My Last Day With Ebony

When I woke up Thursday morning, the air outside was crisp and cold. I knew it would be a perfect day for horsing around and trail riding. 

When I got to the barn, I already had an idea of how I wanted to approach Ebony. Like the day before, I got her lead rope and halter and walked slowly across the street to the round corral. I waited until I had the horses attention, and it did not take long for Sage to greet me at the gate. I had put cut carrots in my pockets, so I was ready to reward. 


But today, I wasn't going to catch Sage in order to catch Ebony. I trusted that Ebony would be comfortable enough with me to let me catch her without Sage's help. I took it very slowly, and at one point she came up to me cautiously, touched my hand with her nose, but then walked off. 

I was disappointed, but not daunted. I mirrored her movements, no more no less. Then she stopped next to Sage and waited. I approached her slowly, rubbed her on the butt, then on her hip to her withers, and finally to her neck. 


I rubbed her neck with the halter and lead rope, gently placed the halter under her neck, then slipped it over her nose. She accepted me and the halter calmly. I rubbed her all over, told her what a brave girl she was, then lead her out of the round corral. I knew if I took her across the street away from the horse buddies, she might get uncomfortable. So I played with her right next to the round corral. 

We repeated what we had done with the friendly game and the hide your hinny game, which she accepted with far less reaction, more relaxation. In fact, she gave me several licks and chews, many more than the day before. Then we played a bit with the yo-yo game, which confused her a great deal at first. She did not understand what I was asking for. First she went left, then right, then left again. I calmly blocked her path until she finally took one step backwards, then quickly released all pressure. 

Sueanne, Tia, Ebony and I take a breather on the trail

My trail mates, Robin/Magic left, Sueanne/Tia right and Jamie/Leilani in the back

She looked right at me, gave me semaphore ears and licked and chewed again. I saw more of her tongue in that ten minutes than the other two days combined. 

It was time for tacking up. She stayed very calm while waiting for me to get everything ready. In fact, Jamie noticed that when I disappeared from view, Ebony followed me with her eyes until I reappeared from the tack area. Cute!
Once we were tacked up, I took her into the small adjacent paddock area and repeated the yo-yo game. She was confused about it again, but turned right only once before backing up. We repeated the yo-yo game twice more and she backed up right away. Smart girl! I fed her carrots and I adjusted her girth. For all her concerns, she is not girth shy. 


Then we played with a bit of the circle game for just a circles left and right, which she did pretty calmly. I adjusted her girth one more time and we were ready to join everyone on the trail. 

We first crossed a large field that leads to the mountain trails, and Ebony was very scattered, so we played tit for tat; if she moved to the right, I asked her to go left the same amount of steps. If she went left, I asked her to go right for the same number of steps, and so on. I did not worry about her speed or her gait, I was just trying to get her to remember I was up there on her back.

I also tried to keep her close to the other horses, even though she wandered from them quite a bit and then got worried when she realized they had moved away. Throughout all of this, I stayed calm and relaxed in the saddle and spoke softly to her that she would be OK.


Once we got on the trail, she noticeably relaxed. I asked Sueanne if we could take the lead, and she said sure, so off we went at a nice paso corto up the mountain. Sueanne let us know where it was safe to canter, and we did that as well. This day, Ebony's canter was much smoother. And she slowed with very little cue from me when I asked. 

Lots of neck rubs for Ebony

I became so confident in her that we rode most of the day on a completely loose rein. What a difference from day one! She got lots of neck rubs from me every chance I got to reward her for taking care of me on the trail, taking corners with amazing grace and balance, checking out the terrain when it appeared to change and slowing as we approached a crossroads. 

Two horsewomen celebrating an amazing day on the mountain

At one point during our ride, we were traveling down a trail towards a grove of Aspens. It was very steep, but Ebony was very sure footed, loved being in the lead, and I had her on a completely loose rein. Sueanne told me no one had been able to ride her freestyle. It made me feel really good about our communication. I just knew I could trust her. She stayed in the paso corto the entire way down the mountain, and it felt so good, I was able to video a piece of it. 

The trail was very steep, Ebony and I were riding on a loose rein, the breeze was cool, the air was clean, and the light brought everything into sharp focus. I could feel Ebony light and easy beneath me, enjoying her job, and expecting me to trust her to do her job well. It was one of the most connected few moments I have ever had with any horse, and there are very few experiences that have ever felt better.

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we spent a few minutes listening to the Aspens, eating cherries Sueanne had brought for snacks, telling jokes and giving the horses a well deserved rest.

It was inevitably disappointing to have to turn back for the barn. We were far up the mountain, so fortunately, it took quite awhile to get there. I used our trip back to reflect and just feel good. Until we got to the big field again, Ebony remained relaxed. When we got to the field, I had a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious), that she would probably be more focused if I used the fence as a follow the rail trail, and she was!

When we got to the barn, I hopped off and stroked her neck. I removed her tack and gave a her a long brush down. Then Sueanne said she could spend some time grazing in the beautiful grass adjacent to the tack area. She looked just beautiful in the setting sunlight. 

When it was time to go, I gave everyone a big hug, and with tears in my eyes, said my goodbyes. I prayed that Ebony and I would be together again next year, and we could pick up our relationship where we left off. And I prayed that with Sueanne's help, she would continue to be more trusting of us humans.