My mother recently presented me a photo album of memories, a collection of pictures and hand-written letters, that she had maintained over the years. Upon delving deeply in this treasure trove of heartfelt passages between parents and their children, I discovered the following description of an interaction from the early days of East Point Horspice.
As anyone with horses can attest, there are never enough hours in the day to do all the riding you want to, do all the training you wish, and make all the necessary repairs to the farm. Due to this lack of available daylight, some maintenance undoubtedly occurs after the sun slides behind the horizon. This was the case tonight.
I had been working with Diamond, a spunky Paint at the tender age of 14 months. He was my first colt and proved to be smarter, more understanding, and even more patient than me on several occasions. Through his efforts at the end of my longe line he demonstrated an authentic desire to please me, and more than once, I could see the little equine cogs turning in his head, He had a white face, three white socks, a beautiful shiny sorrel coat and two of the most penetrating blue eyes. If he ever has an inkling for how handsome he was he never let on.
As with most young horses, Diamond had an insatiable curiosity. This nature was linked with a lack of fear, a blossoming courage, which I thought may aid hi in his life as a noble horse. I found these characteristics equally satisfying and rewarding because he seemed to take any new training exercise, or sacking out experiment I threw at him, in stride.
Tonight, as I was working by flashlight repairing a broken hot wire, a wire Diamond had broken as he was rolling in the pasture and managed to catch his hooves, I found yet another opportunity to see if my young training buddy was up for a test. My mind was realizing the thought that this little rascal had over 80 acres to roam, yet he had to satisfy an itch by rolling just three feet from the hot wire! I tightened the wire and looked into the darkness. I brought up my flashlight piercing the night to reveal Diamond’s distinctive white face and marble eyes watching me work.
The other horses, when I shined the light their way, would walk away squinting terribly, like you would if your three-year-old came in to your bedroom in the middle of the night and turned on the light. The other horses would turn and ignore me. Diamond, however, a horse with whom I am developing a deep relationship, did neither. He stood about 30 feet away, just at the edge of the flashlight’s grasp, and studied me.
One of our playtime activities is for me to get on one knee and invite him in with the circling gesture of my right hand. I had started this a few weeks back wishing to create a unique signal between the two of us in which there was no ambiguity. By doing this I wanted him to come here, and right now.
I shone the light at him, got on my knee, and began to circle my hand, silently asking him to come into my space and be near me. There was no response. My heart sank as I pondered that perhaps he had no desire to come near. I sighed and accepted that I would need to work on this set back. Then, as is often the case when working to better understand horses, Eureka! It dawned on me that he couldn’t see what I was asking of him because of the brightness of the LED flashlight pointed his way. I directed the light at my body and continued to wave my hand. It took all my conscious being not to scream out, “Yippee!” as Diamond looked thoughtfully and then dropped his head and walked toward me. What a glorious emotion I felt surge through my veins as I experienced one more bond of friendship and trust with Diamond. He came close, as I wished he would, and I rewarded the both of us with some rubbing on his withers. I was honored that he wanted to be my friend.
I picked up my fencing tools and walked to the barn. As Diamond trailed behind to the gate, I couldn’t help but think that anyone who doesn’t like horses has never spend any honest time with them in a quiet, non-expectant moment where you and the horse are merely interacting, simply being yourselves, allowing a relationship to be nurtured. As Diamond proved once again, horses are intelligent, thoughtful, emotional creatures with enormous hearts and an unmatched capacity to bring joy into your life. Diamond does this and asks nothing in return. I hope I can be this giving of myself someday.