I love to feel the new levels that I achieve with my mule. To feel the next level of trust, partnership, and communication is indescribable.
I believe the great difference between my partnership with Ruby and that with my old Appy mare, Jet, is that with Jet, I wasn't a good trainer, and not that great of a partner in the sense that I did not push both of us to new levels (we just hacked around in the fields). She was a sweetheart of sweethearts, and never behaved "badly", even though I was a super marhsmallow with her. I think she needed that in her life, however - a super soft touch and a plain old friend. I still miss her....
But Ruby needed direction, and so did I. We've both pushed forward in this partnership.We've worked hard, we've never given up, and the most amazing times are when she is the one to guide me.
Ruby had her week off, so yesterday I decided that we needed to get back to work.It was chilly and breezy, and she had been in heat. Well, as I went to saddle her, she pawed strongly (which is her way of telling me that she needs to be worked in the round pen before being saddled). I ignored it (like a dope) and continued tacking up. As I placed the saddle on her, she shifted her entire body back and forth and pawed even more. She was very "up", and I hadn't seen her this hot for a long time.....visions of the old days, the "pre-hormonal supplement" and pre-trust days, came flashing through my mind, and I became a little upset. "Oh, crap," I thought, "she's gone back to the old ways of being crazy and scary." All of the progress we'd made over the last two years seemed to have melted......So, heavy-hearted, I unsaddled her and took her to the pen.
I expected her to run like a racehorse, bucking and carrying on, but no. She calmly cantered several times in both directions, then I cued her to trot, which she did, using both speeds. She only offered one half-hearted "attitude leg" - where she lifts one leg up in a half-buck - when I asked her to change directions. She worked herself (I barely had to cue her with the longe whip). When she seemed to be finished, she came to me, and we went back into the barn.No crazies, no regression....I needed to trust her and eliminate those images of the old days from my mind. She had just pushed my half of our partnership to the next level.
I saddled her, mounted (she stands still for mounting now - this is a HUGE mountain that we have finally overcome!), and away we went to the outdoor arena. She was still "up", but it was a positive, forward energy, with the edge taken off. The entire time we were out there, she gave me the most beautiful TWH flat walk she had ever done! She had never previously given me the falt walk for such a long period of time. Some of her impetus came from the handsome geldings housed in the next field : ) But she paid attention to what we were doing. She even falt-walked on a long, loose rein!
Proud? Hell, yes! She showed me that she had not reverted to the old days of craziness (which weren't her fault), and will not do so anytime soon. I had to trust that all of our achieved levels were still intact, and now we had come to an even higher one.
She reminded me, yet again, to reach deeper into myself, to stop and think, to listen even more closely, to pay attention to even the smallest of successes (and mistakes), and to continue moving forward - together.
We always need to remember that's it's more than okay to let go and let our equines do the guiding. It's necessary to the partnership, and friendship, process.
