Catching Pixie

Tonight I took my lesson on Misty.  She’s Paulette’s horse who is the Harmony Horsemanship success story.  Eight-year old girls take lessons on her.   An 87-year old woman was led around on her last fall.  She’s a beautiful Arabian who is usually calm, cool and collected.  But for some reason, tonight she was out of her element.  After about twenty minutes of practicing hind-quarter control on the rail, Misty reared.  Not just a little rear either.  A heart-stopping, eye-popping, five-second, make-me-pee-my-pants rear.  It was pretty crazy.

Somehow I remained cool under pressure (much like the lady in the photo above… ok, not quite that relaxed).  I immediately realized my bra had gotten hooked on the saddle horn, so I said to myself, “Ok, first, unhook your bra.”  And so I did.  Then I looked at Ted, as his face turned from amused to concerned, I started to second guess my composure.  Just as I was about to panic, Misty delicately set her front feet back down on the ground.  I’ve never dismounted so quickly in my life.  Ted reminded me to breathe and we took a few minutes to collect ourselves. I think we were both really scared.    

But the fact is, I didn’t immediately panic.  I didn’t scream.  I didn’t even cry.  Do you want to know what I did?  I got back on the horse.  We kicked around the soccer ball for a few minutes and then I rode her back up to the barn.

(Pixie is the one with the white socks on her back feet.)

Labor Day was a big day for Pixie.  Paulette, Ted and I headed out to the pasture, ready to work up a sweat. But once Paulette began working her horse whispering magic, the “catch” was pretty easy.  Paulette was able to halter Ami pretty effortlessly (remember, Ami is Pixie’s mom).  Since Pixie wanted to go wherever Ami was, Paulette was able to lead them to the gate.  She patiently worked with them, petting and rubbing Pixie until she was calm enough to halter, and then we walked them both to the barn.  Simple as that!  Paulette let me walk Pixie to the barn, while she led Ami.  And once we got past Junior (the stud) it went fairly smoothly.  

When we got into the barn, Ted backed Pixie into a stall and let her get used to it while Ami was still hanging around.  After about fifteen minutes, Paulette started leading Ami out and Pixie went a little nuts. So Paulette suggested moving her to a stall without windows.  A scared, frustrated horse can wield a lot of strength – especially in her back legs.  Once we got her into a safe stall, Paulette took Ami back to the hill and we brought Justice (the brown baby in the above photos) into the neighboring stall to keep her company.  It actually calmed her down a bit.

I stayed with Pixie for a while, petting her, kissing her and whispering sweet promises into her ear, “We’re going to teach you lots of cool stuff Pixie!  You’re going to learn how to play soccer and fun games!  It’s going to be great!”  I’m not sure she bought it.  We’ll have to wait and see!