Horse play time

Today, when I went to get Lilly from the paddock, she snorted at me, struck out and gallopped off. Dingo followed, pigrooting along the way. At the end of her run, she did a little rear, and gallopped back, throwing a double barrel at Mo on her way back. She arrived at the gate, mane flowing, eyes blazing, nostrils flaring. She snorted, and was off again, showing the agility of a cat. Twisting this way and that, rearing, striking, double barrelling, pigrooting. The two geldings could barely keep up with her.

I have seen some pretty impressive horses in my lifetime, but I have never seen one this agile. The ground was slippery, and yet Lilly never missed a beat, never slipped, never ever lost her ground or confidence.

Every time she arrived at the gate, there was never any anger in her at me. Never any nastiness or evasiveness. Never any fear. Had I stepped into the paddock, I could have probably easily caught her. But I was too interested in trying to understand what was going on.

Lilly was playing. And, I think, she was inviting me to join in.

There's a massive difference between horses playing, and horses being dominant. When they are dominanat the kicks are meant to make contact, the bites are meant to leave a scar. And many humans have lived to tell the tale of their horse trying to dominate them. But, when horses are playing, the kicks are done at a safe distance, and there's some head shaking and striking, but no biting. That's exactly what Lilly was doing.

Being invited into horse playtime is a huge compliment. It shows an amazing amount of trust. It's like the golden handshake between man and horse. Once you have this sort of trust from your horse, you can really start asking for respect, and when you have respect, then you can really start asking your horse to work for you. Work with you. It means that your relationship with your horse stems from trust and respect. Not from fear.

So, what had I done to be trusted and invited into horse playtime by Lilly? It was the leadership I had shown at Adult Riding Club last weekend. Despite the session looking like an absolute disaster, I was able to pull myself together, and be brave, firm and fair. I was able to show Lilly that when she listens to me, when I am the leader (the leader; not a raging, angry tyrant), she is safe.