The Pen of a Ready Writer

Caleb      Game 1: Friendly game     This involved a lot of touching and brushing.  Sometimes he let me touch him without hesitation and sometimes he pulled away.  For example: I reached out to touch his nose (to brush a fly away).  He swung his head away from my approaching hand and eyed me suspiciously.  In response, I kept my energy very low and calm.  I reached for a place on his neck that he consistantly trusted me with.  Then, with one hand on the trusted spot, I eased my finger toward his nose.  When I reached his nose, I didn't grab it.  Instead, I rubbed my finger back and forth across the itchy place where the flies had been.      "Ahhh, that feels good," Caleb seemed to say.  "That feels really good."      So we did a lot of that sort of thing.  Sometimes he would trust me and then he wouldn't.  If I could get him to relax enough for me to g...

(continued from 12/17)      So I moseyed out to the field to fetch Caleb.  I found him at the far end of the field.  He was grazing but he came and greeted me.      "Hey, buddy, how's it going?" I crooned.       I lifted the halter and slid it over his head.  He was fully cooperative and seemed extremely happy about it.  After weeks of passing him by, I was finally here just for him.  I could almost hear him saying, "Really?!?!?  Me?!?  You want to play with me?!"  He was so excited that I was actually taking him out of the field.      I brushed some flies away from him.  He had a lot of flies pestering him.  Then I turned and led him on the long walk back to the gate that led to the arena.  He followed without hesitation -- he just seemed so happy.  It was priceless.      Our path led by a neighboring field with a domi...

Caleb      A week or so later, I was out to see the horses again.  I overheard my instructor say that she might play with Caleb today but that she really, really needed to play with Scooter.  She also said that she needed to go into town.  I sighed, figuring that my long-awaited playdate was being postponed again.  But before I gave up entirely, I asked, "Can I at least go say hi to Caleb in the field?"      Her answer was quickly encouraging.  "Absolutely, you should play with him," she said.  "You can bring him to the arena -- in fact, I prefer that -- and play with him here."  She did not seem reluctant or impatient; instead she was very happy and encouraging.      As I gathered a lead rope and halter, my instructor talked to me.  She went down a list of Caleb's bad habits.  He had a bad habit of running off when he was behind you.  Occasionally (especia...

     One of the things you learn when you play with horses is how much you can say with your body language.  You can make your body like a brick wall that says, "I own this place.  Here you stop and go no further."  You can make your body tense with fear to say, "I see something that scares me.  I am now prepared to fight or flee or freeze."  You can make your body soft to say, "Come join me.  This is a good, safe, welcoming place."  You can also make your body soft to say, "Where you are is perfect.  What you are doing is perfect.  All is well.  Relax." Caleb     Caleb met me at the gate the next week.  I did a little unofficial friendly game with him and then walked out into the field to get WhiteStar.  Caleb followed me.  I wished I could take him to the arena and play with him, but my instructor was busy.      I thought about why my instructor wan...

Caleb      With all of my interactions with Caleb, I was hesitant.  Was I even allowed to play with him?  He obviously wanted to be played with, and maybe, somehow, I could help him become a better horse for his current owner or any owners he would have in the future.      So I went to talk to my instructor.  Could I play with Caleb?      That conversation was easy.  She said she would be thrilled for me to play with Caleb some.  His owner had just called and offered to give him to her (again, and my instructor turned her down again), and maybe Caleb would even be available for me to own at some point.       She warned me that Caleb was a left-brained introvert who occasionally, and somewhat unpredictably, switches to a right-brained extrovert.  In other words, he is usually slow to move his feet and quick to think, but he flashes into full-action panic mode at time...

Caleb      Caleb had an owner already, but she was very sick and had been for a long time.  She had not played with him in years.  Wanting him to belong to an actively caring owner, she offered him to my instructor.  My instructor turned her down (she didn't need any more horses at the moment), but he was much on my instructor's mind.  I began hearing more stories about Caleb's previous life.  She said he had some trust issues.      One time he was tied in a stall when somebody unexpectedly started a tractor right behind him.  Caleb panicked, struggled, and fell down in his stall, hitting his head on the concrete hard enough to knock him unconscious.  His owner thought he was dead.  Caleb probably thought the tractor snuck up behind him, roared, and hit him in the head.  Needless to say, he was a little afraid of tractors.      Caleb was also scared of fly spray.  One tim...

Caleb      I had seen him in the field with the other horses, but I didn't pay much attention to him.  He was not one of the horses I had been assigned to work with.  He didn't follow me around when I was in the field or crowd under my elbows.  He was just one of the horses out there, and, other than calling an occasional friendly greeting, I ignored him...until that day -- the day that I met Caleb.      I had just finished a full afternoon of playing with WhiteStar.  As I turned her out to pasture, a couple of the friendly horses gathered around me for a quick pet.  I stroked each of them and then turned to go.      That's when I saw him.      He was standing on the outskirts, looking both shy and interested at the same time.  He shifted his weight nervously, obviously wanting to come closer but too unsure of the situation to pursue it on his own.   ...