A Shocking Incident
I love ground driving. It is my favorite non riding thing to do with horses. Ground driving is so much more fun than lounging. With lounging, you can go in a circle clockwise--and then you can go counter clockwise. With ground driving, you can go all over the place and do all sorts of figures and obstacles. Currently, I mostly just do it at a walk with Henry, but eventually we will mix in more trotting. It can be very challenging to coordinate trotting figures, but I like that kind of challenge.
Last week, I was ground driving Henry. We started in the indoor arena and headed outside. One of the turnout pens has a track going around it, and Henry really likes to walk around it. As we headed around the corner to the far side of it, he stopped, put his head up and told me there was something really scary over there. Henry doesn't get frightened at much at all, so I was surprised. I couldn't see anything that would make a horse worry, so I asked him to proceed. He took a step forward and then turned 180 degrees and marched back towards the barn. I let him, and kept him going around the track to approach the problem area from the other direction. As we neared it, he slowed down and eventually stopped. I decided that I wouldn't make a big deal about it, so I turned around and brought him into the outdoor arena. We drove around there and had no problems at all. I then just forgot about it.
That is, until the next time I drove him. When we got to that spot, Henry stopped and turned around again. Needless to say, I was very puzzled. We just went right into the outdoor arena and continued our driving lesson there.
The next time I drove him, he didn't even want to make the turn to go to that part of the track. I took him the other way, and this time he did go past it, but he went way to the outside of the track--as far away from the fence that he could. I had a clue! I looked at the fence and saw that is the spot where the electric wire was broken and laying on the ground. I knew about the wire, but I didn't know that Henry had anything to do with it. He had no cuts or scrapes; nothing. We did a few more laps that way and each time, he didn't want to go near the fence, but he did willingly go past the wire.
Afterwards, I went alone to move the wire to a safe spot. I figured it was shorted out because it was broken--surprise!! I did get a mild shock. It could be that he was curious about the wire laying on the ground and touched it with his nose; getting a shock.
The next day, Ellen was going to ride Dante, so I thought I could try driving Henry behind Dante and maybe Dante would lead him by the broken wire. It worked like a charm. He didn't even hesitate or try to veer away from the fence in either direction. Since then, he has had no trouble driving over there independently.
Later that day, we saw the barn manager and told her about it. The wire was fixed immediately.
I'm learning so much about Henry, and I like what I see. He was worried about something, and he behaved in a totally rational way. Instead of just reacting, it seems he thought about it and solved his problem without any panic or chaos. I am so glad I didn't insist on him passing the broken wire while driving. If I was leading him, he may have decided to follow me just as he did with Dante.
Here's the thing that really makes me smile about the whole incident--this situation was evidently caused by an electric shock. Talk about having a reason to spook; to really panic, to do something dangerous. Instead, Henry just said it wasn't safe, and we should turn around. Morgans. You gotta love them.
