So, little known fact: I am a tiny bit terrified of horses. True story. Please don’t mock.
I denied this fact for a long time, because how could I have an awesome Pony Express/Arrows of the Queen/Tortall/etc type of adventure without a trusty horse sidekick? Anna’s great and all, but she’s no horse.
So, upon suggestion from one of my Twitter friends (thank you Jeshe!) I have made it my summer Quest to befriend the horses that reside in our field.
(Backstory: These are not our horses.
My parents have 6-ish acres of pasture. Several years ago some neighbors stopped by to ask if their horses could summer in the pasture. They fenced off a section for the horses and left a bit just for hay. It’s a handy arrangement – they get hay and a lovely summer pasture for their horses; my parents get the field kept mowed and a few bales of hay for their chickens. Everybody wins!
Each summer it’s different horses. Some have not been very nice or friendly and have not exactly helped my fear.)
So far it’s slow going. Horses are just so big. They are big and powerful and mysterious (to me). And they have dead eyes that give away nothing of what they’re thinking. And I am completely clueless about horse body language. Every jerky sudden movement seems like angry threatening gestures to me.
Here is what I know about horses: don’t walk behind them, don’t let them know you’re afraid, watch their ears for….something.
That’s it. Oh, and that if they wanted they could crush my skull with their giant hooves.
But I aim to get over all that and conquer my fear. For the sake of Future!Me and my Future!Adventures.
Step one was successful. This involved being in the field with the horses. Baby steps, people. The fear is strong.
Sharing the same field, not a single fence between me and the horses. Progress!
Bam. Look at that! No fence between us, just the grass and horse poop. Those beasts could have charged at me at any time and crushed me to death, but I remained strong and walked all over that field! (In truth the horses totally ignored me and couldn’t care less. They didn’t even really mind when Boomer charged up and barked all up in their face. They really are very nice horses.)
Step one will probably have to be repeated a couple of times. Before the horses arrived I’d walk down the field with the dogs every morning. It’s a good walk, with lots of room for the dogs to run and two different ponds for them to swim in. I stopped going when the horses arrived both because of the mentioned terror and because I wasn’t sure how horses and dogs would interact. Turns out they’re both fine and basically ignore each other…most of the time.
So now our daily morning walks are back on. I figure I’ll keep walking with the dogs and eventually it’ll be no big thing.
So Step 1: being in the field with the horses – no fence or anything between us.
Step 2: Touching the horses.
I’m starting Step 2 with a fence between us. Still scary. Today I briefly pet one of the horses. It was a day full of bravery.
Close enough to touch. Which I did, because I’m brave.
Look at that horse right up there in my face and all. I pet her once and then called it a day. Always end on a positive note!
People who are easy or experienced around horses are probably laughing right now, but whatever. My quest is my own and it is a worthy one! Some day in the future this will all pay off and I will ride my trusty steed off into a grand adventure.
You walked across America, but are afraid of horses. I would have never guessed. Small steps grasshopper, you will overcome and conquer!
Haha, I know, right? I use the “I walked across America alone, I can totally do this” mantra a lot these days.
You ARE brave! You are facing your fears. Good for you!!
Woo! I’m pretty lucky to have some handy dandy friendly horses right in my back yard. Makes facing my fear just a tad easier.
Yes, that is helpful. Facing a known fear (horses you see every day) vs. an unknown one (strange horses you’ve never seen before and have no idea if they tend to be calm or not) probably makes a huge difference! :) But little steps, right? Make friends with those sweet beasties and work your way up.
Fwiw, I LOVE horses. I’ve not been able to be around them much, though, so I tend to be on the cautious side as well. Years ago I took riding classes through my school, though, and that was fun.
I’m not afraid of horses, though. I AM afraid of spiders. I used to be phobic of them, screaming and jumping up on the couch if I saw one. Not anymore. I’m much more refined with my freakouts. Basically I just yell at my husband to kill them or toss one of my cats at it. Problem solved.
But that picture I saw of Chris Allen with a giant ol’ brown spider on the outside of his tent visiting him while he was doing HIS walk across America gave me pause for thought about me wanting to do mine. I hadn’t given too much thought to big hairy spiders wanting to crawl on my face in the middle of the night and that I would be out in the wild, which is their territory. I got the creepy crawlies thinking about that.
