I looked at Daisy, covered in a hard, black, and in some places sticky substance all over her nose and body. A white horse now turning grey-black. She must have a bath as the stuff was making her miserable and drawing flies.
I walked through the pasture, pulling up the weeds and grass but did not find what was causing this to coat her hair. (A friend said later that it is the sugar in the tall grass's stalks...the Juice" or sap. I don't know but that sounds reasonable to me.)
As I led a reluctant Daisy out of her pasture, she froze. She didn't want to leave the closest thing she had to a "herd"--two horses across the driveway from her pasture and up the road a bit. She'd watched them for hours and days, probably longing to join up with them. Daisy always thinks like a wild horse as she has taken care of herself,for the most part out at pasture most of her life.
I had been thinking that it would be an interesting experiment to take her over to meet them, standing outside their pasture so they could meet, and I could circle her away from them if it didn't go well. Daisy always does better when I recognize her need to figure things out for herself and investigate when she feels the need. For example, when I was keeping her in the stall and miniscule turn-out area, and would put her lead rope on and lead her down the barn aisle towards the outside, she needed to stop and stare intently at the now vacant stall where Buck used to be. She became exceptionally fond of the big, calm, older gelding who had confidence that she lacked in their surroundings,
She seems to be saying, "Don't rush me" when she needs to stop and peer into the open tack room door. It has been well said that horses are paranoid, fearful, scaredy-cats. As the ultimate prey animal, that's how they are hard-wired to think and feel. Daisy needs to check out her surroundings to be sure something is not lurking within the shadows. Unless or until she is comfortable transferring leadership to me, she will continue to be in charge of her own safety, at least in her mind.
So, I got Daisy moving by moving back along her body and giving her a light whop with the end of the rope, instead of short-circuiting her thought processes with a treat as I'd usually do. I kept feeling the sting of my friend's words and disapproval Eas I in the wrong? How could I have managed to get that tall grass mown on another dsay when clearly, it had been stated that the one day was the only option?
Daisy shot past me. I turned her in a circle. She was upset asshe'd shoot past me again and she was not able to go back towards the other horses, nor return to her pasture.
Horses are gifted empaths, who, have a much more difficult time blocking out awareness of your emotions than they do of being aware of them! Daisy knew I felt upset, unsure, and wasn't focused on her. I was an unfit leader at that point for any prey animal. I didn't stop to disengage her hind end which was pushing her forward in her anxiety. I didn't disconnect the road her fears and frustrations were taking her down at an ever increasing rate.
I had been viewing a Parelli DVD, over and over, watching Pat send a horse's back end away from him with the end of the rope. Now Daisy was going around me, crow-hopping. I could have stopped rthe action there and should have. I chose instead to try to swing the wimpy, soft dock line, a quaryer of an inch too slim in diameter, at her big and rapidly approaching rump. No good. It was like using a long piece of cooked spaghetti.
She lashed out at me with both heels, and connected with my left arm, dead center (see photo below to view that massive, muscled hind end!). I flew about 10 feet through the air. She pulled the rope out of my hands and trotted off to investigate the two other horses. I knew from the looks and numbness of my left arm that it was hideously damaged. Fortunately, my daughter had bought me a cell phone lanyard and insisted that I always hang the cell phone around my neck when with Daisy.
I called for help, then struggled to my feet, my left arm dangling in a sick way, managed to grab the lead rope and jerk Daisy back into her pasture before collapsing under a tree.
It was a tough rest of the day, culminating in surgery that evening. I was fortunate that the rigjt surgeon was contacted and that he was able to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. Having an orthopedic surgeon of that caliber in our small town area is a huge blessing to the community. I believe that he gets mostly senior citizen joint replacement work so this must have been the odd challenge that he could really sink his teeth into.
Initially a friend placed an ad for Daisy on Craig's List for me. She was honest, which is always the best policy (too bad the seller wasn't honest with me!) but everyone who called and heard the tale shied off, recommending that I put her down or rehome her at a rescue place hor horses.
