What Willie Told Me.

I want to tell you about humility and patience.I want to tell you how I let the universe help me  The horse in this story is a halfinger gelding named Willie. Willie was a strange horse; confident but not brave, trustworthy but too smart for his own good, perfect when you rode well and awful when you rode like shit. He was amazing.

Willie had a great work ethic all winter but one day in spring he bucked me off. It was weird. I don’t normally fall off and he doesn’t ever try to get rid of me. Right before be bucked someone at the other end of the arena made some extravagant gestures and exclaimed loudly, but I didn’t expect that to jostle the halfinger brain. After he bucked me of he ran to the other end of the ring where my employer’s Rhodesian ridgeback proceeded to chase him in circles around a frightened horse and rider. By the time I caught Willie he was hot and scared so I took him back to the barn and put him away. It was a fluke, truly; this horse whinnies and runs to the gate when I fetch him for our morning work.

I waited a few days to ride him again, to let myself sort of forget what happened. It works well for me. I rode him about a week later and rode him for a few more weeks before he started to develop a lameness in his left hind. He had had surgery on his back, right where the saddle sits, over the winter. I wondered if I had rushed into riding him post-surgery because he seemed into it. I continued to ride him and before long he developed a move that included a violent head tossing with climbing into the air, into a nice, light, balanced canter. For just one stride. Over and over. Then he added ducking his head at the end of the maneuver and I started to wonder if my “golden child” had turned sour. If he had, what was to blame?

Skeptical but optimistic as always I asked a local animal communicator for help. She spoke to him and told me that he sent her pictures of green grass, galloping through the woods, and that he had pain in his hind end. I believed her but was without awe. I thought to myself, “Of course he wants grass and to gallop in the field, now let’s call the vet”. I called the vet.

Dr. Williams did flexion tests and had my longe the horse on a circle. The lameness I felt as left hind and Willie identified as left hind to the animal communicator was seen by the vet as a possible right hind lameness. I was informed that he could not diagnose it any more until the horse became lamer. We guessed and said stifle, so I began trotting uphill; bareback; and ended our ring work for a while.

Willie and I resided ourselves to groundwork, learning to be patient when doing Spanish walk, and bareback rides up the hill for about three months. I did not ride him in the ring but a few times and each time he would climb in to the air.

I don’t know how it hit me…but one day I realized that Willie was trying to tell me something. The green grass; he wanted me to stop riding him in the morning during his turnout time, he wanted me to ride him later in the day when he was stuck in his stall. The galloping through the woods; he was bored with ring work. The pain in his left hind; he has pain in his body, whether it’s from the surgery on his back or a stifle injury; he was feeling pain.

I wanted to tell you this story because I want you to know that there is a way to be with horses that is special. That “way” of being with them can be thought of as a living creature, and that creature’s wellbeing is not fostered by the horse industry and common modern “training” techniques.  All too often we as humans are trying to impose our agenda on the horse in the name of “communication”. Communication is a two way exchange of ideas and training techniques that use force, pain, or threats of pain have no right to be acknowledged as communication. You might think you are innocent of this barbarism but I challenge you to take one day to truly look at your horses and let them teach you how to have a conversation. I have been with horses since I was 4 years old and the day I did this my life changed completely for the better.  That connection I have always wanted with horses was always there, I just had to receive it.