Learning to Listen...Again!

Well I tried to post earlier today but Blogger was being weird so I gave up. This time I'll leave off all the nice entertaining photos and maybe it'll be better! This is a long post by the way, and no photos because of Blogger's stupidness.  Sad. ;(

I think Rhapsody deserves a better trainer than yours truly. Lol. However she is a very good human-trainer in her own right; I guess we all need the horses that teach us things!

I went out to the barn on Friday and after a little go-round (Rhapsody is still by no means an easy catch) got both Rhapsody and Surge and headed up to the barn.  Well it wasn't that easy. We met the Pony-Eating Gator of Death on the way.  

That was rather a terrifying experience; however Surge was an unexpected trooper so I only had one freaking-out pony. Good girl Surge! On getting to the barn, I belatedly realized I'd left all my stuff (including my rope halter) in the car by the back pasture. Ugh. So I decided to tack up Rhapsody, since she'd been ridden on Thursday, trail ride her to the back pasture, let her go, and drive the car back.  This sounded good except that I forgot two important things.

1. I was still rather tense and emotionally upset from some happenings earlier in the day.
2. Rhapsody despises any kind of pressure, including goal-oriented, high-energy focus that doesn't take her worries into consideration. She's getting much better with this, but I still need to be careful. I know this, but I forgot big-time.

So the whole time I was tacking up I got this sort of look from Rhapsody:

 I was not smart enough to listen however. But then I had my second belated realization--there was nobody around.  Now I may be stupid but I'm not so stupid as to trail ride this horse to the back 40 when no one's in sight. So I pulled off all the tack and decided to do something else. Rhapsody, however, staged a passive revolt. I returned to the stall and what do I see but that she has turned straight around and all I can see is her rear end!

She wasn't eating, wasn't looking out the window--she had her head in the corner and her hiney to me and her whole posture and ear set said plain as could be, "You are being a tense, obnoxious idiot and I refuse to have anything to do with you!"

Oops. 

I coerced her out from the corner with the promise of grain and decided to have a relaxed day. We went out to the arena, did some catching work (with grain treats), and played with the rope around her neck and shoulders--she was starting to get spooky of it again, ugh. Went well, but not much relaxation on her part, though she seemed to have forgiven me at least to a degree.

Then I decided I needed some horse cuddles. Rhapsody is not the usual sort of horse you cuddle with, but she was what I had, so I started scratching her neck and then rested my face against her neck and relaxed, breathed, and tried to "feel" where she was at mentally. 

Almost right off she started licking and chewing--and kept it up for a long time! Then she yawned and yawned and yawned, and licked and chewed some more, and yawned some more, and chewed, and dropped her head way down so that my head was almost on top of her neck! She relaxed her posture, curved her head and neck in toward me a little, and just stayed there. I was astonished to say the least, as I hadn't asked her to do any of this and in fact hadn't even been sure whether she would stand still for me to get that up-close-and-personal with her. We stayed there for a bit, until I stood up and thanked her; then she started grazing. She never, ever grazes in the arena or with a halter and lead on! I just relaxed and we stood there a while until I got cold and she got distracted; then we headed back up to the barn and Surge. 

A very sweet experience though, and reminded me that I have to listen to this horse. She will not take it otherwise. However, that's just what makes her such a good teacher!

Well congratulations to anyone making it to the end of this great epistle. On another note, anybody know anything about endurance? It sounds fun and like a good low-key experience to me, and I think Rhapsody would be good at it, so I'm looking into it but can't find much. Any comments or ideas are welcome! :)