Bob made it through his back surgery with flying colors. Now to get my life in order again.

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It doesn’t matter what you call them, horses come with them.

I love when they come in with a wardrobe, shot records, Coggins, and paperwork that is filled out with all the information you could possibly want. But when they come with baggage or skeletons from their past lives, Oh My!

One of my boarders new horses is beyond wonderful. He will jump anything and clear it by two feet. His knees come up to his nose, and he uses his back beautifully. She told me she finally found the hole. You mount him and he takes off bucking. I asked if he was in pain and she said, not that she can find. She believes it’s a learned habit. She didn’t tell me about this until she fell off the other day. After picking her body up off the ground and bringing him to the barn, she lost her temper when taking his bridle off, he bolted and took her finger with him. Surgery was the other day and the horse is now off to a cowboy for some training to work the bugs out while she’s healing. She doesn’t board that horse with me (he’s at a show barn), only her retired horse. She never mentioned his little attitude problem before now.

She worked through a ton of problems with the horse that stays with me. She has a habit of buying the rejects and fixing them. The horse I have here is very reasonable, but still keeps you on your toes. He likes to push the envelope and see what he can get away with. It’s actually his way of getting attention. Imagine that. You know, negative attention is better than no attention. How many children have I dealt with that problem. But it’s a game between the two of us and I always come out the winner. Luckily he tips his hat and admits defeat. Like I said, it’s a game.

Why do people work around bad behavior? If she had addressed this issue in the beginning she wouldn’t have hardware on her hand where jewelry should be.

Got another new boarder in last week. You want to talk about a whole list of issues. He was abused. I don’t even know where to start with all the skeletons. The owner felt sorry for what he had been through, and chose to be gentle and work around them. I, on the other hand, choose to deal with them and help him move into a more calm, happy, secure life. He is not trusting, but I see a change in him only after five days. I know he will never forget his previous life, but I hope we can learn to trust each other enough to work through the baggage he’s been carrying all these years.

I worked through this with another horse. Yes he sometimes reacts, then realizes he doesn’t have to, but it’s all good now.

People do the same thing. It’s so sad. It’s so freeing to let go and just enjoy what time we have left.

This new horse will probably afford me many posts. I hope they will all be positive. Because of an injury he is finished as a riding horse, but will live out his life in a safe place, hopefully full of happy memories from now on.

If your horse has an issue, deal with it, start right now. No animal, or person, should live with all this stuff hanging over them. The first thing you must do is find out the root cause. Always eliminate the possibility of pain. Horses will project fear or anger if they know whatever you are going to do will cause hurt. Ever try and remove a bandage from a child, or an adult for that matter? They know it’s going to sting and they react in many ways. The anticipation is worse than the removal. If it’s a fear problem, teach them to first trust you. If they believe that you will protect them, then they can depend on you not to let anything else hurt them. If it’s an aggression problem, you must work through this situation, with the proper energy of course (anger is not an option), and let them know that this is not a good choice. Be gentle, yet firm, demand obedience from your horse. If you don’t, it could be dangerous to both you, the horse, or anyone else around. Remember, respond, don’t react.

Time for a little late “Spring Cleaning”. Get the old baggage and skeletons out of those closets. It allows so much more room for fun and good times, for everyone involved.

Still haven’t found my spelling and grammar check.