Do your thinking at night...

Ebony stand long enough to get a pic

After having ridden Ebony Tuesday afternoon, it was time for me to do some thinking that night.  Here is what I was mulling over: she does not trust humans, in fact, just touching her made her bracey; the fact that she trusted us enough to just stand next to her is a tribute to Sueanne.

She does not trust the guidance of the human in an open space, but she is very good at following a trail.  She feels more comfortable with the human in the saddle than on the ground, but that isn’t saying much. She is very hard to catch, even in a round corral.

How this horse was abused, we will never know, but it is so hard not to be angry about it. Clearly she was “broken” to the saddle with virtually no ground preparation so she could be sold. No care was taken with her mental and emotional states. She has been traded from human to human because no one has figured out what to do with her. With clear differences, it feels so much like where Walker and I started.

Ebony gets lots of stroking after our ride

And the biggest difference is, this horse has far more native talent than Walker, which makes the story up to this point even more agonizing. Thank God this horse found her way to Sueanne.

Than my thoughts start to follow a different path. What an amazing horse. This horse is very fearful of humans, yet she tolerates us to hang around and get on her back. She gaits extremely well, even without respect for the human. She is impulsive instead of having impulsion, but there has not been one major train wreck on her in the months Sueanne has had her.

Now I am thinking, what if we can get respect and impulsion, how would this horse perform? Magnificently. She would make a champion trail horse, a true partner. She could be that horse-man combination that Pat always talks about.

So thinking with the end in mind, I had a plan sketched out in my mind for the next day.