Cruz

I also came across this blog as a journal entry from 2011. This was a horse and a situation that touched me deeply, I hope you enjoy the story.

This will be a pretty short one, but I just got back from playing with a beautiful horse and I just had to write a quick update about my session.

The horse was a really remarkable, and beautiful one who had obviously had a very rough life. It was heartbreaking to feel the intense fear this horse had, and just general confusion at humans ;( He wanted DESPERATELY to find the right answers, but was so so unsure of what they might be... He had obviously had a traumatic foundation with humans, and despite the fact that he now lives in a beautiful natural environment with a kind and caring owner those first hours have really stuck with him.

Kalley and Pat have always stressed the importance of a horse’s first 100 hours of human contact... as well as the importance of their start under saddle. Pat often says that he believes Kindergarten and Pre-school teachers should be the highest paid professionals in our society, and that young horse starters, and foundation specialists should be the same in the horse industry. This is of course sadly backward.

I felt really deeply privileged today to play with "Cruz" and to share with his owner, some ways to start to help him overcome his challenges. Because of Parelli, a horse like this is in NO way, a "lost cause" despite the ambition, and dedication, and time it may take to help him reverse his view of humans.

It was truly incredible to me that this horse didn't have an aggressive (or for that matter defensive) bone in his body; he just consistently kept telling me how truly scared he was. He wasn't going to lash out, he was just going to persist in being bracy, high-headed, and reactive, believing that he had to be the leader in order to be safe. I took about 20 minutes to halter him... just breaking down each step, and trying to get a small change of relaxation along the way. We progressed from here to asking him to lower his head from poll pressure... Here he was SO responsive, but couldn't keep his head low for quite some time. I also did some friendly game with the stick; again looking for rhythm and relaxation. From there we moved on to porcupine off the chest.

I stressed to his owner that "Cruz" just needs to learn that people CAN be consistent, predictable, and good leaders. I just gave her those three tasks to play with until we come back again. "Cruz" needs to learn that 1+1=2... ALWAYS, and he can depend on that. Right now he sadly thinks there is nothing worth trusting or following in humans...scared to his core.

By the end of our session "Cruz" was starting to drop his head... of his own accord, and we finished when he was able to breathe out and let his nostrils flutter. Not quite a full-fledged blow out, but pretty close :) As always this kind of change, and relaxation, confidence and trust brought tears to my eyes... heartbreaking the cruelty and misunderstanding us predators can submit these beautiful creatures to, but also incredibly heart-warming to see their ability to forgive, and trust again through this incredible program.

At moments like these I am always eternally grateful that my time studying the Parelli program, and directly with Pat and Linda and Kalley has given me the skills to be able to help make changes for extreme horses like these.

A few weeks later I played with him again ... 

I also updated on his AMAZING progress with his owner as she has found Parelli. When I first saw Cruz and began to approach him, I got wide eyes, high head, snorting nostrils, and lots of unconfidence, in a very extraverted way. And everything screamed RRRRBBBBBEEEE. Cruz made lots of efforts to keep me zone 1 where he was more confident, moved his feet, and his body a lot in general telling me he was scared and didn't want any part of a partnership.

However, as I began to play with him, moving closer, gaining a relaxation and retreating instead of pushing through those thresholds I began to start to see a different horse. I began to see the frozen moments BEFORE the extravertedness. How interesting?

Cruz is the victim of some rather traumatic abuse. Innately, I believe him to be an RBI. He is a sweet horse, has more try than most horses, a strong desire to bond with humans, and a tendency to want to stop and think before moving his feet. However, he has learned that standing still can't be the answer, taking a second to think, isn't allowed, and humans always continue to put pressure on me. As I talked about in my last update on Cruz, its like he is an overachiever in school who got asked whats 1+1? and the first five times he said 2, and got hit for it... now he wants desperately to be right, to find the release and the correct answer but he has no idea what that answer is. He has also probably learned that his big postureing (i.e, head up, eyes wide, ears tight, snorting) is able to dissuade quite a few people from perservering or coming near. As such, he is like an introvert at a party who has been hooked to the surround sound speaker system. :) He wants humans to just relax, retreat, and give him a moment to think, but no one has ever given him that time, so he is constantly in a state of panic.

Since our last session, Cruz is starting to come down off of adrenaline, and his owner has thrown herself head long into Parelli and is making some giant changes in Cruz. He  now has a solid grasp of the first three games from what I hear, and is starting to learn again that 1+1 actually DOES = 2 :)