I love living on the same property as my horses. It allows me to be much more spontaneous in my interaction with them. Before if I went over to the clinic to ride that was what I did and I rarely went over just to pet or hang out with the horses.

This morning it was already 102 at 9am so I decided not to ride but was going to catch Cerise and Remi and tie them at the trailer and brush them and get the tangles out of their manes and tails. I went to catch Cerise and, as she often does, she walked away. She does not go far but will walk 50 feet or so and turn her back to me. I can walk right up and catch her but this morning I decided to see if she would come to me.

I walked towards her but then stopped about 3 feet from her head. I waited for her to look towards me and when she did I took a small step back. It was very interesting to watch her reaction. She looked at me for the longest time and then started to take deep breaths and lick and chew. I have no idea what was going on in her head but she was doing some major processing.

After about 10 minutes she looked right at me and then walked off. She stopped about 20 feet away and looked back again for the longest time before moving on off to visit with the neighbor’s horses across the fence. I was hoping she would come back over to me but she stayed with the other horses. While I was hanging out watching Cerise interact with the neighbor’s horses I glanced over to see Tess trying to get past Remi who was standing right in the gate of the pen.

Tess obviously wanted to get out to check out the other horses as well but Remi was munching some hay that was in the gate. I have the gate tied back to keep it open and Tess started hitting the gate with her nose so it banged on Remi’s butt. He finally got the message and moved so she could get out. She looked over at me as she went out with the look that only Tess can have when she has gotten her way.

I will be interested to see how Cerise acts next time I go to catch her but I feel like something good happened this morning. As a Fire horse temperament little gestures to honor her needs go a long way. Hopefully I scored a few points. Madalyn