A Lesson In Humility

One of the things that I value most about Parelli Natural Horsemanship™ is the emphasis on building savvy in order to be safe. Working with horses can be hazardous if you don’t know what you are doing and even if you are experienced, a lapse in concentration or attention can result in an unsafe situation developing with potentially disastrous consequences. Earlier this year, I experienced such a situation when working with one of our rescue horses, Beau.
Beau started his life when a thoroughbred stallion escaped one day and bred a local mare. When the mare’s owner didn’t want the result of this liaison, he was rescued by our director Elena. Beau was pretty young when he came to SummerWinds but now he is a big bay gelding with a white blaze. The first horse to come over when you enter his field, Beau loves attention. He can be pushy and often crowds you when you are working with him so it is easy to think his is confident. But Beau is often a worried boy and when frightened, his first reaction is to come forward and right over anyone who happens to be in the way.
I started working with Beau when I was first learning about Parelli™ but he was adopted before I had gotten very far in my own training so I hadn’t made much progress with him and didn’t have a real good feel for his Horsenality™. He was gone for about a year when the economy went south. Beau’s new owners called Elena and asked her if she could take him back because they could no longer afford to keep him. While he had been away, Beau had been used as a trail horse and according to his owner, done very well.
Soon after he returned and before we could resume Parelli™ training with Beau, Meredith, one of our new volunteers fell in love with him and began to sponsor him. Meredith is a kind and caring person and a pretty decent rider. She liked to take Beau out on the trails but immediately noticed he wouldn’t stand still for her to mount when she was using the mounting block. As soon as she would get up on the block, he would move his rear end away. If someone held Beau, blocking his movement, Meredith could get up on him but it was clear that he was uncomfortable when anyone stood up on the block.
Several of us tried to help Meredith with this problem. Amy, a former jockey who was exercising our horses for us at the time, worked extensively with Beau, trying to get him to stand while she mounted. She made some progress but the problem persisted. Although Meredith wasn’t studying Parelli, I had her play the friendly game from the block using approach and retreat. She would get on the bottom step and rub Beau all over until he relaxed and then she would retreat. Then she would get on the second step and rub him until he relaxed. Then we would saddle him up and repeat the friendly game. Things improved somewhat but the problem still wasn’t resolved and it was becoming increasingly stressful for Meredith.
Finally one day, I was working with a horse in the round pen and Meredith had taken Beau up to the riding ring for a ride. She was gone quite a long time and when she came back, I asked how her ride had been.
“I didn’t ride,” she said. “He wouldn’t let me get on!”
I could tell that she was really frustrated and I wanted to help. I had taught my own horse, Sonny to stand still at the mounting block by backing him up whenever he moved away and suggested to Meredith that we give that a try with Beau. I wasn’t thinking at the time about how different in temperament Sonny and Beau were or how this approach might affect Beau.
By this time Amy had come to join us so the three of us were around Beau. Meredith tried to mount and Beau moved. I backed him up several steps. We repositioned the block, Meredith tried to mount again and again Beau moved and I back him up. The third time, Amy went over to Beau’s off side to keep him straight. Meredith put her foot in the stirrup and mounted successfully. I was standing at Beau’s head and he was crowding me so I asked him sharply to move back again out of my space. But this time, instead of stepping backwards, Beau came forward right into me.
He hit me directly in the chest with his chest knocking me to the ground. His hooves struck a glancing blow to my left leg below my knee and he stepped on my right foot as he came forward. In an instant I was directly underneath him. Fortunately Meredith remained calm. Beau seemed astonished to find a person directly under his belly and was doing his level best not to step on me. I scuttled sideways like a crab scooting out from under him and landed a few feet away still sitting on my butt. My legs were scrapped and bleeding and a golf ball sized swelling immediately appeared on the inside of my left leg at the top of my calf but otherwise I was in one piece.
After I caught my breath, I washed the blood from my legs. My shins were skinned but the wounds appeared to be superficial. More concerning was the lump on my leg which seemed to be growing in size as I watched. I called it a day and retreated home where I put ice packs on both legs and sat down to think about what had happened. I knew I had been very lucky that I wasn’t more seriously hurt. Other than sore muscles and some very spectacular bruising that ran down both legs and across one foot, I was fine, but I knew that if Beau had stepped on me when I was underneath him, I could have easily found myself with a broken leg or worse.
Reflecting on what had happened, I knew the fault was mine, not Beau’s. At the time, I was more concerned about Meredith’s frustration than I was about Beau’s readiness to be mounted. We were working in an area that Beau would have found claustrophobic. While he was outside the gate for the fence enclosing our round pen area, immediately on the left was a pile of gravel and on the right was a parked car. When I backed Beau up, I was backing him closer to the fence into an area where his movement was restricted. We also had placed a person to either side of him which would have made him feel even more claustrophobic. After Meredith had successfully mounted, I should have released the bridle and stepped away but instead, I asked Beau to back up again. I should have anticipated that he might react by pushing forward but I didn’t take the time to think about it. Neither my actions nor my thoughts had shown any evidence of savvy.
Recognizing that my lack of savvy had nearly gotten me seriously hurt and that I didn’t have a clue as to what to do next, I asked my instructor to give me a lesson centered around Beau’s mounting issues. She started by assessing his horsenality (right brain introvert) and reviewing the dos and don’ts of working with a right brain horse. She then showed me how to get Beau to think about the mounting block as a safe and comfortable place by making him work around it in a circle whenever he moved away from the block, but letting him rest next to it when he stood still. In less than 30 minutes, she had him standing quietly next to the block while she mounted him.
All in all, the incident was a lesson in humility. I’ve come to realize how important it is to think things through before trying something and how important it is to understand and consider Horsenality™ in choosing my approach. I’m much more aware of my surroundings, trying to see them from the point of view of a prey animal and before every session, I try to think specifically about what I need to do to ensure my own safety and the safety of the horse I am working with.
As for Beau, I’ve come to appreciate his natural tendency to worry about things and have changed my approach to working with him. I take things slow and steady with a lot of approach and retreat. I am much more tuned into his body language and try to be quicker to respond to the signals he is giving me. As a result, he is gaining confidence and becoming braver.