The Best Horse Sense

For the past couple of weeks, we have been moving our horses to our neighbor’s pasture each day. He has old grass that needs to be grazed down before the new growth starts, and our horses enjoy going to a different place to graze. It also saves me on feed because we don’t have any land that is grazable right now.

The horses are usually pacing the fence waiting for me to come out and let them out the gate, across the driveway, and into the pasture. They like to run toward the pasture as soon as the gate is open. However, this morning they all milled around the gate, but would not exit. Usually, if I walk ahead and lead them, they will follow. Not this morning. I could not get any one of the eight to go through the gate.

Once I stopped asking and took the time to watch them, I was able to figure it out. They were staring at a Big Blue Tarp that had been hung on a fence. They were saying, “We just don’t know if that tarp will eat us.” And of course once one of them objected to the Big Blue Tarp, then the whole herd was alert to the danger.

In these situations, I hate to push the horses through the gate. I don’t say, “You silly guys. It’s just a tarp. Now, GO!” I honor their suspicion and fear and work with it. It also gives me an opportunity to show some leadership. I picked up a loose length of baling twine and looped it over Hoss’s neck. I know that Hoss is the leader of the pack, and if he can go past the danger, everyone else will. I asked Hoss to follow me.

What is touching to me is that he follows. If he chose not to come with me, there is no way I could hold that big horse with just a string around his neck. The string wasn’t tied. I was holding both ends.

Hoss was a little reluctant to approach the gate, but he haltingly followed. As I stepped through the gate, I switched sides so that I was between Hoss and the Big Blue Tarp. This showed I wasn’t afraid of it. Once we got past the tarp, I let Hoss go. He put his head down and dug in with all four feet and zipped into the pasture as fast as he could.

By this time, the other horses were lining up at the gate, but were not able to venture through. Sharkie was closest, so I stood between her and the Big Blue Tarp and walked her past it. No need for the string around her neck. She saw that the Big Blue Tarp did not eat Hoss, and that I protected him from it, so she followed me. Each of the remaining members of the herd scooted past and into the safety of the pasture. I was surprised that Martha, who is usually one of the braver ones was one of the last to go. Maybe she sounded the alarm about the Big Blue Tarp first, which is why everyone else got alarmed.

Once everyone was in the pasture there was much running and bucking in celebration of having survived the Big Blue Tarp. I wonder how hard it is going to be to get them home tonight.

Lessons present themselves at the most unexpected moments. It usually takes two minutes to move the horses, but it took almost fifteen today. At first, I didn’t see why they would not go out the gate. I was not seeing the change in the environment that the horses did, and that change was very important to them. I honored their fear and showed them that the Big Blue Tarp would not kill them. I could have forced them past the Big Blue Tarp, but instead, I used the opportunity to show my leadership and allowed them to follow me. I didn’t make them follow; I allowed them to follow.

When we are dealing with people, how times do we say, “Just get over it”? If we have an employee who is afraid of a new task, do we make him do it anyway, or do we work with him to show him how? Think how your leadership grows when you help him out instead of letting him get through his fear by himself.