The strong silent type

I feel for stoic horses. They’re easily misunderstood. I’ve heard stoic horses described as ‘bomb proof’ or ‘kids’ horses’ and sometimes what’s overlooked in a horse that seems detached or has a ‘been there, done that’ history is that quiet horses have thoughts too, but they speak softly and sometimes we just don’t have the ears to listen. And sometimes their thoughts are quite profound.
Stoic horses remind me of human introverts. Just because they’re not telling the world how they feel every second, they can be misunderstood. Human introverts can get a bad rap too. Not everyone wants to talk to strangers (horses or people), not everyone feels comfortable in new surroundings or situations (horses or people), and not everyone has the same energy level (horses or people).

I’m going to tell you an unbelievable story. Many years ago a BLM auction came to our town and Pat wanted to adopt a yearling mustang. Here’s the unbelievable part – I actually told him no, I don’t think we should. I had two horses at the time, Lick and Skeeter. Lick was a retired rope horse, a been there done that kind of guy. Skeeter was a two-year old and I was busy scribbling all over the blank slate of him with my rookie moves.  These two guys were bookends of the spectrum and I knew enough to know I’d be way over my head in the horse starting department if we added a yearling mustang to the mix. Pat recalls this story a bit differently, but trust me, it’s such a rarity for me to say no to an animal that I know I’m the one remembering it clearly. 

So off we went to the auction, which was sad in more ways than I can say. There was one little stand out bay stud who got our attention and before I knew it, we’d paid a measly $150 to adopt this poor little guy and home he came with us. Holy crap. I’ll never forget setting up panels on either side of the trailer to unload him and unload him we did. The three of us stood there looking at each other; I don’t know which of us was more scared.

We named the little bay Luke. Luke means ‘light giving’ in Greek. We needed all the light we could get to go from riding a been there done that horse, to my two –year old semi-blank slate, to a yearling who’d endured more in his short lifetime than any of us can likely imagine.
Fast forward and a lot of hours logged that went into the little guy. Finally we were able to make contact and finally he seemed able to enjoy it. Luke began to grow, and we grew together, working our way from wild mustang to touch, haltering, leading, and trust. Luke began to grow into his drafty feet and pretty soon he was a big-boned two year old as our budding relationship together continued.

Fast forward again to Luke a year later and it became evident that this ‘learning’ went both ways. I learned as much as he did and eventually the first saddling, first ride were under our belts. No rodeos, no drama, and off we went. Not too long after Luke was moving along quite nicely and it seemed like we had this once-wild horse thing going strong.
  
Until the day that Luke was asked to move into a nice little trot and he said 'No thanks.' At least he was clear on his 'no thank you,' but we saw him as the nice quiet horse who just needed a little confidence. And a just little nudge.  The nudge was nothing other than a little squeeze and suggestion, but a nudge was not what he needed.  Turned out that nice stoic little horse had a buck like a rocket launcher and that day goes down in infamy as the day we paid new attention to what the quiet, stoic horse had to say.  Luke didn’t have an angry bone in his big drafty body, but he had his own thoughts and his own things to say. It’s not just the noisy horses that have something to say. I’ve always felt bad about that and I’ve never forgotten it. 

Listen. Even to the quiet ones. It’s well worth the effort. Just because they’re quiet doesn’t mean they aren’t part of the conversation.   
I dedicated my book “to my BLM mustang Luke, who taught us that you should always listen to your horse, even if it takes you a long time to figure that out.’

To Luke and all his stoic brethren. xoxo