A year ago today I got knocked over by a horse. It was a bit of an odd accident. I had made sure the horse was positioned so it could go past me if it spooked because I didn’t know if very well. I could see he was tense and concerned so I thought I had covered my bases. As it turned out, a scary noise came from a different direction and I was trampled. I had a number of injuries but the worst turned out to be a blow to my elbow. The pain putting any weight on it at all was unbearable. Accidentally knocking it was horrendous. Even though I had it x-rayed and was told there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, it took months before I was able to use it properly.
Me being me, I examined all of the possible things that I could have done differently, but there wasn’t really anything I would have changed in that moment. But what I knew we needed to do was give the horse a better understanding of what to do when things go wrong, even if he is concerned. The owner was very relieved that I decided to come back and work with the horse. We set about teaching him to yield his shoulders so that he might make a better decision to go around a person instead of through them next time he needed to run. This was no easy task as he was very stiff and tense, so progress was been slow, steady work. We also worked on his confidence away from his herd. It’s like an elastic band - you have to stretch it a bit and then go back a bit at a time. We also helped him learn how to regulate his nervous system so the meltdowns were shorter and eventually non-existant.
Last month, we had finally made it to the end of the driveway and onto the road. The owner was holding the horse when all of a sudden, he spooked. I was standing a little in front and to the side of him and for a moment, as he bounded towards me, I thought it was going to happen again! But this time, he saw me and jumped out of the way, into the path of his owner. He then jumped out of the way again and stopped. And in that moment, I knew we had made that horse’s life better.
This last week, he took him to the same place again and he stood quietly without getting upset. Even walking back to the yard, he stopped and chilled each time he was asked to. The next step will be walks out on the road. Progess will be at the horse’s speed.
I thought long and hard about writing this post because no-one wants to hear about a trainer who didn’t get things right. The truth is, that accident sent me on a path of self-healing, self-learning and change. Without it, I would have thought I was doing just fine. And I was. But what I am able to offer now is so much better because of that accident.
Never stop growing.
Comentarios