My Experience Working With Horses

I have had the pleasure of working with a friend's horses recently.  Due to some health problems she has been unable to care for horses as she once did.  While her husband has taken over the majority of the care for them, my daughter and I have been going over a couple of times a week to work with them.  What started off as a simple trade-off of us going over once a week to help out, in return for my daughter being allowed to ride has become a labor of love and I find myself over there more often than that.

The horses, Dakota and Phantom have become very special to me and I look forward to the time I spend with them.  I find "the boys," as I call them, have a very calming effect on me.  I am usually mutltitasking like mad, but when working with them I find it easy to concentrate solely on them.

I can best describe the boys as two very large two year olds.  They can be both loving and mischievous or they can be jealous and stubborn.  I have always been on guard around horses, but these two know how to disarm me.  I am always aware when around them, because of their size, but I can't help but love them.

Three year old, Dakota, a quarterhorse, loves to try to steal my hat while I groom his back legs.  He will continue this until I get perturbed and then he will turn on the charm and try to nuzzle up to me.

Two year old, Dakota, a paint, hasn't had the training Dakota has, but is smart as can be.  He has one brown eye and one blue eye and he knows how to use them.  He will give you the saddest puppy dog eyes a horse can muster.  He likes to come up and put his neck over my shoulder.

While I spend time with these two, I am finding a therapeutic effect I never expected.  I am in a standoff with Dakota right now over the bit.  He hasn't been ridden in so long that he won't take it from me.  He will take it from my friend, but refuses it from me.  Today I shall try some bribery (putting some molasses on it) until he finally trusts me enough to take it.  I am learning patience and persistence pays off with these guys with benefits me as well.

I find myself looking forward to the time I spend with them.  Even cleaning up the barn affords me some quiet time I enjoy.  The fact that they come running now when they see or hear m,e in the barn makes me feel pretty good, too.  And my daughter, Dakota, just loves working with a horse, also, named Dakota.  I have always loved animals, but these two sure are special to me.