Mister Mister at the moment he zoned in on Sandi

Today is a beautiful Easter Sunday.  We enjoyed lunch on the patio of Clyde’s after church, and while my husband Joey was enjoying the company of great friends, good food, and sunshine I batted my eyelashes and asked if we could visit Silas.  We soon parted ways with our friends and made our way out to the barn.  Ominous clouds loomed in the distance – cell phone weather updates warning of strong thunderstorms and tornadoes.  We crossed our fingers, and struck out to the field to catch Silas.

I have been reading a book about learning to communicate with your horse similar to how horses communicate with each other in their herd.  When we finally located the horses, Silas was grazing just inches from Sita – the “matriarch” of the field (the book uses that term to describe the female horse who is the most dominant, and protects the herd).  I approached and rubbed on Silas’s head to say hello.  For some reason at this moment Sita decided to bite Silas – I don’t know if it was a love bite, a jealous bite, or just a plain mean “matriarch” bite, but my hand was in the way and she got me instead.  Sita spun and took off as I yelled a profanity and chased her, flinging the halter at her in the process.  Apparently I scared more than Sita, because Silas also left town.

Ok, this is kind of annoying.

After a couple minutes of slow pursuit (walking back and forth) Silas finally stopped and allowed me to approach him (the book says your horse should approach you, so me begging him to stop so I could catch him was not really ideal).  I didn’t waste too much time in putting the halter on, but I did note that he “helped” me put the halter on by dipping his head into it.  According to my book that’s a sign of submission, so I felt like all was not lost.  As the entire family (horse, husband, and dog included) made our way from the back of the pasture to the front gate, the pony decided to join us.  His name is Mister Mister, and he’s about as cute and mischievous as his name sounds.  We were approximately 75 yards from the gate when Mister Mister decided to play chase with Sandi (my precious dog).  I won’t lie – I’ve imagined this happening before and I already had a plan.  I screamed “OUT!” to Sandi so she knew to run out of the field, and I promptly dropped Silas’s lead rope and took off chasing Mister Mister as fast as I could.  Silas followed us in hot pursuit and caught up to Mister Mister before me just as Sandi dove under the fence to safety.

*deep breathe*  Everyone is safe!

Silas patiently awaited my arrival at the gate with his halter on and lead rope dangling. The show was over, and I slowly made my way towards my faithful steed when I heard Joey say, “Here come the other horses.”   What? I turned to see the rest of the 5 horse herd galloping wildly towards us.  I made the executive decision to wait to catch Silas just in case he needed to defend himself from his crazy pasture-mates.  Maybe that was the wrong idea?  The 3 horses arrived, and I moved towards Silas so we could at long last get to the barn.  Sita, the matriarch, had a different idea and dove for the gap between us and cut me off .  Pretty soon I had 4 horses galloping and bucking in circles around me (Silas and dangling lead rope included) as Joey dove for safety and joined Sandi on other side of the fence.   From his safe haven he hollered, “Does this always happen?” – he doesn’t come to the barn with me often, and NO it has actually never happened.

Thinking back to my book that talks a lot about “join-up” with your horse I wondered – am I about to join up with 4 horses at once?  Several times Silas would make his way to the gate -still with his halter and lead rope on – but whenever I made a move in his direction Sita showed up in full attack mode.  I continued to glare at the 4 horses in complete anger as they galloped, bucked, kicked, reared, bit, and did whatever else a horse does on a beautiful spring day when I’m trying to catch my horse.  Mister Mister was still at the gate harassing Joey and Sandi over the fence.  Finally the others settled down not too far from the gate, strategically placed with 4 butts facing me.  Fine!  I pretended like I didn’t care and turned my back to them while Mister Mister proceeded to harass me.  After about 10 minutes I finally turned to see Silas facing me with his head close to the ground in a submissive manner, lead rope still dangling from his head, and 3 horses blocking his path to me.  I like to think he wanted to join up with me, but was intimated by the other 3 horses.  Being the true matriarch (that’s me! *smug grin*) I weaved my way through the 3 turds to rescue my sweet Silas.

In the end, the dark clouds went around the barn, I put my happy face back on, and we had a lovely ride.  Now we are all sitting on the couch (Sandi included) relaxing from an eventful Easter family outing to the barn.

Lesson for the day:   Train your dog to leave the enclosure when you say “OUT”.  It could save her life.

He is risen!

~Sarah