It has been a while since my last blog, and that was all due to work and studying taking over my life for a little while. I have an exam next week (which begs a question of why am I blogging now? Obviously, I am procrastinating from studying! :-) )
However the studying did not keep me away from Becky! Nope, I faithfully came to see her every weekend, rain or sunshine. Although the rainy one turned into a bit of disaster. Now, rain is a bit of a rarity in Victoria – we are still in the middle of the longest drought in recorded history. This rain wasn't heavy, but the sort of small, misty-and-constant annoying kind.
Nevertheless, I figured that since Becky is out in it anyway, it would only be me who would be noticably uncomfortable. Wrong!! Now, I always knew that high wind annoyed her and caused her to want to turn her butt to it, but who would’ve thought that my Becky was such a wuss, as far as rain was concerned!
My first indication that something was not quite right, was that Becky was hard to catch. Or rather, she tried to sneak away as soon as she got her carrot, but before I put a halter on her (and no, I don’t need to have a carrot with me to catch her normally. I just believe it’s a nice way to say hello to her. Ordinarily, after she comes up to me and I give her the carrot, I do not need to hurry to put a halter on her, as she calmly stands there. It didn’t always used to be that way though – she used to be very hard to catch!) This day though, something definitely wasn’t right.
Normally I saddle her right outside her paddock: I don’t even need to hold onto the leadrope or tie her to something, even if I am rummaging in my car next to her. Not this time – whenever I dropped the rope, she furtively tried to sneak back to the gate back into the paddock.
I dragged her out to the arena: I could almost hear her dragging her feet. Tried to do some ground-work: asked her to walk/trot around me in a circle – the look on her was pure misery. She did it, but every time she faced into the rain, she put her head down, and just squirmed. At that point I was feeling major guilt. Sure, a horse is supposed to work as asked, when asked. The more stable and consistent our relationship – the more she trusts me as her leader – the more she should be willing to listen and trust in me in unusual or uncomfortable conditions. On the other hand – the goal of any training session is for her to become more comfortable with what is being asked of her. In this situation, looking at how much she was hating being out in the weather, unable to put her head down to the ground or hide behind another horse, I realized that chances of her getting “comfortable” were slim. She was still trying – still doing as requested, albeit reluctantly, and yet improving with each circle she completed. However, I could see in her face that she was tolerating – she was not getting to be OK with the situation.
In the end, I concluded that there was no point to continue. I would be forcing her to comply, without any release of discomfort in sight. And riding in the rain is not one of my goals for the moment.
So, after spending all of 10 minutes with her, I took pity on the poor girl and walked her back to her paddock, with her using me for a shield against the rain on her face. As I let her go in the midst of her herd, she took off for the shelter of trees, ignoring all the other horses – she couldn’t wait to get some relief from the small annoying driving mist in her eyes.
Next weekend though – it was sunny and warm and Becky was back to being her usual self. In fact, better than her usual self. Easy to catch, no sneaking away, and behaving like an old schoolhorse when I rode her, despite two other horses exercising in the arena, which was an unusual situation in itself. Obviously, not every uncommon situation is beyond our ability to deal with and grow comfortable in. In fact, we are getting more adventurous every time. But rain – no thanks, not for Becky. She'd prefer a blanket and an umbrella instead. Can't really blame her either.
