It's been a while since I've told you about the UBF. He has lost his first tooth and some new pony-friends have arrived in his next-door field. His life has settled into a rhythm of eating and growing, while I work with him gently to teach him new things. It's only as we finally start to enter the blissful Mediterranean autumn that I have begun to reflect on the last few weeks, and appreciate the changes the UBF has been through.
He's a curious fellow, as horses tend to be. I think he likes my presence and the time I spent just sitting with him seems to have really paid off. I think he trusts me in his field and allows me to work with him at liberty. I pick out his feet and he offers each hoof to me, one by one. There is no need to force him or pull on the fetlock hair, once he understands what we are doing, he willingly obliges - although he is free to walk away whenever he chooses. He was so well behaved during the second visit from the farrier, it was as though he had been having his feet trimmed all his life. I felt like a proud Mum with a child's impeccable school report.
And he was excellent for his first vaccinations with the vet as well.
He allows me to wash his bum with cold water, if his poo is a bit runny. I can spray aerosol fly spray all over him, I wipe the spray around his eyes and plait his thick mane to allow the air to his neck. He lets me do all of this while he is completely free to walk away. Sometimes I do nothing and just watch him or I scratch his withers as he makes funny faces with his lips, communicating - up a bit...down a bit....oooh just there!
So although I haven't started training him in the traditional sense, the consistency, the regularity, the love and the communication is there everyday. I practice leading him around his field. We practice stopping and turning and asking him to be aware of me. He spent a night in his stable last night due to an impending storm - he handled the change with trust and settled in for a warm sleep among the shavings, out of the torrential rain.
All these tiny accomplishments are tiny, but all together are huge. I am teaching a baby horse about life, about how I will always hear him, see him, feel him and try to understand what concerns he may have. I've never done this before, I've never been part of such a young horses education. And when I think about starting him under saddle it fills me with huge anxiety - only to remember that I couldn't approach this horse a few months ago without him running away.
So we take one day at a time the UBF and me, together learning the dance of human-horse relationship ...towards our goal of galloping off into the sunset, holding on to his mane, just like that little girl in the movies.
