A Horsemanship Epiphany on Patience

Webster's Dictionary gives the following definitions of an 'epiphany': "a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something"; " an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking"; "an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure"; and, "a revealing scene or moment".

Having the practice trying to set up a situation where a horse can gain an understand of what you are asking of them, I recently came a roundabout way of getting an new understanding myself of this. One morning when reading a daily devotional sent out by a friend of mine about not asking God to give you patience, but rather ask Him for a chance to practice patience.

I recently brought in a highly bred, two year old gelding. Still nursing a back injury I thought I could begin some progress on my new horse, barn name 'Zeke", so hours later when I was in a pen with him, I had him on a lead rope and was trying to get him to follow a feel. I really like this little sorrel horse. He's small at 14.2 hands and will likely top out at 14.3, but his chest is decently wider and he has good bone structure and feet.  He has a good, curious mind and I look forward to many years and miles with him, but it all starts at the beginning. And like always, I hope and try to do right by him.   

I first try to get a horse to come to me on a lead rope with gradually increasing pressure then moving to use a little bumping on the lead until the horse's body weight shifts forward. I give the horse a pause to absorb what he did to get the release of a taunt lead line, then ask again and build on that so then he moves a foot, then again a release. Then all four feet, and again another release - always with pause. Then before you know it, the horse will follow that feel to me. Once I have that going for us, I work on backing a couple steps. Using the fiador knot of the halter I apply a bit of backwards and side to side pressure until his body weight shifts. Then same as moving forward, I work for a foot to break loose, then a couple feet. Eventually, the side to side and backwards pressure just becomes a wiggle of the lead, first when standing by his side, then standing in front of him. So that description on beginning to follow the feel of the lead rope was necessary to get on with the story.

So the two year old was not getting the idea of coming forward. He was not getting troubled, jut not understanding. Sometime when this happens and I'll change my position relative to his head slightly. I take a step right or left and end up at the 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock position relative to the horse. Anyway, he was not sorting it out. I could have used a flag to create some energy so he would move forward, but I wanted him to concentrate on the feel of the lead rope and react to that as opposed to reacting from a flag at his flanks or behind him just scaring him forward. And then I remember the message of that morning - 'don't ask for patience,...ask for an opportunity to practice it".

So I thought it's as much for me to sort out as for him. So every time I would ask him to move forward and he started to step sideways, I would make a noise and he would stop and look at me as I continued asking him to follow the feel of the lead. Then we would begin again. He got it. Look at the change of his expression above before he takes steps forward. So my opportunity in patience was realizing that each time he failed to understand was actually necessary to his understanding. I have heard some people call this failing forward, meaning you have to have failures before you get success. Anyway, works for me. We were both better off for it. So next time I ask for something, it'll be the opportunity and not the result.