It's all about moving...new house, new barn, and outa the way!

Ahhh, the curve ball-It's been a time of remembering what I already know and putting those things into practice. Since my last update I've moved Gabe to a "new" farm. It was actually one of the best horse moving experiences I've had. The barn owner(from the place I was leaving) offered for me to use his King Ranch truck and trailer to move Gabe and wouldn't accept a penny for it! It was already hooked up for me to boot! I mean that kinda stuff just doesn't really happen in the horse world! Anyways, I moved Gabe because David and I are building a house. That's right, we don't like living in Spartanburg and we're gonna build a house just outside of it...eish. However, we both have great jobs and have not had any opportunities to leave though we have looked...and trust me, I've looked VERY hard. So, what do you do when you want to leave but your suppose to stay? You wait. You seek contentment. You learn to give, grow, and learn no matter where you are or whatever circumstances you're in. You stop pleading with God to give you something else and trust that he knows what he's doing a heck of a lot better then you do. That's the hope at least. So, now we're here. We're investing. And back to horsey stuff, Gabe is now 5 minutes away and I'm doing all of his care. This was going great until I discovered some nasty habits and manners that he's been getting away with. And I don't just mean elbows on the table and belching kinda stuff. Oh no, I'm talking about charging through the stall door, breaking the cross ties and running away, ears pinned, butt turned, and kicking me in the knee when I took his blanket off. I have never been so mad and bewildered at this gentle spirit who turned into 2 yr old hellion over night. More than anything though my feelings were hurt. Here's a horse that I wake up hours early and get home late after work to see and pick up his poop, feed, brush, and exercise. I realized that he doesn't exactly take that into consideration. However, he has taught me yet another important lesson...he doesn't know how hard I work to pay for him or how much sleep I don't get so that he's well taken care of...he is a horse. Sometimes I completely forget that. Though they have an amazing sense about them and are incredible creatures at the core of what they are and what they were created to be is "horse" and the second I forget that is when we have problems. I remember just before I moved Gabe I thought I smelled something funny, like rain rot, by his hoof and so what did I do? I picked up his hoof and promptly stuck my nose as close as I could to it...my face was centimeters away. It hit me then that I had completely lost touch with the fact that Gabe was a horse and what I was doing was completely stupid and unsafe. I had forgotten what I already know. First, you treat a horse as a horse. Think about things from their mentality as a herd animal, an animal that was once preyed on, their field of vision, their body language, and then you can communicate with them in a way they understand and in that there is a bond and a beautiful friendship. My problem is that I forgot all about the horse part and just relied on friendship. I began to see that I praised Gabe for everything...eating, drinking, standing, etc. Talk about behaving like an overindulgent mother! And who likes to be around that? No one. No person or animal needs to be praised for just existing. Gabe knew it, saw me a weak, and decided that he would take over as the herd leader since I was mentally unfit. Which is completely about survival. Smart horse when your person is making dumb decisions. I think that's why a synchronized, harmonious horse and rider team is so beautiful...it's a relationship built on a deep understanding of one another, where both are submitting some form or fashion of their safety and well-being to the other. Think about what a horse is saying to you when you put a bit in his mouth? I trust you. I give you control. A rider trusts that a horse will take them to a fence and find a way over it safely. Even just having someone get on a horse's back says a lot about trust both ways. It's when we forget who the other is when we disrupt that friendship and degrade what is meant to be beautiful. For those of you who are equestrians, I hope this encourages you to be in rhythm with your horse, to know what your job is and what it isn't and the same for your horse. For those that are not equestrians, horse lessons can always be applied to some other area of your life...just ask any horse person and I'm sure they'll be able to think of something:)