Give and Take

Jeanine said, she thinks Casino's problem is, he's bored. When I rode him on Tuesday, I thought, it's true, he has ADD. He does't want to do the same old boring trail we always walk, so he drags his feet, and pulls off over to the side, to eat, to pee, and just to have a break. But there's a being in there that is very aware and sensitive....

We had the "don't walk so close to the horse in front of us" discussion a few times going down the hill. When I rein him in a few times, he gets cranky and starts to toss his head. I've gotten used to that, and now I know to be firm, so I pulled back and didn't let him. Then the next time we had to stop, he actually stopped without dragging down into slower-and-slower-and-run-into-the-horse-in-front mode. So I let up on him very quickly. I could see him doing what horses do, chewing and licking as he took it in, "so this is what she wants." (Aha! Another phrase for the horse dictionary -- chewing it over. Because that is exactly what horses do as they think.) And after that, he stopped very nicely.

Linda always says, with a horse there has to be give and take, and you have to give the horse more than you take. I think with Casino, maybe you have to turn up the volume on both of those. You definitely have to "take" -- to be firm, give him a good whap with the crop when he slows down, let him know that he is not in charge. But I really feel you also have to give, have to respect him when he does respond, when he does go, or he will go all shut down and sullen and stop listening.

I like him. He feels very there, somehow. Even when he's not listening to me.