We’ve been feeling inspired by Karen Rohlf’s podcast episode “The Forest”. Karen talks about noticing and appreciating beautiful moments shared between a human and a horse, and shares a wonderful story of her own– go listen to that episode, and other episodes of her podcast, “Horse Training in Harmony”, if you haven’t already!
We asked our staff to share their beautiful horse moments. Some were specific goals, achieved after a lot of time and work: One staff member shared her experience working with a particularly smart and independent mare: “I had been trying to get her to connect with me and follow me at liberty. After a few months, she connected– just for a few minutes. Finally!”
Another staff member recalled a moment with a horse that knew where home was, and lacked confidence on the trails when his friends weren’t around: “I’d been riding this horse for about a year, and he was prone to asking if we could go back to the barn. We were out on the trails and came to a fork– He was born and raised on those trails, so he knew which way home was. I was waiting for direction from my instructor, who was riding behind me, so I didn’t give any cues to the horse. He turned left, away from home.”
One member of our staff kept it short, sweet, and effective: “It’s beautiful any time that you can have clear communication with no words spoken.”
“Sometimes a moment is beautiful, and sometimes you have to find beauty in the moment.” -Megan, Horses with Hope
Many of our beautiful horse moments are linked to our rescue retraining: “Every time you ask a horse to do something novel and/or challenging, and the horse does it because they trust you, it’s beautiful. Every time someone comes to try a horse– especially one that you started– it’s beautiful.”
This staff member recalled a difficult day, and she turned to her favorite horse for help: “She wanted to eat my shoes at first (not the help I was looking for, but it made me laugh), and then she just nuzzled my head. I felt her nose and her whiskers– it was precious.”
A rescue turning a corner in their training is always special: “I worked with an extremely traumatized and fearful horse for a long time, working to earn his trust. He was hard to get close to, and even harder to catch. One day, he chose to put his head into the halter, all on his own. Trust in me had finally been established, and it was an incredible feeling.”
We hope you enjoyed reading our beautiful horse moments, and we wish all of our followers a lifetime full of them.
