At our house we put an emphasis on horses living naturally. In fact, we don’t go as far as I want to. In my perfect world, I would have a large open barn where the horses could all come in together, and leave, at will. I’ve seen that set-up, and it is my preferred.
I have a friend who spent a lot of time constructing a track system for her horses, and it encouraged constant movement over differing terrain, mimicking the wild. One of the benefits of that is constant hoof trimming. I was impressed. (She has gotten out of horses since then.)
I think you do still need stalls for the horses who have to be separated for special needs, but in my opinion, they should be used sparingly.
All of this is strange to say since I just set up my barn based upon the traditional system. I think I did it because I had so many horses with special needs at the time. Since then, I’ve lost two of them and the herd is much more together—free feed, loafing sheds, and turned out together in dry lot and / or pasture.
Anyway, it does create a challenge in spring. They’re a little too needy of each other. So, in my other “perfect world,” I’d have only one horse, Tumbleweed, and his only friend would be me. That wouldn’t be fair to him, of course, unless I moved into the barn.
Fast forward to last Wednesday. I had a lesson at the park and my husband was able to go with me and bring Leah, my old trail horse who he plans to ride now.
Leah had a birthday on Monday. She turned 20.
When we arrived, my trainer was giving another lesson. We groomed the horses and then my husband walked off with Leah to the obstacle course.
At that point, Tumbleweed lost his shiiieettt.
And a friend rode up to talk to me.
Friend: you just missed it.
Me: What?
Friend: a horse got loose and ran all over the park. Ran up to Gunner here, who is wearing this new fringe breast collar, and when he pulled back because of the loose horse, he saw the fringe and blew up more.
Me: (speechless, as I watch my own horse whinnying, bucking, and striking the ground on the end of the lead I’m holding, says “just a sec.” Walks away towards the round pen, deposits monster into round pen, calls for husband to bring Leah back for a training moment. Needs to call friend and apologize for walking away.)
This is what I call a “found” training moment.
I will tell you what happened next tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Haha. Yes, but I have come to expect the unexpected. To be honest, I knew I was in for a challenge the moment we decided to bring Leah and I prepared my husband for it.
ReplyDeleteThe energy at the park was chaotic upon arrival due to the drama we had just missed.
It was one of those kind of days, which provided an excellent opportunity.