Articles

To everything, there is a season.....

A couple of weeks ago I got to see Audie, a good friend of mine. I hadn’t seen him in a few months so I sure was happy for that to change. I know he was glad to see me too.

I arrived at the barn to work some horses, but before I could even think about that I had to visit with Audie. First things first! I knew nothing productive was going to happen for either one of us until I did. When I opened his stall door all lines for him to stay on the other side of and almost all other rules were gone. He met me at the door. I immediately grabbed him around the neck and tried to wrestle him to the ground. Of course, I couldn’t do it, but I always have to try. He enjoys the victory. We had a good visit so now I could get to doing what I was getting paid to do.

When it was Audie’s turn to come out and get to work he was a perfect gentleman. He knew where the lines were. He knew that his job was to not cross them. We worked. We were still the best of friends. 

When people are having trouble with their horse the respect and trust are always out of balance. Most of the time the relationship meter is tilted way toward trust and away from respect. When people see me working with a horse like this, they usually see the firming up as necessary to swing the meter back toward respect, but this isn’t all I want them to see and know. I want people to never forget that I work to achieve a balance of trust and respect, then the horse and I can be friends in seasons of play as well as seasons of work.