We train our horses. We send them to trainers. You still deal with “Fight or Flight.” That wonderful instinct that God instills in them for survival. We have the fight or flight instinct too you know. It’s not as prominent in us anymore, but it’s there.

In training we try to explain to our horses that they must trust us, completely. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes we make a wrong choice and our horse stands there and thinks “What is she thinking?!!!!!”

However, sometimes things just happen, and the reaction is left up to the horse. We like to believe that we have trained them well and that their reaction will be sensible, but sometimes, instinct wins. React first, ask questions later.

Horses I’ve trained since they were babies, I feel more comfortable around in bad situations. Horses who have come to me later in their lives, not so much. I try to always be aware of possibilities. Prepare an escape route, watch body language, and be on guard, but sometimes “s**t just happens.”

One such incident happened the other night. We were parallel with the fence, about two feet off near the feed bucket. I was putting on Friday’s sheet for the night, as usual on a chilly night, no big deal, did it the day before. Now there is a electric fence wire on the top board. They eat out of a bucket directly underneath on the ground. Have been doing this for years. They know that wire is there. They know not to touch it. It’s there because some of us like to rub our tail on the board, zap! So not giving it much thought I went ahead and started to secure the sheet, having a conversation as I went. She turned to look at something over her should on the fence side. Didn’t give it a thought, hardly even noticed. All of a sudden she stiffened up. Head up and alert, looking straight ahead, a little snorting. Zoey was standing next to us and she did the same thing. Okay I thought, whats in the next field that I hadn’t noticed. It was dark (hate these short days). Still stiff and snorting I stepped back to take a look, and then Fri bolted, Zoey running with her. They stopped a few feet away and looked at the fence. Friday had hit her nose, when she turned into the electric wire. Wait for it, here is the blessing. Instead of bolting right there and then, she froze. I was too close to her. She didn’t turn into me to get away. She didn’t take off and knock me down. She froze until I moved away. Of course this all happened in a matter of seconds.

I didn’t train this horse. I’ve owned her for five years. She’s 26 years old with a wonderful brain. Zoey had touched it a couple of weeks ago while I was feeding, looked at me and spun around away from me and left. It’s not always on, so I don’t move the buckets away. It’s on for a few weeks when Fri rubs her tail. Now that’s another story. Either one of these horses could have taken me out, but they chose to use their heads and react accordingly. Thank you God. After about 60 seconds, both times, both horses came back to eat their meals. No big deal. The fence bites. They know it. Dinner is served. We’ll think about it later.

So no matter how much you train, no matter how much you pay attention, things happen and you must be ready. You know your horse better than anyone, but when you have one with a brain on top of all your training, it’s “gold.”

Sorry, I’ve been sick.

Did you ever spin a wheel at a county fair or anywhere for that matter? You give it a good send off and wait to see where it is going to land. Sometimes you watch that happen with horses.

The other day that happened with one of the horses here. He was locked in a 12 X 24 pen, he had finished eating and was waiting while his friend finished his breakfast. The dogs next door decided to attack the property line fence (which was way to close for his comfort). They do this just about every day to encourage my dogs to run the fence line proclaiming who is the more vicious dogs. Usually the horse is not in the pen when they do this, and doesn’t care. I yell and everyone just walks away until the next day. Dumb game, but they are all bored. Well this horse panicked and started spinning around in one direction and then another trying to find away out of the enclosure. Luckily running through the boards never crossed his mind, thank God. Kind of reminded me of one of those wheels at the fair. Didn’t know where he was going to stop. The other good thing is that I wasn’t in the pen with him. He’s the one that doesn’t see well, but it was light out, he saw the fence.

Were you ever feeding and something spooked your horse and they just spun out? Most times if they know you are there, they will go in the other direction. I find that most horses will go around you if they have the presence of mind, but I still don’t trust them. Then there are those who really don’t care what is in the way. I’ve known way too many horses that just walked, or ran, right over people.

All this just to say that you must always stay alert and give yourselves a way out. Watch your horse when you are near them. Watch body language. Listen for sounds that may startle your horse. You just never know when that wheel will land on you.

Around and round she goes, where she’ll stop, nobody knows.

You’ve heard the old saying, “One mans junk is another mans treasure.” Well God doesn’t make junk.

Every horse owner thinks that they have the best horse in the world, and they do.

We love our horses. We believe they can do anything, and do it perfectly (most of the time). So many breeds, so little time.

Each breed was bred for a reason. Each of them have their own specialty, but in this day and age, with love behind it, we ask our horses to step out of their comfort zone.

Quarter Horses were bred for ranch work. Thoroughbreds were bred for racing. Tennessee Walkers were bred to get around the plantations quickly with a comfortable gate. But our love for each breed has caused us to prove that our beloved horse can do it all, and in many instances, they do.

Mary Mairs Chapot rode her Quarter Horse Mare Tomboy in the 1960’s and took the world by storm. Quarter horses in the jumping arena, let alone the USET was unheard of back then, that was Thoroughbred country.

These days we not only have Quarter Horses doing Dressage, but tons of other breeds accomplishing the same movements.

We’re crossing English/Western lines. Jumper/Dressage lines. The challenges are unending. If you’ve got a horse, love that horse, and want to prove that it can do anything – the sky’s the limit.

We don’t put our horses, or ourselves, in a box anymore. If we can dream it, we can do it. Of course they still excel at what they were bred for, but “May The Best Horse Win” or at least have fun trying.