The Boy and his Mare

I hope readers don't get tired of seeing photos of my kid and the little mare, but I can't help bragging on them when they continue to improve, not just in skill, but in teamwork -- which is so key to so many things in life.

Jared has struggled with a lot in the last couple of years, some troubles at school, homeschooling (learning appropriate study habits, discipline, self-tasking), but the main thing I've seen him overcome is the pass/fail mentality that seems to plague so many kids these days.

So many things, he has tried, didn't do great the first time out and decided it wasn't so much fun.

I attribute a great deal of his progress to the wonderful family atmosphere of the CMSA and especially to the people who have reached out to us in the Texas Smokin' Guns club. It's a tough sport and it's made him a tougher kid.

He always did pretty well endurance riding with me, but in a lot of ways, he started in the sport, basically, riding at a level with most adults. He's a pretty good hand with a horse, in camp and on the trail. He can walk, jog, gallop, cross creeks, and handle about any kind of terrain.

So when he first tried shooting, it was fun, but tough, and all the other kids were a lot better than him - and that's hard for a guy, especially when he'd been doing so well elsewhere. In endurance, I was continually holding him back, his skillset was at or above the level of competition we intended for each day.

In CMSA, he's continually having to learn, practice and refine both his riding and his shooting. It set him back and we've had some false starts and some off days, but over the last year, he's seen his scores consistently improving. And even better than that he can see and feel how much his horsemanship is improving, and how much better he's working with this particular mare and that is the most rewarding thing.

We had a tough weekend at the last event. We were rained out on Saturday and so we camped and competed in the heat and humidity on Sunday. It made for a long weekend, but well worth it for the success we had.

In a way, I wonder if the shooting means more to him because it's harder, because each step and each success is harder earned than endurance ever was for him and it occurs to me I've heard all this before in plotting classes. That we should 'throw rocks' at our heroes, that we should exact costly vengeance on them before they meet their successes; and I think about all the nicey-nice *bleh* books I've tossed aside unfinished.

It makes me realize how important it is for our heroes and heroines not just to have struggle and fight overcome the odds, but I understand now that, in many ways, 'character arc' is more about growth than change. In _Writing to the Point_ Algis Budrys says that characters don't actually change, because that would be false to the consistency of the readers observation of people. But that being under stress (conflict) reveals hitherto concealed facets -that the character reaches deeper into themselves, tries again, tries a little harder, learns a new skill based on existing ones, and uses that to snatch victory from the grasp of the villain. And I have to say, that as I go along, it makes more and more sense to me. Perhaps I'm finally learning to reach a little deeper myself.

Helpy-horsies

I often get emails asking if a horse would do this or that specific thing and most of the time my answer is "it depends". Horses are as individual as people. They can be bold or shy or have unusual likes, dislikes or habits.

I would buy a horse doing almost anything in a book if the author had developed it's character to foreshadow the possibility. One nosey young mare I raised had a long list 'did you see?'s, including changing the station on the radio and pulling the spark plug wires out of my truck. Another one loved to 'help out' with the welding by dragging the cables around and changing the settings. I heard last weekend that one of my grown up fillies has been rearranging the tool shed - the people had been blaming the grandkids, but the truth is out!


Right now, in my herd, I have a high percent of young horses. One thing I have noticed is that from about the age of about 1-2 years up through their 3 and 4 year old years, they are very anxious to have people-interaction and to please. These are the ages when they'll push their way between you and the riding-horse you're trying to halter and crowd the gate or when they'll do things like bite the saddle or pull the bridles off the hangers.

This age tends to be an in-between age as far as training because they already know the basics of how to lead and tie, let people handle their ears and hoofs and accept a light saddle pad and girth, but their baby bones and muscles aren't ready for a rider yet. They can feel neglected with the lack of training and that's where you can get into trouble with an intelligent horse because they start looking for ways, by their baby horsey logic, not only to help you out but ways get your attention. It can be good or bad, depending on how dedicated they are and what they come up with.


A couple of weeks ago, I was swapping horses between pastures and my trio of young fillies all got in the act.


One of the other young ladies got away from me before I unbuckled her halter and so we were doing the dosey-dance around the cedars in the front pasture. After watching for a few minutes, LUINIL apparently decided that ASILA couldn't figure out which way to go, so she trots out alongside her and starts leading her out to the pasture. (grrrrrr!) I cut loose with a bit of harsh language - shocking poor LUINIL - and when she turned and looked at me, I called her to come. She had the funniest look on her face, and looked at ASILA like "what the heck", and came right to me. ASILA kept running around, being silly and after a few minutes, here comes TELPE, nosing up and standing quiet with me and LUINIL.


What they were doing is showing ASILA that 'by me' is where she should be. Horses have an interesting concept, it's a little hard to explain. They don't really understand "come to me". They can learn the human version easily enough, but as a directive, it's not a natural phrase to them because "close-together'=safe is so deeply instinctively ingrained that it's never needed. "Go away" is, basically, a punishment with the reward being the removal of the "go away" allows them to return. Consider that a horse herd like a little pack of magnets. It takes an effort to pull one away, but for it to return you simply release it.


I'm not ASILA's 'mom', so it isn't natural for her to come to me. She doesn't like wearing the halter and rope and she had no way to know that I was trying to take it off of her. By LUINIL and TELPE coming to stand beside me, they created a .... go back to our magnet example .... 'pull' to bring her in to me. And it worked. After a couple of minutes, she slipped right up between the other two and I was able to take her halter off.


The other 'escapee' was our young gelding LANDROVAL. He had found a good patch of grass outside the gate and would dance around and circle without letting me catch his halter. TELPE came up, as close to us as she could, but it wasn't a strong enough pull for him. He would go to her then dart away again and snatch another mouthful of grass.

