I love my new horse. Elli is not the trickster that Vento can be, but she shares his calm, good sense. Today I introduced her to the indoor arena, and let her have a run and buck. It took a little while to get to run and buck because she put her head at my shoulder, and wouldn’t leave my side for several minutes. I was the one stable (ha ha, get that, works on several levels) thing in her universe. Eventually she went off to have a roll and run, buck and trot.
She was fine with the strange horse in the mirrors on the long side of the arena, but the horse in the mirror at the far end was scary. So she kept cutting the ring short. I went and stood at the far end, but even that couldn’t entice her.
Eventually I snapped back on the lead rope, and took her down there. She was nervous and kept stopping, but I finally seemed to have learned a lot about horses, and 6 years with Vento have taught me about Lusitanos. We just had a conversation about it, and I let her take her time. She would take three steps, I would pet and praise her. She’d think again. Three more steps. Then she was at the end, and nothing awful had happened, and she was fine. I sense that this was not a horse to be shoved or bullied.
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have to obey the rules and have ground manners. She came barreling out of the tack up bay when I was getting ready to take her back to her stall. She got a snap of the lead rope, a firm _no_, and backed right back into the grooming bay. We tried again and she walked out like a lady. Again, pets and praise, and today’s lesson was done.
Aside from the fact I don’t want to leave the Mass Effect universe I really think I have to play around a bit more with the Shepard story because he’s about to learn how to ride. I’ll get to write up all the years of accumulated knowledge. My heroine in the urban fantasies is a rider, but I have solve a mystery, and move the plot forward so I can’t just neep about the subtleties and intricacies of riding.
