Living in the country

Ok, I guess we live in the country, but we are only about 30 minuted from the Nation's Capitol.

We have lots of little, and big, wild critters that run around our back yard, as if it's their back yard. We had the skunk thing, and now, it's the SNAKE thing. Skunks are one thing, at least they're kind of cute. But snakes, no. Not cute. Not cuddly. Just plain creepy. I know they are good, and eat the mice and all, but, alas, the poor snake was truly cursed with the slithery, slow motion and that little flicking tongue.

On Saturday afternoon while I am at the barn, I hear someone coming from the house and it sounds like-no, it can't be-it sounds like they are saying a SNAKE is in the living room. That Dad knows, and he is leaving it there. It can't be.

Eventually I finished at the barn and had no choice but to go inside. So of course I had to take a look at the dreaded reptile. It was several feet long, and black. We all figured it was a black snake, tough guess, huh? I spent a while googling northern VA black snakes and discovered he was probably a nothern black racer.

We could not agree what to do about him. I wanted him O U T. My husband thought we should either take him out and kill him, or leave him alone. I didn't think he deserved to die, so we ended up leaving him there for the night.

I am usually a very sound and deep sleeper. This night though, my husband's snoring kept waking me up. I wanted to go to the couch downstairs, but, gratefully I remembered the snake was spending the night down there. I didn't want to intrude, so, I opted for my daughter's bed instead.

Unfortunately for me, he was still there in the morning. By late afternoon I couldn't take it anymore. He was moving all around like he owned the place or something. I had to have him out. My daughter helped, and we opened the french doors. We rearranged a lot of furniture, and then, armed with my crutch, I went for the snake. He was a bit upset about this. (That's an understatement.) I was slighty intimidated, and then decided to have a little talk with him. I told him he needed to get out, there would be lots of mice outside waiting to be his lunch. I even threatened him with my black belt in Tae Kwon Do, but neither seemed to have any effect on him at all.

Eventually I got him in a more open space, and with my mighty crutch I slid him across the wood floor and OUT the french doors!

My daughter video taped all of this and if we can figure how, we will upload it for your viewing pleasure.

Why is it hard for me to learn?

Seems I'm the only one that thinks there's a deeper lesson to learn here. Everyone still asks, and they all still think he was stung. One friend is scared for me now. And she doesn't know how I should 'fix' it. **Deep sigh**

It frustrates me to no end that I can't explain to them what is going on. And, even if I did, I guess they wouldn't understand. I don't think there is something to FIX at all. And it couldn't be anyway. Scottie can learn, and learn tools to help him cope. He's learned a LOT in the last 3 years, and made HUGE progress. But, I believe he is the way he is, because I am the way I am. And until I change, neither will he. It goes back to the horse being a mirror topic. So, since I am unorganized, unstructured, have not much discipline or consistency, then, it all shows up in him. I'll have to think more about that.

So, here's what I do know:

1. I had been doing groundwork only 5 or so minutes before riding-my preflight check.
2. The above has been going on for some time now. A long time.
3. I had introduced a new halter/bridle to Scottie the day I was thrown.
4. I know that when he is introduced to something new, he needs time to process. I KNOW THIS.
5. His allergies were really bad already and I had not noticed.


So, was he trying to tell me something? Yes. I believe he had been for a while, maybe a month or two. I was just too dense to notice. So, he figured, ok, she's not getting it, so here's a loud and clear message for her. Pay Attention!!

I have to put some structure back into my day so that I have quality time working on him EVERY day. Yes, even when I don't ride.

More lessons from my draft

Ok, since I took my spill last week, I've been racking my brain as to what I'm supposed to learn from this. Then I thought, maybe it's not the FALL I'm supposed to be learning from, but how, or WHY it happened. Everyone keeps asking me, why did he buck? And I don't know. Maybe he was stung. Maybe the girth rubbed against the raw spot on his belly. The fact is I have no way of ever really knowing.

So I started thinking about that. Using my intuition and a lot of meditation, I started thinking maybe HE was trying to tell me something, and not just, hey, get off my back! LOL

For a few days he'd been acting like the old Scottie. A bit skittish, more 'on alert' than normal. I just figured it was spring, the grass is growing, etc....And that could be part of it. However, I've not been working with him as much as I used to. My trainer once told me, this is a horse that you'll always have to do ground work with. Not because he has bad manners, but because it keeps him in check under saddle. It reminds him to listen to me.

I'd been slacking. Big time. I'd been going out riding with my buddies, and I'd do a 3-5 minute pre-flight type check on him, and then get on. I'm thinking that that is not enough.LOL I learned this lesson 3 years ago when I couldn't even catch him! So why did I let it happen again? Why, when I know how he is, when I've BEEN TOLD....why would I let it happen again?

I guess sometimes it feels easier to not do something, than it does to take the time to do it. So, this leads me back to the lessons of commitment, dedication, and consistency. These are things he taught me 2-3 years ago. I also see them in my martial arts, but it seems easier there. I go to class and do what they tell me to. Hmmmm.


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He Spoke Last Night

Talk about a horse speaking. At 3:44a.m. I awoke to BANG BANG BANG BANG. No, not a gunman in the house. A bored horse banging a feed bucket. Try as I might to ignore it, the sound was just too loud to fall back to sleep. Never mind that the neighbors were probably awake now too, wondering who was breaking down their back door.

So, out to the barn I trudge. I figure, what the heck, I'll throw them some hay and it'll keep them happy till morning. I open the doors to the hay shed, and proceed to grab a couple of flakes. It took a moment to notice I was face to face with THE SKUNK.

I don't think I have ever run so fast. Boy I made a bee line outa there. What power that skunk has! Well, I guess I scared him too, (but not enough to spray-thank God!) so I sauntered back into the shed for the flakes of hay. I was begging Scottie to scare the skunk away. He didn't seem to care, he was just happy to have something to chew on besides an empty feed bucket.

Your horse is a mirror

I just had a rather interesting conversation with a friend. We were discussing how our horses really reflect our personalities. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it shows us things about us we need to change, and sometimes we are too distracted to notice. Here's a few examples:

• Your horse is skittish and can't stand still

• Your horse is pushy and disrespectful

• Your horse barges into your space uninvited

• Your horse makes his own decisions without regard to your desires

Breaking this down a bit, we could match these traits with human behaviors:

• You are stressed out about work and are feeling a bit (or a lot) of anxiety.

• You have a very dominant personality and maybe are a bit pushy, Perhaps you feel the need to have your own way.

• You like to be in control of others in your life and have an aggressive personality.
  

• Again, you are very dominant, maybe even aggressive in nature. Perhaps you are quick to make decisions that effect others in your life without consulting them first.

As you can see, some of these traits are not quite desirable. When we 'see' things in our horse that reflect on us, we know we don't like or appreciate that behavior in him, but often fail to see that we are acting or being the same. It is always a humbling moment to see that the least favorite thing your horse does, is something you also do.

This happened to me for the first time a few years ago. I was training my draft horse when my trainer said he needed more consistency and dependability from me. That he even needed a commitment and a schedule. I will never forget that moment. I wanted to run for the hills! You see, I was not consistent with anything in my life. I'd been a stay at home mom for about 8 years and had gotten into some bad habits. I didn't even have a lot of consistency when it came to my kids, and forget a schedule. What schedule? I thought, "I'm supposed to do these things for my horse and I don't do them for my kids?" I had to realize that I had to BE those things, not just for certain moments, but I had to actually become them. It was tough. It was scary.

I learned a lot from that horse, and continue looking for ways, in him, to improve myself.

Let me know if you've had an interesting moment learning about yourself, from a horse.

L