Spending My Time Wisely

Posted at November 17, 2009 // Farm Life

On Friday I did something I haven’t done in a really long time…but was long overdue.

It was a surprisingly mild November night, and after finishing all of my barn work and chores I decided to spend some time with Minnow. Armed with a few brushes (and the dachshund bundled in his winter coat) I settled myself into the pile of hay in Minnow’s stall. Minnow munched around me, occasionally giving me and the dachshund kisses (he’s so sweet like that). I scratched his itchy spots, brushed his muddy coat (from all the rain we’ve had) and basically just enjoyed being with him. I sat in his stall for about an hour before dragging myself away.

I’ve always known the importance of just enjoying my horses, not asking for something specific from them, just letting them be horses and observing. Its of huge importance for horses to bond with their owner/rider/special person – and to be undemanding of your horse helps to accomplish this. But, in actuality its always hard to find time to do this. You carve out time to go to the barn – and you want to “do” something. I know the feeling, I’m guilty of this all of the time. But horses don’t feel this same need, and sometimes its better to do nothing.

I think I spent the most time doing nothing with Minnow when I was in college. When he was in his most intense part of training with me I decided to bring him to college with me. Needless to say I think I spent more time at the barn evading school work than anything else. But it brought Minnow and I much closer.

I’d just sit in his stall and watch him eat hay, or I’d lay in the grass with him while he got his fill. I even studied in the pasture while he was just “being a horse”. Most of the time he ignored me, but occasionally he’d wander over and nuzzle my hair, or tug at my boots – signs that he was interested in me and what I was doing in there with him. Getting a horse interested can sometimes be one of the toughest things to accomplish – and for Minnow especially, these steps were huge. He was a pony that was easily terrified of everything – but rather than touching it to see what it was he opted to completely ignore the situation – to the point where when faced with a strange object he would turn his head all the way around so he didn’t even have to look at it. So bringing curiosity out of him was always a major struggle for me. So with each time Minnow CHOSE to touch me, or my books he was becoming more and more curious – curiosity that helped me to get him over his fear of the mounted games equipment, fear of noises, fear of pretty much anything.

So on Friday night as I sat in Minnow’s pile of hay I thought back to those wonderful days we spent together in college and I vowed that I MUST do nothing with my horses more often.

-KD
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