Someone once told me that horses can take away your stress after a long day and that working with them was relaxing - even though I wanted to believe them (and knew of other people who felt this way) I didn't. How can a horse "take away stress"? How can such a huge animal be *relaxing* to work with? Come on.....Really? What if they stomp on your foot? Kick you in the head? How is THAT relaxing?
But it is. Yes. Really. It's true :)
Cappie (nickname for Cappuccino...yes, the coffee drink...she didn't have a name, and I love coffee! Plus, people have named their horses even crazier names before.) was one of the 3 horses that came with our property, and was sooo wild... never been handled, and just over a year old. She was the "unwanted" horse because, well, she just wasn't as beautiful as the others - I'll admit it...kinda scruffy in an adorable way. But there was something about her that I fell in love with from the beginning. At first it was the fact that she changed colors (kinda like in the Wizard of Oz movie) - brown in the winter, and white in the summer. But after I got to really know her, I found out what it was. It's hard to describe, but she has this "spunk" and there is a "twinkle" in her eyes all the time... oh, and she laughs at me every single day. No kidding. I'm not a *horse person* - ask
anyone. I was the kind of person who loved annual trail rides through the Santa Fe mountains, and then let my sister talk about horses every other day of the year. Then Cappie came along.
We have had her for almost three years, and almost gave her away 3 times, but something made us change our minds each time. She's a strange little thing - no one seemed to like her. People said that we should get a better horse, something bigger, safer, trained, older...... "just give her away". Wow, she has surprised us all. Since my sister has always been "horse crazy", I have seen every. single. horse. movie. ever... *almost*. I always thought it was funny when the movies showed a horse that only let 1 or 2 riders near it, and thought "wow, that could never happen. Once a horse is broken, anyone can ride it." Well..... Cappie is one of those odd horses. She let's my sister and I ride, groom, push, pull, hug, and call her and is a complete teddy bear around us - with a twinkle in her eyes. If anyone else comes around.... well.... she won't really let them near her.
Our latest victory with her was last week. I had been told that she didn't like her back hooves to be cleaned, and so I needed to use another technique to keep them cleaned out. I think she knows that I'm not a horse person, and I don't know one single thing about the "proper way of doing things".... and she doesn't care. After finishing cleaning her front hooves, I said "ok girly, let's do this", and started walking towards a back hoof - she lifted it up before I even got there. I was completely awkward! I looked like I needed a third arm, few extra hands, and a chair to sit in. That AWKWARD! (this is one of the times where she laughed at me.....I could feel her staring at me the whole time). It took a few tries, but I finally cleaned them out. Today was the fourth day in a row that I cleaned out her back hooves....and I'm no longer scared that she will kick me. ;-) I might look like a crazy person around her, and she might laugh at me while I'm trying to learn the ropes (sometimes I think that I need more training than she does), but there's just something about being around that little-big teddy bear - she truly relaxes me and I look forward to seeing her each day.
So yeah, animals that big DO help to relieve stress, but the best part of having her ..... I can hug her as hard as I want, and not worry about hurting her! Try that on a
little 13 pound dog..... on second though, don't. ;-)
Happy Monday
~~LE
