The Big Experiment with Henry

The Big Experiment with Henry

Early on, when we started to introduce Henry to the rest of the herd, we noticed something very interesting.  With each horse, in a very short time, he learned how to get along with them.  We started with Dante, who enjoys playing.  Henry immediately started to play with him, and they were great together.  The next horse we turned him out with was Starry, who is a big groomer.  Henry was cuddling with him in no time at all--yet we have not seen him grooming any of the other horses.  Trifecta is a bully that enjoys to play but can be relentless at times.  We didn't know how a mild-mannered horse like Henry would do with him.  It turns out that Henry will play rough with him, but if Trifecta gets too annoying--which happens a lot--Henry will gently stand up for himself and Tri backs down.  The big test was Cole.  Cole likes his space and doesn't want other horses to touch him.  Right away, Henry gave him the space he needed yet tolerated Cole following him around and licking him.  He is the first horse I ever found that I can turn out with Cole and walk away unworried.

Then, there was something else we discovered.  Henry seemed to treat Ellen and me differently, too.  It was very subtle because we tend to handle horses the same way, but it was there.  I tend to train Henry on something first and then hand him off to Ellen for them to practice.  After all, he will be Ellen's one day.  She has taken to him like a duck to water--and Henry has done the same with her.  Since she is always asking him to do things that he already knows, he seems more relaxed, more affectionate and yet he is attentive to her emotions.  Since I tend to ask him for more and will add new things to our routine, he seems to know it is learning time and not practice time.  This makes training him with Ellen a very good thing.  We take turns.  Some days it is one person or the other and other days I do half the session and she does half the session.  She has no interest in ground driving, so I do that exclusively.

So the question was--is it our imagination that he has adapted himself differently to our training styles or is it real.  It was time for an experiment.

That is where Kevin came in.  Kevin has learned a lot over the years since he first started riding my horses and then got his own, but he has developed his own style.  It is mostly slow.  That is because he is 79 years old with a very bad knee.  His horse, Starry, is an exceedingly patient horse.  Kevin can be slow and awkward, and Starry tolerates it all.

Because of Henry's youth, Kevin was hesitant to handle him, but I convinced him to do it for our experiment.  I sat back and had Kevin do it all by himself.  He went into his stall and attempted to halter him.  Since he was worried that Henry would knock him over and run out of the stall, he was very cautious and didn't want to stand close or just push him back like I would have.  Of course, Henry was good as Kevin fussed around with the halter.

Henry's stall leads right out into the indoor arena, and the sand is hard for someone with a bad knee to walk in.  Kevin immediately had trouble keeping up with Henry, and then something amazing happened.  Henry started to do the "Old Man Walk."  Henry has never walked that slow with Ellen or me, but within 15 seconds, that is what he was doing with Kevin.  I had Kevin stopping and turning Henry, and Henry just adapted to Kevin's way of moving.  It was a wonderful thing to see.

So, just as Henry was a quick study with adapting himself to the other horses in our herd, he is a quick study in adapting himself to his handlers.  I think that demonstrates how much he is paying attention to us, and it may be a big part of why he has been so easy to train.  Trifecta was so easily distracted at that age and was trying to get into everything.  He still does.

I think it might be why Henry so readily followed Dante past the broken electric wire.  He was able to observe Dante's behavior, and mimicked it.  It might be why he rarely spooks--because we aren't spooking.  This could be Henry's super power--and it is one that will make him a terrific trail horse.