Pocket gave us two of my favorite memories from our early learning days with horses. The first time I stepped into the trailer asking her to follow, she stopped short, looked at me for a moment, and stood straight up on her hind legs! A full blown Roy Rogers-and-Trigger kind of rear. No pawing the air. No intent to harm. Just saying, I don’t want to do that just yet.
I stood there with a silly grin spread across my face, less than ten feet away from this big paint horse who was suddenly about twelve feet tall. This is going to take a while, I thought. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. I backed her away once, then walked up and stepped into the trailer and she practically ran over me coming in behind. No resistance whatsoever. Go figure.
The next memory comes from simply hanging out in the pasture, observing, studying, interacting at the horse’s discretion, which has taught us so much. That’s why we wouldn’t pay someone else to regularly feed and muck, even if our budget could afford it. Yes, there are mornings when we’d love to sleep in. But doing our own feeding and mucking guarantees no less than a couple of hours a day with our horses. Over time, those hours help to dissect and internalize each horse’s individual personality, which determines how leadership is expressed in different ways to different horses. It provides insight into how weather affects their behavior. It has taught us, virtually by osmosis, how subtle our language can be, or not, with each unique horse. And it continually confirms us as members of the herd.
“I just never have enough time,” one woman said to me.
“Then maybe you should acquire something that doesn’t depend upon your leadership, relationship, compassion, and understanding for its health and happiness.”
I didn’t really say that, but I thought it. You see, I am learning.
Spending time with the horses also reminds us to always be thinking ahead, questioning, anticipating what could happen or go wrong by doing things this way or that.
Only yesterday, with enough mileage in the pasture to know better, I was accidentally knocked down by big, muscular Pocket. She’s major big. Not so tall, just big. Probably pushing 1,200 pounds.
The incident wasn’t her fault, it was mine. And the time I had spent in the pasture told me so immediately, even as I sat on the ground staring up at her. Still, my first reaction was anger. I wanted to yell at her. And I know folks who would have. I know people who would whip any horse that would do what Pocket had just done, with no thought to understanding why it happened. They would rather have a horse who is totally afraid of them than enjoy a bond and relationship, and be truly responsible for their horse’s leadership.
This is how it unfolded.
Each of our horses had a small feed tub in our barren hillside pasture back in California, and they all know which one is theirs. With the exception of Skeeter, which is another story, it takes each horse approximately the same amount of time to eat their first course, their appetizer, a half-scoop ration of Safe Starch forage. Next on the menu, the antipasto, is a small amount of alfalfa hay, less than half a flake per horse, scattered in ten to eleven small piles, all in relatively close proximity, at the top of the pasture hill. The manner in which we spread it ensures that no one horse can dominate more than his share of alfalfa, and no one horse gets eliminated from the game of musical chairs that follows.
For reasons I don’t even remember, I put several of the alfalfa piles much closer together than I usually did. Four horses bunched up on the same piece of rock, all vying for as much of the booty as each one could get. I should’ve moved out right then, but I didn’t. I continued to pull the flake apart. When the dominant Scribbles took a nip at Pocket, she leaped out of his way, bumping Handsome who whipped around, threatening a kick. She had nowhere to go but straight toward me. She was otherwise surrounded by hostile troops. She tried to miss me, and actually just brushed my shoulder, but with force enough on unlevel ground to sit me down. There was simply too much congestion for safety and decorum. Especially when a nip and a threat had spiked her adrenaline. I should’ve known better. Now it’s well implanted in my brain by the bruise on my butt.
One look at her face, however, confirmed beyond doubt how she felt about it, and perhaps told of a bit of history.
Omigod, what have I done?!
She is usually the first horse in the herd to come greet me when I enter the pasture. Our bond is strong. But I couldn’t even get close to her for several minutes; as if she were expecting punishment. Or was really, really embarrassed about it all.
When I did finally get close, I rubbed her forehead and told her everything was okay. Well, except my butt.
And I promised to never again place alfalfa piles that close together.
Now I’m the embarrassed one. As I was putting this page together I was suddenly struck by how few photos there were of Pocket in our files. I wanted to run out and apologize to her. And I asked myself why. She’s not as flashy as Mouse. Not as majestic as Cash. Not as experienced as Skeeter. But come on Joe, she’s always there, ready and willing. Solid as a rock. None of which is very photogenic I suppose. So I simply made her a promise that there would be more and better photos of her in the future.
That might’ve mattered to Cash. Or Mouse. It didn’t to Pocket.
To pause a photo, hover your “mouse” over it.
The above are edited excerpts from the best selling book
The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd.
Return to Meet Our Horses
——
The story of our journey with horses (to date) is told in the two books that follow: the national best seller The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd and its sequel Born Wild – The Soul of a Horse.
And what a story it is as two novices without a clue stumble and bumble their way through the learning process so that hopefully you won’t have to. If you haven’t read both of these books already please do because with that reading, I believe, will come not just the knowledge of discovery but the passion and the excitement to cause you to commit to your journey with horses, to do for the horse without waiver so that your relationship and experience will be with loving, happy and healthy horses who are willing partners and who never stop trying for you. Horses like ours.
The highly acclaimed best selling sequel to the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd
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But first read the National Best Seller that started it all:
Amazon & Kindle
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Order Personally Inscribed Copies of The Soul of a Horse
Order Both The Soul of a Horse & Born Wild – Save 20%
Both Personally Inscribed
Please list the names for each inscription in the “instructions to Seller” field as you check out!
Read More About Born Wild
Read More About The Soul of a Horse
Watch The Soul of a Horse Trailer
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“Joe Camp is a master storyteller.” – The New York Times
“One cannot help but be touched by Camp’s love and sympathy for animals and by his eloquence on the subject.” – Michael Korda, The Washington Post
“Joe Camp is a natural when it comes to understanding how animals tick and a genius at telling us their story. His books are must-reads for those who love animals of any species.” – Monty Roberts – Author of New York Timers Best-seller The Man Who Listens to Horses
“Camp’s tightly-written, simply-designed and powerfully drawn chapters often read like short stories that flow from the heart.” Jack L. Kennedy – The Joplin Independent
“Joe Camp is a gifted storyteller and the results are magical. Joe entertains, educates and empowers, baring his own soul while articulating keystone principles of a modern revolution in horsemanship.” – Rick Lamb – TV/Radio host – The Horse Show
Go to TheSoulOfaHorse.com Homepage
Follow our latest journey with two amazing new arrivals from the wild. Kathleen’s terrific photos are worth the click.
In chronological order:
What an Extraordinary Weekend!
Firestorm’s Amazing First Day in the Playpen
No-Agenda Time – So Much Value!
An Amazing Birthday Gift from a Wild Mustang!
Saffron and Firestorm – Progress and Photos – Lots of Both!
For more current posts go to the blog homepage and scroll down
Follow Our Entire Journey
From no horses and no clue to stumbling through mistakes, fear, fascination and frustration on a collision course with the ultimate discovery that something was very wrong in the world of horses.
Read the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse
Life Lessons from the Herd
Go to TheSoulOfaHorse.com Homepage