My daughter, who is very sensitive and a remarkable empathy herself came home from tending Daisy and remarked that she felt a twinge when she read over the Craig's List ad I put together yesterday. We chatted about the curious set of odd events which had brought about the blow up and subsequent injury. "You watched that Parelli video and pushed her too fast" she remarked. That was true. Although treats work best with Daisy, I worry about needing her compliance someday and finding myself without them. So I'd decided to try a different method. And I'd insisted that she do my biddibg without getting her trust yet.
Pat Parelli says, "It takes as long as it takes." I'd forgotten that. Humans tend to want to "school" horses, i.e., give thenm a task and insist that they accomplish it. Why? Because I said so. That is "predator" thinking. Behaving like a predator blocks the process whereby a horse comes to give their safety up into our hands. They can become resigned that they have no way to fight us and win, but that is not the same thing.
I learned valuable lessons from this incident. And those lessons are the opposite of what my lifetime of impressions and learned responses to horses' antics has been. I grew up in a very egocentric horse area where the horse people dominated their horses to a high degree. The horses were used to feed the human riders' egos and oten the horses were used until they became lame, then a new horse was acquired and the old one dumped. I read cover to cover constantly of training theory while growing up...everything from "Western Horseman" magazine to Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School. There were only occasional nuggets of natural horsemanship scattered throughout.
One lesson that I will never forget from this point forward is to be aware of a horse's escalating emotions and immediately "pour water on the fire" rather than allowing them to continue to escalate!
Another lesson is that I need to learn more about clicker training. I started using a clicker followed by a treat, but soon quit holding onto the clumsy clicker. Yet the sound, followed by a treat got through to Daisy remarkably well. It was what gave her the first feelings of relief and confidence that this human did something pleasant to her consistently. She latched onto the concept of try to figure out what the human wants and rest assured that there would be no punishment for boo-boos, and instant and clear confirmation when she got it right, followed by a tasty treat. She was onboard for that by her third click!
For those who can sit down and buy Parelli DVD sets, I salute you. My piggy bank is simply not that big! So I joined GiddyUpFlix for $11.95 and have made a list of the DVD's I'd like them to send me. While one can pay a higher subscription price to be sent more disks at a time, I'm starting out small with one disk at a time, but if this works as well as I suspect it will, I'll probably soon upgrade to 3 disks at a time. (Note--soon upgraded to 3 disks at a time--which is vey helpful if you finish the first video in a set and want to see the next two right away.)
The library of DVD's is immense and has many natural horsemanship trainers' videos, including the Parelli's. Wow!
So, while the compound fracture and dislocation is healing, I have a lot of DVD's to be watched, one at a time as they are mailed to me (free shipping both ways), then I put the viewed one in the mailer and when they receive it, they send the next one.
I have made a viewing lust of DVD's from their "problem horse" category (LOL).
The ad for Daisy has been pulled for now. She needs to be de-slimed. My daughter says that she looks just awful and is miserable with that hard and sticky black stuff all over her. There is a spray-on product we will buy which takes off green stains and probably this black stuff which may just be jucier green stuff after it dries on the horse,
It's problematic when you want to wash a horse or do some other thing with them, yet they have not given their complete trust to you yet. Fortunately this miracle wash product is spray on, wipe off I think. I'll post a review soon after we try it. Although Daisy casts a jaundiced eye towards all spray bottles, she will stand still for being sprayed if the treats are forthcoming on a regular basis. She gets her right side sprayed, then gets a treat. After the front legs are sprayed...here comes another treat.
It's hot and muggy these days, and I've had trouble with the polyester cushioning material inside the half cast...heat makes me break out in a terrible rash inside the bandages. So I've stayed inside. But I'm going to have to go out in the heat and help my daughter clean up Daisy. I do hope they will use some other material when the hard cast is put on, although folks who have been there tell me that one's skin dries out, flakes and itches regardless (sigh).
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