Discussion 1: Introductions

Sunday, June 1 marked the beginning of Digger's re-education. Not surprisingly, he was rather uppity. He was fascinated by the other horses on the place, the cows mooing in the distance, the crop dusters overhead, the traffic on the far away highway, and about everything else in existence. He's very quickly made it clear he's an intelligent guy, and rather than forcing that busy mind to shut off, I walked the property with him for a bit, encouraging him to focus on me, grab a mouthful of grass, and generally relax. I handled him like I would a stallion, turning him away from me and pushing him out of my personal space, rather than turning him towards myself. In his insecurity, he wanted to be RIGHT next to me, and although a spook never came, I could just picture him flying right over top of me. He wouldn't graze much, but in the end calmed himself down enough that I could consider taking him over to the hitching post to groom him.

Easy, I thought.

Well, I walk him up to the post and ask him to "Whoa." He knows whoa and likes it. You ask him to whoa and he SLAMS on the brakes. Excellent. I start to move to pick up a brush, and he spins to face me. I bark whoa at him again, walk a circle and ask him to stand. Whoa.

Spins to face me again. I repeated this 5-6 times before I decided maybe he wasn't ready to relax yet, and did a short walk, a mouthful of grass, and asked him to stand. If he would, I praised him and asked him to walk away before he got the idea himself. After a few repeats, he got the idea, and decided "Whoa" meant not only stop, but stay. Good boy!

I didn't tie him (not wanting to create a bad situation) but I grabbed a brush and started with his neck with a rubber curry. The trucks and deer and cows and planes were INSTANTLY forgotten. The underside of his neck and his chest, according to him, is the best place in the world to get scratched, and if I'd gone on for another hour he would have been quite content to stand there and let me do it. Once he realized what I was doing, I had absolutely no problem. He stood there loving every minute of the grooming and was completely zoned out. Once he was shiny clean, we walked around the arena to see if it was scary (it wasn't) and went into the round pen for a 5 minute trot in each direction for exercise. He was all business - no bucking or playing like he does in the paddock. Hopefully he's just as good when I decide to get up on him.

Groomed him down and put him back in the paddock. There were a few stones in his paddock, so I walked around picking them up and putting them off to the side. He followed me, inches behind my shoulder, the entire time. It was both bizarre, and adorable. Poor guy needs a friend, but I don't want to turn him out with the other horses until I buy him. The last thing I need is a huge vet bill on a horse I don't even own.

All in all though, I was surprised and impressed by his disposition. He's terribly intelligent and willing to please. He tries very hard to figure out what you want. I just can't imagine why anyone would want to send this guy for meat!