It happens to all of us. The moment when it is clear that instead of training your horse, your horse has trained you. I knew that Gen was spoiled, but I never realized how bad until I was trying to talk to the barn owner yesterday. It was pouring rain out and since Gen loves rain I had his stall guard up and door open so he could stick his head out and enjoy while grooming him. I had just finished up when the barn owner dropped by so I stayed to chat, leaning on the stall guard while Gen went over to munch hay. As I was talking I got a nudge on the back so I turned around to see what Gen wanted. He had an itch on his belly which he showed me by touching the spot on his belly. Being the well trained human I walked over mid sentence and scratched his itch much to Gens delight. I then walked over to the stall guard again, but Gen wasn’t done with me. He came over and started to smell my pockets. A clear sign that he would like a treat please. When I didn’t stop what I was doing to give him a treat right away my little monster went from gently sniffing my pockets to putting his nose under my hands and lifting them up. I sighed and went and got him some of his homemade pear treats so he would leave me alone. When he had his allotment of 3 I put them away and went back to his stall. The barn owner was watching all this and shaking her head. Partly because it was cute that I always knew what Gen wanted and partly because my horse was so demanding and telling me what his human should be doing for him. When he walked over to get his face scratched (it is how I put him to sleep…and it was nappy time) the barn owner finally said something. She said that my horse had trained me perfectly…and it has only taken 5 years to do! I will have to video tape it some time because when I take a step back and think about it, it really is very funny that Gen can get me to do just about anything on his own terms!
So I want to hear from all of you. How long did it take for your horse to train you? I bet some of you didn’t even realize how trained you were until you read that post! What does your horse have you trained to do?
A Horse and a Half 