My horse was talking to me and I did not listen

[Ed Thayer]

I hitched Oz on Saturday and moved some wood from the back pasture with the bobsled. He worked fine but seemed agitated when asked to step up. It is normally a quiet kiss to get him to step up and off he goes. But this day was different. He would pause, side step and finally move along. He has never done this before and I was perplexed as to why this behavior was off. I moved 3 loads of wood and noticed his behavior was not getting better. I attributed it to the sled as it was the first time we had hitched to it this year. I just figured he would get over it.

We had finished our work and I needed to run to the airport to pick up my son, so I did not have time to really think about my day with him until later. It bothered me that Oz was not totally cooperative on Saturday. I could not understand why he would stand so quietly but when asked to step up he would act up so.

Today I worked on the scoot all morning and decided to take Oz out for a walk with the sled in the afternoon. I wondered if he would act up again or settle in to the walk. I was harnessing him and reached under to grab the belly girth strap. When I slid it through my hands with no gloves on, I noticed a bur on a staple in the harness. I noticed the bur because it ripped across the end of my finger as I said a few choice words.

The bur stuck out about a 1/8 of an inch and was sharp as a tack. I ended up removing the strap from the harness and took the grinder to it to remove it. I placed the strap back on the harness and off we were for our walk. I checked his belly and found no evidence of a scar or wound, but I am convinced that bur was sticking him when he walked and that is why he was so irritated on Saturday.

We took a long walk this afternoon and he was perfect. I really enjoyed the afternoon ride. As we were walking, I tried to imagine how I would react if someone was sticking me in the belly while I did my work. I am grateful to have such a great working partner and also very disappointed I did not find the bur in his harness earlier.

Ed

[mitchmaine]

hi ed,
i really like your post here. we all know the responsability we take on when we hook an animal and go into the woodlot or out in the fields. thier safety and ours in turn depend on any number of subtle twists and turns in lines, harness eveners and so on. that said, go do it, right? we have to be on our toes and eyes and ears all the time and be in the moment and all the other cliches you can think of. good job reading your horse. i miss alot trying to “git er done”. thanks for the reminder. mitch

[jac]

Great post Ed.. It is nice when your horses still try to please even though there is a problem they cant speak to us about and we have missed. I think this shows a huge ammount of trust on the animals part. Thanks for sharing… John

[mitchmaine]

hey ed, i’ll just share yesterday with you.
Typical day in the woods. Everything went wrong. Fuel filter in the yard saw. Trees tipping back. Wedging and pushing them all over. Lost one sideways. Cut it in half and twitched it out, but had to wade through the tops for the afternoon. Down in a corner of the bog. Belle hates it in there. Hates it. You really have to stay on her lines or she’ll turn off at each turn. The female of every species confounds me. I just can’t understand them. She is true to her gender. Totally unpredictable. Very moody. But loyal to a fault and tries wholeheartedly to please. But today she was just mad about being down in that hole. The peat hasn’t frozen yet and she breaks through and you can see her pain. But she was there.
Anyway we were twitching out a goodsize fir, and I stepped on the outside of a good stump to keep it between me and the hitch and I stepped into a hole made from the roots of the stump and the hitch jumped over the stump and pinned my foot in that hole. Belle kept going and I was pinned, and she stripped the lines out of my hands. I hollered whoa and she did. With the lines on the ground and hooked to a hitch, she will stand forever. Forever. Good for me. But I couldn’t quite reach those lines no matter what shape I got into. And I couldn’t find a stout stick anywhere. Belle would have gone if I’d asked but there was 40 more feet of tree to pass over my boot, and she had to make a swing gee before she got too far and the top of that fir would have cleaned my clock for good. I scrunched up my toes and pulled and twisted my foot and nothing would give. No cell phone. Hours till penny would miss me. My foot was starting to hurt now. Had to do something.
So I asked belle to come gee. Her ears twitched and came right around backwards. I had her attention. I asked again, and she pawed a little with her right foot wondering if it was a trick question. I spoke a little firmer and around she came, whoa! So I asked for just a step, just a step, come on just a step, and she leaned into it a bit and it started to lift, but I was already gone. Twenty feet in two steps. Yahoo. Free at last. Love that horse. Sometimes she thinks too much, but yesterday, she did everything right. Man, does this foot hurt today.

[mink]

mitch:p 20 feet in 2 steps…. you were really scratching ass.

[mitchmaine]

hi mink, i think those fir are running about six to the cord so that tree was probably 700 lb.on not too pliable ground. and i was some glad to be free of it. i love that horse. more each day. we had our spats, but she will churn her guts out for you. she is smart enough to know when shes stuck and gives it a second try and thats it. over. fix it. but if that tree gives as much as a inch she will make a wishbone out of it. you have to take a little care of her to see she don’t get hurt. 16 hands 1600 pounds of thunder and lightning and a touch of snappin’ turtle.

[Ed Thayer]

Mitch,

Glad to hear you came out on the right side of that story. Scary thing working in the woods sometimes. Belle sounds like a good horse, one you can depend on when you need to. That story could have ended much worse.
Trust with our horses is certainly a two way street, and I can tell you have earned hers. It is stories like these that make me want to work with horses. Try doing any of that with a tractor. :p
Ed

[karl t pfister]

Hay Mitch that’s a day and a half you had . I’d say that mare was a ” keeper ” and then some . What is the snappin’ turtle part refer to ?
take care Karl

[jen judkins]

Hey, Mitch and Ed, I love both your stories (and glad you are OK Earl :o). I have been in both situations before…similar at least. I find that moment of understanding between me and a horse to be just about the finest sensation. As you said, Ed, it makes me want to work with them more and more…

[Author]

Posts