So to combat that fear, I basically refuse to even think about it, lol! Nope. Nada. Not gonna happen. I am emitting a no-spider zone pheromone right now as we speak. My teeny pea brain MUST believe it will work, or I will melt down.
I purposely did not share pictures of spiders or snakes from my Walk because I know of a few family members that would freak the heck out at just the picture on their computer screens.
The thing about horses is that I never really thought I was so scared of them. I’ve always loved the *idea* of horses, just never actually been around any. So when horses started being kept at the parents house I thought it was perfect….until I walked out to meet them and was frozen in terror. lol
That’s awesome! I have what is probably a vaguely unhealthy fear of – well – all animals that are not intimately known to me. They bite! And scratch! And kick! So I understand where you’re coming from. My fear of horses is not quite as great as yours – I think I’m still in the “healthy respect for their hugeness and animal-ness” category – but I totally get it. I wish you the best of luck in your admirable endeavor, and can’t wait to hear all about it! I think horses are awesome in that once you get the hang of them, they can sense that you’re “horse people” and most of them will give you a pass. :)
Animals are scary if you have no experience with them. I was pretty lucky and grew up around a bunch of different animals – dogs, cats, chickens, goats, cows, the list goes on, but no horses. I’ve heard that horses are totally cool as long as you remain in charge and comfortable, but if you show a little weakness they’ll totally exploit it and take advantage of you not being “horse people”. We shall see!
Ironically I feel this way about dogs. Maybe because I grew up with two cats, no dog. I’ve been bitten, chased and knocked over by dogs, cats don’t do that, though they do have a nasty scratch.
I can’t tell, what they are thinking when I don’t know them, they could just as well run up to me and bite with little warning (as has happened several times), or lick me (which also happens!). Plenty of dogs jump and bark at new humans, and their owners usually scold “don’t jump! Down! Just ignore him/her..” So I do, but another time I just asked the owners, “What do I do? I don’t know dogs.” and they said “She just wants to be petted.” So I decided to be bold and get down low, pet the dog, and she calmed down, turns out they often don’t really want to be ignored either!
Dogs can be super scary, especially if you have no experience with them. I have a pretty good amount of experience around dogs but a few years ago I was bitten by a German Sheppard, and a year after that biting by a different Sheppard mix. Now even though I’ve been around all sorts of dogs and know body language I’m still a little jumpy around Sheppards or similar breeds and sized dogs.
With Anna I try to always explain what she’s doing and why. A lot of the time she just slowly sinks to the ground and rolls over, and people are always kind of weirded out by that. When she was younger she used to greet people by jumping on them (when off leash), which was always really embarrassing and I’d try to warn people and then apologize. Most dogs just want attention – like little kids! Hyper and always wanting attention.
Way to tackle your fear! With a regular chance to interact, I bet you eventually get much more comfortable with them.
Never been afraid of horses, but I definitely have a healthy respect for them. Can’t offer much advice you don’t already seem to know: they’re big herbivores with an innate concern about being surprised and then eaten (so don’t sneak up on them – especially from behind, make loud noises or abrupt movements). Their body language gives a lot of “tells” about their emotional state. If you’re interested here’s a nice explanation with lots of visuals about what to keep an eye on — http://www.squidoo.com/EpicFarmsBodyLanguage
Good luck!
(By the way, just want to say I ran across your blog randomly and was really impressed by how you’ve taken life “by the horns.” Your adventures with Anna remind me a bit of a book I just finished: “Following Atticus” by Tom Ryan, where he talks about tackling the 48 4,000 ft. peaks of New Hampshire with his miniature schnauzer, Atticus M. Finch. It’s a pretty great story about embracing life, the amazing bonds between people and their animal companions, and overcoming fear [Ryan is totally afraid of heights]. Nice to see the world is full of adventuresome people.)
That link you provided is super helpful – thank you!! I’m a big animal person, and I know that one of the most important thing about interacting with animals is body language – understanding both theirs and what yours is transmitting – I just never knew much about horse body language. The pictures on that site are especially helpful.
I am definitely going to have to check out “Following Atticus” – adventure, conquering fears, and a cute dog are all right up my alley.