Why Doesn’t He Run Away?

Oh bother.  My human must be working a lot.  I see her every so often, either a quick visit with cookies or even a ride now and then. We have had quite a few good weather trail rides,

a couple of hop on bareback in the ring rides and just yesterday she decided I was a dressage horse again. When not with my human I have just been chilling, getting my winter coat all grown in and ready.  The hay arrives in the morning and the grain and hay is welcome in the afternoon.  It’s a pretty good life 🙂

Ymir

 

 

Horse. People. Horses and people.  As with most things in this life there is more than one way to achieve a goal.  For example, 1+3=4 but so does 2+2 and 4+0.  Now if you are looking only at the end goal of getting 4, there is no right or wrong way of getting there.  To each their own, even this week I was discussing another topic and was reminded of the old saying “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it may be (to you).”  This is something I have been mulling over for a couple months now, thinking about right and wrong ways to go about things.  Can you tell the education system is wearing on my psyche? This transfers to many aspects of life, and besides our education system, horsemanship is something I am often thinking about and how people can use SO many ways to get to the same goal of sitting on and hoping to direct a large animal in the direction of our choosing.

I was talking recently to a family friend who has been immersed in the “horse world” all of their life.  When showing them a video of Ymir and I doing liberty, specifically trailer loading (click for trailer loading video) and going on the pedistal their immediate reaction was “why doesn’t he run away?”  Without hesitation my answer was “why would he?”.   Here is a person who grew up with and around horses, and they want to know why my horse doesn’t “run away” in the arena when I ask him to perform a task at liberty.  That scares me.  So I ask everyone reading this with horses, what happens when you take the halter off in an arena?  Sure sometime Ymir thinks that being free in the arena is just another opportunity to visit the buffet, but with our prior preparation and help from our mentors my whole goal is to have him not run away, but seek me out as a leader of our herd.  I want to have a relationship with my horse.  He is not a tool, a means to an end for me, and I know there are many, many people out there just like me.  But what happens if they don’t know what they could have?  Maybe Ymir and I will live out our lives two very happy herd members, and if we can inspire someone to reach for that next level in their relationship we can also give that joy to others (and how cool is that).  When you are with your horse next ask yourself what is it about you and your time together that would make them want to be part of your herd? What about the people around you?  Co-workers, family, friends, what do you offer that makes them feel valued and important to you.  For imperfect inspiration feel free to watch our latest liberty session. Ymir October Liberty

Warmly,

Amy