Prior to leaving for Hawaii, I learned that a favourite local trainer, Rob Kroeger of Wareabouts Training Stable, had slipped on the ice and broke his leg. Our neighbour, Ken McLennan had his two driving mares, Lynn & Lori, with Rob to get them started under saddle and Rob had to send all the horses home while he recovered. I contacted Rob and he agreed to coach me through the process of starting Dexter under saddle; and I would do all the work. I wanted help because I've never started a youngster and with Dexter's history, I didn't want to make any mistakes that would set us back. As it happened, Rob was one of the trainer's Dexter's previous owner had hired to fix Dexter, back in November 2010. After spending 5 days with Dexter, Rob had minimal success and recommended that whoever catches Dexter should be his owner. I am so glad Dexter chose me. Anyway, Dexter's progress will be discussed in another blog - this blog is about Jack.
Jack is a beautiful paint gelding, with Go Man Go breeding, who has physiological issues (sensitivity) about being touched. Rob has owned and kept Jack for several years because he felt the horse had something important to teach him. Just prior to us taking Dexter to Rob, Jack gravely injured his hind leg on a barb wire fence. I hope you can imagine how difficult it is to treat a horse who doesn't want to be touched or even caught for that matter; so Jack was confined to a stall to allow Rob to tend to his injured leg.
When Rob introduced me to Jack, I asked if he would allow me to try TTouch on Jack and he readily agreed. As I have always said about TTouch, "it might help but it definitely won't do any harm". The only problem was that Jack wasn't happy having me in his stall and when a horse is that scared, I'm not happy being in a confined area with him either, never mind trying to touch him. I remembered Linda Tellington Jones telling me that TTouch can also work from a distance, using a strong intention, and holding on to the possibility for change.
Assuming a non-threatening posture, for 3 days, twice a day, I used the llama touch all over Jack's body from across the stall. Jack is an extremely expressive horse, and it was quite a surprise that he would say "careful" when I tried to work on his injured leg from a distance. After 3 days, Jack started to relax a wee bit so I llama'd the air as I approached his shoulder and finally, he permitted me to touch him. Because Jack is so expressive, it was great fun trying all the different TTouches to see what he liked and didn't like. He especially loved the leg work and eventually, I was able to TTouch Jack's entire body, with the exception of his face and his injured leg.
One day I arrived to discover that Rob had moved Jack to a paddock to let him enjoy some sunshine. We both wondered if Jack would allow me to approach him; and he did. That was a tremendous gift because in a stall, he really has little choice in the matter. Being in the paddock told me he chose to allow me to TTouch him because he could have easily left.
The other quirky thing about Jack is that while he loves treats, he didn't want to touch your hand so he would snatch the treat, often knocking it to the ground. It was also very hard for me not to snatch my hand away when his mouth was coming at me so fast. I decided to try a little bit of sweet feed instead of crunch and after a couple of tries, Jack would politely nibble the treats out of my hand - very cool!
I had a wonderful 3 weeks with Jack before I brought Dexter home and I am looking forward to visiting him and Rob in the near future. It will be fun to see if Jack will let me approach when he is back in the pasture with his buddies.
Jack touched me deeply by allowing me to TTouch him and he is one horse who will stay in my heart forever.
Thank you so much to Linda and Robyn for this wonderful work and for Rob's willingness to try my ooglie wooglie as he calls it. I'd say Jack taught us both something. It became very clear that Jack didn't mind being touched, he just needed to be touched his way, on his terms.
Tovie and Jack!
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