The third helpful young lady in this little saga is Miree (MIREYENION) who is practicing to one day be Boss Mare and so she's very much clued in to who is being good and who is being bad. She gets pretty upset when someone is bad - she'll be extra good, I guess to try to offset the badness(?). And she needs a lot of reassurance as to her goodness and the rightness of the universe.


So she was pacing at the gate, getting increasingly agitated with LANDROVAL's badness and when I finally caught his rope and walked him through the gate, as soon as I slipped his halter off and stepped away she lunged and took a huge bite out of his shoulder!!


I usually don't tolerate aggression like that, but I also have a policy not to interfere in 'horse business' as long as they don't kick or bite when a person is close. But in this case - she was right, he had been bad - and she was soooooo proud of herself, I just couldn't help but give her just a tiny bit of praise. She's not normally a biter or an aggressive mare - and I can't help but think there may come a day when I need her to watch my back.

Silly Wabbit

Silly things horses are afraid of or have strange reactions to :

1. Most things unnatural: metal, plastic, square things

Here we have a horse that's very well started over jumps trying to figure out how to navigate around a milk crate. *sigh* I was riding this young horse today through some pretty amazing (mostly natural) stuff. They've buried a pipeline along our back fence and it's a nice track for a little back-n-forth kind of work. They initially had to bulldoze their way through some massive cedarbreaks and this week the company has come back to shred the mess. So we have these house sized piles of cedar shavings about every couple hundred feet. He never batted an eye. *good boy!*

2. Windows, mirrors, shiny things that reflect bright lights or very strange horses that shimmer and stretch in odd ways. .... would a shield wall be a problem for a fantasy horse?

3. anything that has changed: you can ride by a trash can a thousand time with but if, one day, the lid is off (or on, if the lid has typically been off) it's a whole new monster.

4. Anything flappy:

5. Anything, even non-flappy things, on a windy day: And I have to say a word in their defense on this one. Their hearing is a major element of their prey-instinct flight response. You can't hear or smell very well on a windy day, so it makes good sense to be more alert.

6. Things that move in the shadows: Like if you've had a dog running along side you for 12 miles or so and it darts into the woods after a rabbit and at some point later, emerges from the woods. The horse is likely to have a meltdown when the dog leaps out from under the trees.
Or worse.
When the dog is following, dodging along the side of the trail, in and out of the shadows, bushes and trees. It makes the horse move funny .. trot trot trot FREAK trot FREAK trot trot FREAK. It's a little hard to ride if you've eaten recently.

7. Nothing. This is the one that truly amazes me on occasion. I keep telling myself that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that nothing is out to get you and that I should be more appreciative of being saved from nothing on the occasions that it is out to get me. ... but I'm a hard sell on that one.

hmm. and I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'll go ahead and post this. What are your horses favorite spooks?

More kids, photos and horses for sale ~

I have to sell this horse. He's a fantastic guy, just gelded last year and coming along wonderfully in his training. He's been under saddle and trail ridden casually since he was three, he'll be seven in January, but he spent several months this spring in formal training and is started with dressage and jumping and has a solid base to start endurance riding, hopefully next month.

But this is the one that was bitten by a brown recluse spider in July, so he's been out of work for four months.

Today was his first ride in a long time and I wanted to snap some practice photos. I didn't get what I wanted, but I couldn't help but to share this one. Look at the matching expressions on their faces. Could it be any more clear that they are both bored to tears.

Not just their faces, but their entire bodies. Both of them. "Are we done yet?" Slouched and strung out, sloppy hands, no length of stride. *ARGH* What a terrible photo of such a talented horse and rider, but I know every teenager mom and horse mom will be wiping away the little tears of laughter in recognizing the attitude.

We frequently hear jokes about how pets and owners resemble each other, but I think that while most people think of physical traits, it more fun, and more author-worthy, to consider how pets, and especially horses who your characters might be working alongside, to use the emotional or attitudinal resemblance and contrast.

Does your hero's steed reflect his flawed traits and contrast with his noble ones or provide balance to his temperament? Is she a typical mare that pushes his buttons when she tries to boss him, or does he dote on her quirks? Or is he a typical gelding that just doesn't really give a darn as long as he's not having to work too hard?

"Mare-ears"

*ahem* ... such an ugly face on a usually pretty girl, I hate to post it, but here it is - for your writing-details pleasure.


WITNESS is a wonderful little mare, gentle with people and very maternal, but she doesn't put up with nonsense. She'll ask nicely, and then insist. In spite of her (lack of) size, 13.3hh, she's pretty highly ranked in the herd and this is why.

She'll pull her first punch, but not the second and in this photo, she's telling MARAH, "You just got on my last nerve!"

MARAH is a pocket-pony and jealous of the attention the babies are getting so she's been trying to sneak in close to the visitors who have come to see little YODA.

Contrast the mare_ears shot with the on-alert photo, where the ears are tightly forward and the eyes are alert, but the nostrils are not flared as if she were smelling or blowing(warning). She's very interested, but not overly concerned.

In the mare_ears photo, you see the ears are back, although not flattened. She's serious, but not out for blood, yet. Her eyes are narrowed, if you can see it through the mane, her nostrils and lips are tight. Compare the photos and see how the anger actually changes her profile when she tightens up her nose like that.

The next stage, an instant before a charge would be to completely flatten the ears against the neck so tight you can't even really see them and to bare her teeth. If she's after another horse, she'll likely bite them on the barrel or rump if they are too slow. Anything smaller, like a wolf, and she'd likely strike with her forefeet and then bite as they dodged.