Kessy And The Sort Of Dry Mud Puddle

Howdy Folks,

 

Just beyond Little Bear Bridge lays a very large mud puddle that never dries. About three horse lengths long, wide as the logging road and pretty darn deep, Kessy has never crossed through it. We've built a bypass around it over the past 3 years so it's not really an issue. If you've been a Coffee Clutcher for a while you know Kessy and puddles is a work in progress. In Kessy's defense other horses, who from time to time ride with us, don't trust this puddle either.

Coffee Clutch

This being a hot, dry summer monster puddle did dry in the middle leaving sizable puddles in the truck tracks on both sides, and a muddy but water free 2 foot path down the center. I should mention we pass this way both in and out every day we ride.

Kessy, Saturday and I had such a swell ride yesterday, great bird watching, searching for fall foliage and some really fun gaiting, and were in great spirits when we got back to monster puddle so, I figured we'd give the middle a try. Just for fun. Kessy marched right up to it, and stopped.

Now Kessy is a wonderful girl, enjoys new things, most of the time, and has really come a long way in our 3 years together – but when she says no, sometimes she means it. For real. I was really feeling great, wearing a big ol' smile, so I gave Kessy a pat on the neck, and asked her to "walk on." … She said, "Nope."

Kessy has different levels of "nope," sometimes she'll think about it and give it a go. Other times she'll stick to her nope and that's it. She's had some issues forced on her before we were a team, and she goes into shut-down mode, especially if she's scared.

I backed her away from monster puddle about 10 feet, let her study my request, the puddle and the world. After she gave a sigh, I asked her to walk on again, and she did. Right to the edge of the puddle, then she stopped, nice and soft, but not an inch closer. She dropped her head and stood waiting for my next ask, which she refused. Saturday was having a grand time in the mud and water and I thought perhaps she'd follow, but nope.

We backed away a few more times, soft and easy, waited for the sigh, and walked right up to the edge and each time Kessy stopped at nearly the same place.

Still feeling silly, still having a great morning, I remembered my Uncle Ed, an honest to goodness cowboy who grew up on the XIT ranch in Texas, telling me years ago, that sometimes you can help them understand by backing them trough. I'd used this already and found it to work nicely; of course it must be a safe place. And Kessy's a great backer, so we turned around.

Cautiously we backed, one step at a time, all the way to the center of the monster puddle-track. I gave her time to relax each step. She even played in the water with her nose! We paused in the middle until Kessy was comfortable, then I asked to walk back out again, which she did nice and smooth.

At the edge we turned around again and I asked to walk where she'd just backed. Nope, she was not moving.

Still in high spirits, even laughing, I turned her around again, and she backed clean trough to the other end! Just as smooth as can be, never missing a step. Kessy loves her treats, so I gave her a piece of carrot.

But I wasn't done, and Kessy, while worried, was still very engaged, so I asked her to walk through. Nope. Not doing it. So we turned around one more time, backed all the way through again, still soft and smooth. Turning her at the far end, I asked for her to walk forward down the track one more time. Nope. I fell forward, hugged her neck laughing out loud, and gave her a carrot. Then I asked her to walk around the puddle on our bypass. She was so happy she fell right into her running walk!

I would have gotten off and tried to lead her, but mounting and dismounting without our platform is tough for me right now, so we just played the best we could. We had some fun clowning around, and one day, when she's ready, she'll march right through monster puddle.

Gitty Up ~ Dutch Henry

Puddles & Bears

What's in a puddle? … Bears? … Yup! … Here in VA where Kessy and I trail ride we have a lot of red clay, which means our puddles last a long time. A really long time. As we go along down the logging roads we normally traverse, depending on the rain amounts, or lack of, there are many, or few puddles. But much to Kessy's dismay, there are almost always, puddles. Big ones, small ones, wide ones and skinny ones.

Kessy's not much on puddles and since we ride the same trails most every day, she knows where each one is, or should be. She'll stop and snort at any new puddle, and any that had been dry and are now refreshed with an overnight rain. Over the past two years she's forged trails through the brush around the scariest ones, established tip-toe paths between the tire track skinny ones and cliff hanging ledge walkways around puddles in ravines. You bet, she's got the puddle avoidance thing pretty well mastered.

There a few puddles that don't seem to bother her too much, and by golly I cannot see anything different in these and the puddles she is most certain are life threatening. But she sure does! Now I don't want to say we've made no progress in sorting out this puddle phobia, we are. And at the rate she's getting the hang of it, sometime in the next 8 or 12 years I reckon she'll march through any puddle I aim her at.

She has gotten to the point where at some of them, you know the innocent looking ones, she'll stop and have a look. Often there are tadpoles swimming around, water striders skimming the surface, or butterflies in the soft clay along the edges sucking up nutrients. On those occasions it is never helpful to have a big ol' frog jump in. Nope, that doesn't work real well. Usually Kessy will demonstrate her outstanding 30 mile an hour back up gear, spin and depart gymnastic move. Why friends, sometimes it leaves me breathless!

Yesterday we were going along in her sweet slow running walk taking in the sights and sounds, and giving the puddles their earned respect. There are however a few I really enjoy studying. You see, for some reason the wildlife out there prefer some puddles more than others and it is always fun to check out the tracks to see who was there. I chuckle some when I think of all the different critters stopping buy the watering hole.

Just as Frasier had Café Nervosa and the Waltons had Ike Godsey's, the critters have their favorite puddles. Over the past few days Kessy and I had been taking inventory at a particular puddle that, like all the others, was shrinking. But even in its shrunken state it remained a popular night spot. This was evident by the wide variety of tracks in the soft clay, everything from turkeys to raccoons and coyotes had left their handprint in the logging road hall of fame puddle. Crows and I think a possum, too. Yesterday morning though there was a new set of tracks right down the middle. Mr. Black Bear had swung by and signed in. And he has beautiful penmanship. Nice prints 4 or 5 inches across. Kessy wasn't the least bit worried, though, for the puddle was almost completely dried up.

Have a perfect day and watch out for those scary puddles!