Catching Pixie

Last night I had the opportunity to flag Justice, the one-year old baby horse. Flagging is what we do at Harmony Horsemanship to exercise the horses while in training and immediately before riding. To flag a horse, you use a long stick with a plastic bag on the end. To begin, you establish direction (say you want the horse to run around you to the right) by pointing your right hand in the air and shaking the flag in your left hand. As the horse moves along the rail in a circle, you should stay behind the shoulders and focus your energy and the flag towards the horse’s hindquarters (butt). Once the horse starts moving at the desired pace, you can let the flag rest, but keep your directing hand up in the air. To switch directions, you switch flag hands behind your back, point your other hand in the air, get in front of the horse and shake the flag. This is the scary part, especially if your horse is moving fast. The goal is to switch a few times and have the horse follow direction.

The coolest part of flagging comes near the end when you “get quiet.” You stop moving, put the flag behind your back and the horse should immediately come towards you and stop right in front of you. You then hindquarter the horse, which means you look at the horses butt and get the horse to disengage her hindquarters by crossing one back leg over the other. In order to disengage her hindquarters, she needs to be in her left brain, which is her thinking side (left = thinking, right = flight). This focuses her attention on you. Then you get to hug and rub the horse with your flag.

Of course, this is how it goes with a well trained horse. I got to flag a baby horse and it was pretty neat. First of all, she was full of energy. Bucking, kicking, twitching in midair. It was a sight. But I was able to harness all of her energy when I got the flag going and established direction. It was amazing. I switched directions a few times then got quiet. While most horses (again, trained horses) will make a b-line into the center, where I stood, Justice took her time. Nostrils flaring and tail flying, she zig-zagged her way past and around me, but not quite to me. After a few minutes of showing off, she walked up to me and stopped. I looked at her butt and she ever so slightly disengaged her hindquarters – she let me walk up to her and gently touch her with the plastic flag. It was pretty sweet. Ted said, that’s all you can ask for in a day. After all, she’s a baby.

Everyone loves kissing their pets, right?  I’ve seen people let their dogs lick their face (not exactly my bag, but I kind of get it).  Well, I’ve been petting, scratching and rubbing Pixie for a few months.  But until tonight I’ve never gotten close enough, or trusted her not to spook enough to give her a kiss.  A big horse head whacking you in the mouth isn’t fun. But tonight I walked around her pasture and she followed me wherever I went.  I rubbed her face, neck and tummy, scratched her forehead and finally…kissed her nose!  It was so soft and I think she liked it to.

Although this is very exciting for me to report, the more important news is, she let me touch her neck with the rope.  It was a light touch and she backed away immediately, but it was a touch nonetheless.  And after she walked away, she licked her lips (a sign that indicates she’s learning and taking in the moment) and eventually walked back towards me for more lovin’. Progress!

Wednesday nights are lesson nights.   Last night Drifter and I (Drifter is the horse I get to work with during lessons) spent some time in the outdoor arena walking through barrels, trotting around cones and cantering all over the place.

A few months ago Ted told me I’d be begging him to canter by the end of summer and I laughed in his face.  Canter?  Me?  I don’t think so.  I was perfectly fine at a brisk trot.  In fact whenever Drifter would go into a canter, I would shut him down with the one-reign stop before you could say “rodeo queen!”  I DID NOT want to canter.  Too scary.

But sure enough, months ahead of schedule, I love to canter.  And I’ve built my confidence.  Now, when I’m trying to keep Drifter at a trot, but he leaps into a canter without me asking, I’m able to slow him back down by reducing the energy in my body, blowing out my air and positioning myself for a trot.  It’s really cool.  No emergency stop, no pulling, no freaking out.  Just directing the horse with my body and energy.   I love it!

I also spent some time with Pixie and Ami last night.  Pixie actually let me rub her on her face and neck and when I walked away from them, she followed me.  Tonight I think I’ll try rubbing her with the rope – we’ll see how she likes that.

Pixie’s full name is “Picture Perfect” and it suits. She’s beautiful. Her mom Ami (seen in the background) is an Arab and her dad is a Morgan – so Pixie is a Morab. She’s black with white socks on her back feet and I love her.

I’ve been taking natural horsemanship lessons for a couple years at a wonderful place called Harmony Horsemanship in Deerfield, Wisconsin. Last week I was offered an amazing opportunity to help train Pixie. I can hardly express how excited I am. The two people who train horses at Harmony Horsemanship, Ted and Paulette, are amazing trainers (of horses and people) and I feel so lucky and honored that they think I am useful enough and know enough to help them train this amazing horse.

Now, I’m not sure when the training will start, but I’m going to try my best to use this blog to chronicle my journey. Everyday that I’m out there I learn more about horses and myself. I’m sure I’ll use some posts to describe how this process has changed me as a person and how I use horses as the best anti-anxiety medicine out there. I’ll use other posts to describe the natural horsemanship techniques I’m learning.

Today was my first time in the pasture with Pixie and Ami. Ami is already semi-trained. She walked up to me immediately and let me pet and rub her. Pixie was much more cautious and today she was pretty content with just looking and smelling. But that’s a good first step and I’ll gladly take it!