Horse Sense vs. the Horse

Two lights lit the arena where my 16 year-old daughter woman-handled a 1200 pound horse. The side reins she put on her helped control her, but let's face it: most of that 1200 pounds was muscle. She was more than a handful.

Most horses assume the human beasts are superior to them. Because of this, and their non-aggressive nature, few set out to actually hurt people. While many riders get hurt and frequently killed by horses, it's almost never because the horse got mad and used his far superior strength to kill. It's usually a rider mistake of timing or weight shift which leaves them on the ground, or under hoof.

As the dad of the 16 year-old that was woman-handling the hooved beast, I was not having a good time. A thunderstorm brewed on the southern horizon and the lightning was getting closer, the thunder louder. This mare was a thoroughbred, a thoroughly spooky one at that. Thousands of years ago, horses learned to survive by bolting at the earliest possible sign of danger. This horse was in touch with her roots, because she was trying to spook at every shadow, anything which might conceivably be cause for fear.

My daughter wasn't actually up to par either. She hopped in the local lake yesterday right at the place where someone had kindly placed a beer bottle. A broken one.

Y'know, there are few I like less than litterbugs. But that subset of person who would break a beer bottle and toss in in the water where people swim...yeah, I'd like to bury them up to their necks in dirt, smear honey all over their heads, then dig up a fire ant mound, depositing a good portion of it on his head.

So as my daughter tried to keep this strapping sixteen-hand mare controlled, she was doing it with a big slash on the ball of her foot. She'd planned on spending about 45 minutes working the horse, but after nearly being bucked off, the daughter decided the horse required some further schooling. And as an aside, you should understand that you don't know pleasure 'til as a parent of a 16 year-old you watch a horse try to buck your kid off. Yessiree.

As little fun as it was for her, my daughter knew she had to work the mare. Had to tire her out and let that mare know that her being tempermental wasn't going to cause an early end to the workout. Horses are dumb as mud but if they figure out that bad behavior will cause you to give up quickly, bad behavior is what you'll get every time. My daughter's ability to endure her spooky recklessness outlasted her ability to dish it out. My daughter as much as said "You wanna mess with me? You don't know who you're messing with."

Eventually, the horse believed her. The thunderstorm petered out, spread easterly and was breaking up as the horse was cooled down and put away. We drove back home, me happy she was in one piece, and her disappointed in the horse.

But I have to admit that I also was happy she had a tenacious streak half a mile wide. I just wish she'd use it on the horse more often than she used it on me.