he tear off the straps again, when are you putting it on/taking it off/putting it on? Last year I bought Molly a winter blanket for the coldest months, and this year I got her the turnout sheet, which is a single uninsulated layer, for the warmer months. The work she does is considered to be very light, so I can afford to let her to grow as heavy a coat as possible - there’s no danger of her working up a sweat and then getting a chill. The turnout sheet is mostly to keep wet snow and cold rain off of her. Soon it will be cold enough for the winter blanket, and cold enough for me to savor her warmth when I take the blanket off and press my head to her side.

Grass

A widely held tenet of horsemanship is that your horse should regard you as the leader of your herd of two. This is a conversation I often have with Molly because she is so headstrong and I am really, I suppose, inherently democratic.

Still, I press on. The latest arena in which this dynamic is playing out is the grassy field. Molly gets plenty of good quality hay but she adores grass.

Many people who have horses will wait to feed them till after they work, both as a reward and to avoid digestive issues. But Molly had clearly often gone hungry by the time she came to Duane's, and she was anxious and ill tempered prior to feeding time. I used to get to the barn early enough before lessons to give her her morning hay. This way she was noticeably easier to work with. Then I would take her for grass afterwards.

Later, I took to letting her have grass while I groomed her and tacked her up, thinking this would make her even more amenable. At the new barn, there is a gorgeous grassy patch on the way to the tack room, so this summer I have been letting her eat grass while I groom her.

Experienced reader, you can see where this is heading. She recently began charging toward the grass as soon as we got out of her paddock. This is dangerous as well as rude and I clearly had to take her in hand. Connie and Duane had had to do something similar because early on, Molly was just unmanageable. So I learned from them how to correct her and insist that she mind. It is not easy, and requires absolute consistency in order to be effective. We are making progress again.

So much has been written about horsemanship. Mules seem to need both a firm hand and a certain sympathy. It is a journey to learn about all these things, and decide what to try, and see what works.