Horse Solo

Today was a first. For the first time since he arrived as a foal, I was alone with Kenai. With Tess* still away on the East Coast, and with Dale on a two-week break, I’ve been left to tend to the horse. Two years ago, if you’d even suggested this to me, I’d have smile incredulously. After all, I knew just about as much about horses as your average bloke: i.e. not all that much.

I set out in the morning for the stable. Wonder of wonders, considering this is the first time I’ve actually driven out (all times previously I’ve been a passenger), I didn’t miss a single turn. Wow.

After the normal greetings and salutations, I was set to start grooming “The Big Guy”. Here’s were I needed to make a decision: tie him to a post or not? After all, I’ve spent the past several sessions trying to teach Kenai how to “ground tie”, which is having the horse stay in place when you drop its lead to the ground. He’s still not entirely reliable, but he’s about 90-95% there. The proof? During grooming, he stayed in place while ground tied. The only glitch we had was me getting hit in the face by a tail swish (the little snot :-).

In the arena, I think we had a pretty good session. Kenai wasn’t willing to gallop, and even a canter took some effort, but at least he kept moving. For now, I’m happy with that. As long as he exercises. We also did some practice with the lead back on him. Once, when I accidentally dropped the lead, he stopped—ground-tied. Way cool. After a little more ground-tie practice, we headed back for the stall.

For a few weeks, the most problematic aspect of a grooming session has been applying fly spray. The horse isn’t happy about having it applied, and frankly, I don’t blame him. His usual pattern is to back away from it. I seriously considered hitching him to a post, but I thought I give ground-tying a try. Kenai behaved like a champ. I only had to do one minor correction during the entire process.

I think my first solo was pretty successful. Kenai behaved very well, and I think I did in kind. The long term situation with the horse is very much in the air as far as I know, so I’m going to embrace this little treat I’ve been allowed to have. Hopefully it will go as well in a couple of days when I can see him again.