• VOLUME 12 • © Copyright HORSES For LIFE™ Publications

The lesson the horse's teach.

One day I after I had dismounted I was distractedly walking the beautiful and tall copper thoroughbred mare, thinking about the ride that we had just had and wondering what could I possibly do to help this mare. Her mind fried, her body blocked, she was a danger to herself and to her rider. All the tools that I had learned through the years helped, but... And that was a big but. As I walked along, in front of the mare cooling her out, I had the riens in one hand behind my back as she followed along behind, her neck long and stretched out, relaxed at last, her back swinging along in the walk.

Then through my distraction something pierced my attention. As we walked the reins had begun to swing like a pendulum from left to right, right to left and back again. Swinging back and forth like the waves of the bow of the ship being pushed up and down, back and forth. Hmm.. I didn't think I had that much swing in my hips!

So I consciously took my hand and placed it in the middle of back and holding it as still as possible and continued to walk while I tried to watch the reins behind me, without twisting too much. My attention now totally focused. I was floored. The reins were still swinging. I tried one thing I tried another convinced something I was doing was making those dang reins swing!