This week we’ve been trying to get a young horse into a travel float. That’s much easier to say than do.
The horse (Holly) is very reluctant to walk up the ramp into the float. The main technique we’ve been using is to have a bucket of feed at the entrance to the float so Holly has to go up the ramp to get it. She stands at the bottom with her front feet against the edge of the ramp and extends her head as far as she can.
We’ve spent a lot of time with her trying to encourage her to no avail. We’ve hand fed her and moved the bin closer so she knows the food is there. As she’s been eating we’ve gradually moved the bin further in the hope she’ll follow it up the ramp. We’ve talked to her and petted her but she refuses to step onto the ramp.
I’ve even read “The Horse Whisperer” by Nicholas Evans in the hope of learning something helpful. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a horsey version of “The Bridges Of Madison County” and even had a reference to Clint Eastwood. While it’s an interesting book it didn’t help with Holly.
There’s been some slight progress. I noticed that when she’d kick the edge of the ramp she scared herself and moved away. So, when she was eating I would make noises in the float and that helped her get more comfortable so she stopped frightening herself. She’s also more comfortable with me and lets me stroke her all over, so we have made progress.
This all got me thinking about how much we stop ourselves doing things because of unreasonable fears or misinterpreting situations. Like Holly, we often have an objective we want to achieve but our thinking prevents us putting our feet onto the ramp which will get us there. Also like Holly, we probably won’t be able to make the simple change we need without the help of someone else.