My Horse

Kachina is finally becoming more of my horse. I've owned her for two years, but our bonding was kind of slow. I had my last horse for 14 years so getting used to a new mare was a bit of a challenge. On Kachina's end, she never really had a specific person in her life before me. Don't get me wrong, we've gotten along fine and have had a lot of fun together, I just didn't feel like there was a special bond.

Kachina's pasture - still so green!
(things are never this green in Sept, it's been a wet year!)

Over this past summer we've turned a corner. I've slowly been getting a better understanding for why Kachina acts the way she does in certain situations. With that, I've learned what she needs from me and how to give her the better consistency that works for her, and so she's been getting to understand me better too.

The view of the barn from the hill in the pasture (I'm not even at the far fenceline)

It's been a gradual evolution, but a conversation recently showed how far we've come. I was talking to the BO and I found out that she can't catch or even approach Kachina in the pasture. When she was feeding, she had thought Kachina's flysheet looked soaked with sweat so she was trying to check on her but couldn't get anywhere close. She explained the situation to me and so I went out to the pasture, wondering what might be wrong. Kachina was at the far end of the field so I had to hike a bit, but as soon as Kachina saw me she trotted right up to me. It turned out that Kachina was perfectly dry and fine (her black and white pattern shows through the sheet slightly which makes it look like the sheet is dark with moisture over her back and lighter below - but I appreciated the BO's concern). Kachina doesn't always trot to me, but she usually comes to me at least a bit, and never runs away. I didn't know that she wasn't like that for everyone (okay, I knew that they had to chase her into a corral for the last deworming, but I figured that she just saw the tube coming). I'm not thrilled that Kachina is hard to catch for other people, but the huge difference shows that she sees me as her person and different from the other people she sees on a regular basis (BO isn't exactly a stranger to her).

Such an unmanageable horse ;-)
Also you can see here why someone at first glance might think her back was wet

I've become Kachina's person, and I realize that she's become more fully my horse. I think that's pretty cool :-)

I mean she's kind of funny looking (and has no eyes apparently),
but she's my funny looking horse =)

P.S. Clinic recaps still coming, sorry for the delay.