*If you’ve read any of my previous post on Poncho you’ll know he can be special at times. In our most recent event (yesterday) he had a mind battle with a tree that had been recently cut down.
Ever since my fall I’ve had some back issues that turned out to be whiplash. Which also means I’ve taken a teensy tiny hiatus from riding, I’m a week in and it’s KILLING ME. But that’s not the point. In order to keep Poncho’s mind in “work” mode I’ve been taking him on hand walks all over the property and over different terrains. He’s definitely enjoying the change of pace however we do run into some precarious situations, by Poncho’s standards, every once in a while. For example frogs, birds, squirrels, the works. BUT our most recent one was a tree…The barn owners decided to cut down two trees that were uncomfortably close to power lines. One tree was in part of the horses pasture space and the other was on the side of the driveway. Meaning we walked past one of the trees.
As we were walking down the driveway Poncho was cool as a cucumber, at first I thought he might not even notice the tree. But I was wrong. At that point we were closing in on the tree, about 15 feet away. He started eye-balling it and lifting his head awfully high, I like to call this his “giraffe” head. We got a little bit closer and then he froze. It was just too much for him to mentally handle or comprehend I guess. He proceeded to fling his head all around, in what I assume was an attempt to assess the tree from all possible angles. While snorting and having his eyes practically bug out of his head. He did this for several minutes – I didn’t mind much I like for him to figure out things aren’t scary on his own. After he was done “processing” he walked forward without any kind of reminder. He didn’t even look back at the tree, because of course he had DEFEATED it.
Once we ran out of driveway space and turned around I was unsure of how the tree would look from this angle. But was pleasantly surprised when we walked calmly by it. He did however look over at kind of scoffing at it like, “I’m not scared of you, you stupid tree”, and continued walking on defiantly. He sure showed that tree whose boss right?
