Brown's Creek

I can't say I'm super enthused about writing this post... it is so much fun to talk about the good stuff, but today's ride was more sobering than exciting. Finn and I crossed the line of what we were capable of accomplishing together, and I am just grateful beyond words that neither of us paid for it too dearly.

It was the creek crossings that did us in, because they were not particularly horse friendly. Not a problem for a truly seasoned and confident trail horse, but Finn is just not there yet. Instead of a nice jaunt through a shallow creek, which Finn and I have gotten pretty good at handling, there were very narrow bridges, steep banks, and very limited options:

The second bridge.

Finn actually crossed the first bridge twice successfully with me on the ground. With the help of Tiva's lead, I then rode him across, but that ended somewhat awkwardly when he tried to take a half-leap off the far end to avoid stepping on the rocks and slipped a bit on the bridge. So, I got off, thinking I would lead him across a few more times. Two attempts later, he made a mis-step and fell off the bridge.

Thank God he popped right up with nothing but a few scratches to show for it. I cannot help but think how easily that could have been way, WAY worse. Which is in my nature... I had that thought from the moment I saw that bridge. I didn't feel it was safe. But I allowed naive optimism to over-rule my true intuition.

I want to point out that this is NOT a question of the bridge itself being safe or not. It is plenty safe for a sure-footed, confident horse that is used to handling such questions. It was not safe for Finn and I, based on his nature, experience and our level of communication. I wish I had understood that sooner. To put it in eventing terms, I challenged a Novice level horse with an Intermediate level question... recipe for failure.

What's done is done. I pray I don't find Finn any worse for wear tomorrow, and based on several hours of monitoring him (ie - finishing our ride) after the "incident" I don't have any reason to believe he will be. So, there's nothing much for it but to reflect on what I learned.

First, I learned to be more conscientious about the questions I present to my horse. From now on, I hope I will do better at honestly evaluating our chance of succeeding.

Second, I gained much food for thought on the general question of how we operate our horses. When it comes to things that scare Finn, I have a habit or philosophy of allowing him to think it through/make his own judgement. My thought process being that I don't want him to feel forced, I want him to see for himself that it is safe. While I wouldn't say we haven't gotten results with that approach, it proved inadequate today. Facing a scenario we couldn't control where there was no room for error, this approach of letting him make his own decisions was inadequate.

I think of all the times I have let him leap across the tarp, telling him that it's fine if he rushes across, I just won't reward him for it. While I wouldn't say that is wrong, it again was a pattern that served us poorly when facing the "real" world. When the chips were down and I needed control of his feet, I didn't have it.

I don't really have any conclusions to make at this point, because I don't know what is right. What I know is that I want this to get better. Not only do I want Finn to get more sure-footed and confident within himself, I want him to learn to rely on and obey me when he isn't sure. And, of course, I want to set him up to learn it when there is no great price for a mistake, until I have a realistic reason to believe we won't make one.

So in the end I guess today was a lesson learned and that's all there is to it. Ever more reason to explore my convictions and beliefs about horsemanship.

Finn and I at the end of our ride.