skou wrote:Francis, what is it about that last picture, that makes me want to rub her nose?
Rosie is a pretty "little" girl!
steve
I have been really lucky as a horse hugger to have (so far) always had a good relationship with all of the horses I come in contact with. One of the "rules of thumb" with horses is said to be that if you work with horses any time at all that:
You will get kicked
You will get bitten
And you will get stepped on.
So far I have only been stepped on (Rosie Belle maybe a year ago) but I was wearing steel toe work shoes and they worked.
I just said "that is my foot that you are standing on" and gave her a nudge and she stepped back.
Horses are at times a little like a table saw... Get sloppy and don't pay attention and you can pay the price.
I have acquired a bit of a reputation locally as a horse whisperer just because I can walk out in a lot and get horses others are trying to catch to come to me instead of me chasing them. I'm pretty good at getting stubborn horses on and off of trailers and horses will come trotting to see me that have a bad relationship with their owner or owner's family members.
I love to talk horses (can you tell?) and am asked now and then to talk to small groups like some local scouts etc. I always explain the dangers first (like a table saw) then about the importance of constantly communicating with the horse. Things like never walking up on a horse from any direction without speaking to it first. You can startle the crap out of a horse just by walking up toward the front of one that is just quietly standing there. Just because it is standing there with its eyes open does not mean that it is still on the same planet that you are.
One of the things I keep telling people is "keep" talking to the horse constantly. It usually won't care where you are or what you are doing as long as it knows where you are and what you are doing... Kids in particular can be bad at speaking once then working all around the horse without talking to it. Luckily a great number of horses will kind of make a lot of allowances for kids and kind of shift gears when a kid is involved, especially older horses.
Few people understand how badly a horse can hurt them when making an automatic reaction to something like a sudden fly bite. There is a lot of weight and muscle in that head and neck and it can move with lightning speed. Rubbing a horse's nose is usually a good experience but a law enforcement friend of mine lost a friend when she was killed while kissing a horse on the nose and a bee stung it in the butt.
Just like with a table saw I have always been very careful but I could be a victim tomorrow... I have always made it very clear to my grown kids that if something does happen someday that they are to not blame the horse involved ever. I just probably did something stupid. I do that sometimes.
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