There was a good amount of activity going on around the stable this evening. There was a lesson going on in the indoor arena. There were two riders on brown horses in the outdoor arena. The fact the horses were brown will be important.
Mom and I decided to take Stella out to the grass pasture to let her graze and see if either of the two arenas opened up while we were out there. Now, the grass pasture shares a fence line with the outdoor arena. Not a problem, Stella likes the grass on the other side of the pasture best anyway.
Well, walking out to the pasture Stella was pretty antsy. She had to stop and take a good long look at the two riders in the outdoor arena. I understand that, she has only seen one other person riding in there before. In several previous experiences of Stella's there has been a woman riding a white horse around the arena. Stella has watched this woman ride around, but has not shown any great concern, just interest. But these two riders really got Stella's attention and she wanted to hustle past them at a quick walk, keeping an eye on them the whole time.
We got into the grass pasture fine and Stella took a few bites. Then the man on the brown horse in the outdoor arena began to lope. Stella's head shot up, her eyes showed white, and she ran circles around me, spinning to face the riders as quick as she could every time. Stella was scared. Really scared. She didn't try to pull away hard (there was some pulling, just not what I know she is capable of), but she circled me. Once she took a kick in my general direction when I wasn't running with her, as though she was trying to get me to move and run away too. I held my ground and she stopped circling and stood stock still staring at the man on the brown horse as he went around the arena.
It occurred to Mom first. All of Stella's experiences with men on brown horses running are probably bad. There were almost certainly men on brown horses there chasing her and her herd when she was captured. It was probably a man on a brown horse that cut her away from her dam and her herd. It was men on brown horses who cut her out and drove her into the trailer when I adopted her. Men on brown horses are dangerous to her. They do bad things. They destroyed her world and took away everyone and everything she cared about. Men on brown horses have hurt her and chased her and scared her repeatedly for her whole life. After I realized that I understood her fear of men on brown horses.
We spent at least 10 minutes in the grass pasture, and by the end of the time the riders had stopped running around the arena and were standing at the far gate, and Stella settled down to eat grass, but always with an eye or ear monitoring the man on the brown horse.
Stella was still a bit dancy when we led out of the pasture, and Mom and I decided that she'd had enough excitement for the evening. She certainly got her heart rate up (and mine too).
Back in her stall Stella got brushed and groomed and her feet picked. The farrier was out to do the hooves of one of the other boarders and I went down to see if he had an old rasp he would part with (The stable owner said that he might, since he just throws them away when they get worn down). I want to get Stella used to getting her feet worked on more than just getting picked out. The farrier was working and so I went back up to be with Stella again, figuring on going down when he was finished.
Then the owner went into the barn with the farrier from the lesson she had been giving, so I got in the car an we headed home. I am trying to interact as little as possible with the stable owner. Apparently everything I say or do, especially when I ask a question or voice a concern, is a complaint, and she will kick me and Stella out if we complain about anything more, so my current plan is just to keep my head down, my mouth shut, and avoid interacting with her at all costs and the rest of the staff as much as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment