Horses Hate Me!

I love the book The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans and Robert Redford is amazing as the lead in the movie. I am in awe of someone who has the ability to communicate with a horse and practice effective equine psychology.

I could never do anything like this because horses HATE me. I have several incidents that prove this fact. When I was growing up, we had horses on a farm my parents had but we lived about 20 miles away in town. We often went to the farm for an evening and spent many weekends there. One gentle cow pony we had, Little Joe, was good when cutting cattle, but tame enough for we kids to ride without my parents having to be with us.

You have heard the expression “You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.” I had no trouble pumping the water into a bucket and getting Little Joe to drink, but he stepped on my foot while doing so and no matter how much I pushed him or hollered or swatted his rump, he would NOT get off my foot. Dad had to come rescue me.

Once when I was riding Little Joe he took me under a tree to get me off his back. Another time he walked under a low barn door with me in the saddle and I had to lay back to not get knocked off; the top of the barn door frame almost scraped my nose as I went under.

I was on Little Joe and Dad was riding a tall, rather wild horse named Stormy when he and I were going to a neighboring farm to bring back an errant steer who had jumped the fences to get to greener grass. We hadn't had Stormy long and he was not easy to control. When he reared up with my Dad, he told me to change saddles with him so he could get the steer with Little Joe and for me to go on back to the farm with Stormy. I was not about to get on that tall horse that had almost thrown my Dad! I walked Stormy all the way back to the farm which was between 3 and 4 miles.

My husband and daughters like to ride, but unfortunately my son inherited the “hated by horses” gene. When they go ride, he and I find some other form of entertainment to enjoy.