Ever know someone who has to do EVERYTHING the hard way?
My first farm had a hay barn on one side and the horse barn on the other, a pretty common arrangement…………
While my husband was designing an elaborate & labor intensive 5 telephone pole overhead pully system to haul hay up the hill…… one bale at a time suspended by cables…….
I put the bales in my truck and drove them up the hill.
I have a horse who also does EVERYTHING the hard way.
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He’s truly a puzzle.
He takes 10 times longer than average to grasp the smallest concept………
But once he finally…….”gets it”………..he does seem to have it etched in there fairly well.
So I keep telling myself if we can ever get over the hump….. it’ll be worth it in the end.
But a recent morning we spent an hour (literally) on the SMALLEST idea.
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Reverse.
I kept telling him, “It really isn’t complicated. I ask politely, you back up.”
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His initial answer involved bolting, rearing, breaking my nice show reins <gggrrrrrr> and finally, reluctantly backing up………………. with a very poor attitude………
Mind you all of this was from THE GROUND.
While I was patiently and quietly asking him to back up….. over and over again, and getting the MOST OUTRAGEOUS answers, I was trying to convince myself this impossible task was worth it.
“Persistence will pay off.”
“Really….. persistence will pay off.”
“I really HOPE…… that persistence will pay off.”
Those are the days when I start to wonder what it is I’m doing.
And I’ve started to believe my pony is somehow learning impaired.
His partner in crime………
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caught on……….. in about 45 seconds.
When I was beginning to believe this was completely futile…….. I remembered……. I’ve had a horse like this once before!!
He made EVERYTHING difficult. His idea was always the hardest, most complicated way to accomplish any task. EVERYTHING took him 10 times longer than average.
But I stuck with it…….
and he turned into one of the very best…….
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safest…….
and agreeable horses I’ve ever owned.
Bad Eventer…………. still hanging in there.
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Keep hanging in there! it IS the HARDEST, WORST ones that are the best in the end! Once they decide to use their powers for good instead of evil, there's no stopping them!!
Let me tell you about my pony. She's a POA, which means she's not only stubborn like a pony, she's as stubborn like an Appy to boot. Luckily I get along with both ponies and Appies because I can OUT-STUBBORN them. It took me a full half hour to get this pony to MOVE the first time I rode her. She was Glued. To. The. Ground. I could smack the tar out of her and she would give a half hearted buck without budging her front feet. I finally got them unstuck by pulling her head around to my boot until she lost her balance and had to move a foot or fall over. Of course she immediately reglued herself, so the process became pull her head around until she started to fall and then kick like crazy as soon as her foot left the ground. EVENTUALLY I got forward progress and she walked about 20 feet before I called it a day.
Now, the thing about this pony is that she's just as smart as she is stubborn. 2 years later, with maybe 4 months total of very interrupted training, and she goes walk/trot/canter, crossrails, trails. Like your horse, once she really has something she HAS it. She's like an elephant. I can walk away for six months and pick up where we left off. Actually, the last time I showed her to buyers she hadn't been ridden in nearly a year and behaved exactly like she'd been in full training the whole time. At a brand new barn – her first ever time in an indoor arena, for that matter. Pretty darn proud of my scrubby little pony (who was not so much as halter broke when I got her.)
Ugh. That's so tough and you are definitely a better person than I. My emotions usually get the best of me… and patience is NOT my virtue, haha
Go Team Arabian!
…and Klumsy, too… 😉
I'm betting he comes out the other side just as awesome as can be!
I too have a horse like this. Frustratingly slow learner, but once there, it's there. He is turning out to be pretty nifty these days.