Working with Neo

 

Neo was a mistake. Born the result of an accidental paddock mating. The only male among four fillies born from the same situation. Perhaps Neo was bound to be different growing up surrounded by female company. He has always been inquisitive, yet not one to push himself forward. Quite often as a youngster he could be found grazing by himself. He is one of those horses who enjoys the company of both horses and people, but it would be easy to say that he has the confidence of one who belongs to himself.

At three years old he has come into the yards from being with his gelding paddock mates. Time to start some basic education. The separation from his peers was a non-event. Neo settled down to the routine of feeding in the yard while I cleaned up his pen, refilled his hay net and refreshed his water. When I entered his space, he would always break off from his feed to come over, sniff my outstretched hand as a ‘Horseman’s handshake’, ask for a quick rub and then relax back to a hard feed.

Neo had accepted a halter at gelding and had some basic instruction so a review of that was the first topic of his training program. Quickly he proved that he hadn’t forgotten. After a nuzzle of the halter he stood calmly as I slid it up over his nose. Similarly, leading in the yard gave me confidence to take him into a larger space as we experimented with his response to a soft feel through the rope. With little need of correction, we moved into a wider more uncontrolled space. Here I was ready to see some sort of reaction from Neo, as all was new and unfamiliar. But as I watched there was no change in breathing, nostrils were relaxed and the movement of the dogs in the distance seemed to not carry any worry for him. His reaction was a little unexpected as I had recently worked with an older mare who had needed quite a lot of time to feel comfortable and safe in this new space. As he and I stretched his boundaries, Neo explored his new surroundings with the curiosity of a child in a bric-a-brac shop. From my recent past experience Neo’s response seemed underwhelming and a little surprising. A good surprise that is.

As the days passed, we expanded our adventures together. One of these was a float loading exercise. Normally I would not include this experience so early in his training, but I was working in a controlled area that we refer to as 'Central' where the laneway from our paddocks feed into. I had the training float in Central so decided to introduce Neo to the sight and sound of the tailgate being opened and dropped to the ground. I let him investigate the dropped tail gate. No snorting, no backing away, before I knew it, he calmly walked straight up to the chest bar and started munching from a hay net, with the occasional pause to examine movement out of the front window. As the days progressed, Neo willingly accepted me walking in and moving around the float, the movement of the divider, the banging of the breech bar, the noise of the tail gate going up and down all as a precursor to his first short drive. As often as I have successfully undertaken this with horses, I have to admit that at this point, I felt as though my heart was in my mouth. I have experienced the chaos of a float wreck, and it is not a pretty sight and one that I never want to have repeated. I guess it is for safety reasons and my own emotional wellbeing that I aim to do a great deal of preparation with the horse before beginning the next stage. I know the importance of having a horse being able to willingly float load time and time again. Now, a horse that will not travel calmly or load easily is a serious problem to their owner. Yet I know it doesn't have to be that way, good early preparation and early positive experiences will build a horse's confidence where it literally says to itself. "That is just what we do." So, building on Neo's early positive float loading experiences is going to be really important for the quality of his life in years to come. It is a responsibility that I never take lightly.

I have a busy program in the coming weeks, so it was decided to put Neo out again for a short spell. I walked him back down the laneway to his paddock gate, his mates off in the distance. I took off his halter and released him expecting him to belt off celebrating his newfound freedom and the open paddock in front of him, but he just stood there quietly, waiting for further instruction. I realised that Neo had no intention of going anywhere, so I set off across the paddock towards the rest of the mob with Neo happily walking at my shoulder guided by my invisible lead rope. Only when his mates recognised him and started calling and galloping across the paddock towards us, did he turn and look at me as if to say "Is it OK? I gotta go". With a nod from me he dropped his hind quarters and powered off at full speed. As I turned to walk back to the gate, I saw Neo enveloped in a whirl of bodies snorting and sniffing with excitement.

 I was forgotten.