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| AMERICAN THUNDER |
I have waited to this point to introduce you to my horse. She was an important part of this story. She was my partner in this endeavor. The first reporter that interviewed us asked "whats your horse's name?" I thought that her name should have some meaning in that we were trying to convene to the public. American Thunder, I said. The reporter nodded an approving nod and so American Thunder was born.
School children across America would come to know her name and wanted to meet her, pet her and feed her apples. She was a 16 hand, tri colored, tobiano paint horse with big feet and heavy leg bones. She had some workhorse blood in her, maybe Belgium. When I first got her she was stubborn as a mule. She had been owned by a five foot tall, two hundred pound woman that couldn't ride her and kept her locked up in a stall for long periods. Needless to say, the horse was angry at people. Thunder was use to getting her way with that woman by intimidating her.
Thunder would kick at me and bit me when I first brought her home. We had to come to an understanding. She bit me one day, so I bit her ear. She rarely bit me after that. I tried to take the time ease her into understanding that she was in a safe place and I would look after her. It took a couple of months to gain her confidence, but she slowly came around. She got use to me stoking her as she eat and talking to her as I brushed her. Horses don't understand the words you speak to them. They do understand your tone.
As Thunder settled into her new home she became calmer. Sometimes I would sit in the field close to her as she grazed on the grass. Little by little she learn to trust me. She would look forward to the little treats I brought her, a lump of sugar, an apple or an occasional piece of a candy bar I was eating. Riding her was still another story. That took even more work. At first it was a debate. She wanted to go left and I wanted to go right. She still had that stubborn streak in her from the days with the short woman. As she came to understand that I wasn't that short woman and could match her stubbornness inch for inch with my own, we eventually found our middle ground. She could have her way...sometimes, but not always.
Horses learn from experience. When we rode and something scared her she learned to look to me for help. I would calm her and reassure her that everything was OK. Horses will let the rider be in charge once they learn to trust them. The world is a scary place for a horse, there is so much they don't under. Their natural instinct is for survival. A loud noise or a sudden movement can send them into a panic. What horses understand is that they live on a planet where everything eats each other.
While in time Thunder became more manageable, she never completely lost her stubborn streak and independence, What was OK with me, I didn't want her to lose her spirit. It got in the way sometimes, but I learned to deal with it. It made her a better horse then one without spirit. When we rode to Washington on the first ride it would come in very handy. We were in unfamiliar territory and everything was new to us. In this situation a horse and rider truly build a bond between them. I could imagine Thunder wondering why we weren't going home at the end of the first day's ride and not being in her stall with its bed of wood shavings.
Over the thousands of miles we rode together, we built that bond of trust. When I was dismounted I could drop her reins and her would not wander off. If I walk away, she would follow and stay with me. We had became a team, each dependent on the other. She would come to symbolize the strength of how America was built. The endurance of tackling a tough job and seeing it though to the end and the public remembered with pride what it meant to be an American.
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Posted by ron8000 on 2008-02-10 16:45:35 | Rating: | Views: 81
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