Patience is a Virtue (for Others)
Ro’s world has been turned upside down and backwards.
At a recent roping evening, I could feel Ro was getting tired and they needed someone to work the chute. The obvious solution: I hopped off, tied Ro to the fence, and prepared to work the chute.
Ro was confused. Then offended. Then she went beyond confused and offended into some other emotional territory that defies description.
She was tied up. Stuff was happening. She was not part of it. No one was petting her, no one was holding her and whispering soothing words in her fuzzy ears, no one was holding her hoof and telling her It Was OK.
Ro spent most of the evening calling out and trying to dig a hole to China, but since she wasn’t freaking out I left her to it. I rescued her once, when she went beyond impatient and started to look anxious, but once she settled I tied her back up again.
Last night, we repeated the lesson—I’ve been kicked off steer pushing duty because one of the ropers is teaching his young kid, well, the ropes, and, um, as shameful as it is to say it, said four/five year old is better at pushing steers than Ro and I. So we’ve been fired. We still hang out with the ropers, but I’ve more or less been demoted to chute duty if I’m not on Ro’s back.
So after we had amused ourselves quietly in the corner for a while and Ro had had her nightly “horses can too hang out in groups without kicking each other” lesson, I tied her to the fence again and went to work chute duty. Where, um, the four/five year old once again proved better at moving the steers around than I am.
Look, the steers and I are great, until they decide they want to go somewhere I don’t want them to go. Or don’t want to go where I want them to go. And I did not get the Boss Steers Around gene, so I stare at them in confusion. And then the four/five year old rescues me.
It turns out I am not a cowgirl, ok? There, I admit it. I am not a cowgirl. I’m a city slicker of the worst sort.
And Ro cannot comprehend why she gets tied to fences and left to cope. This does not happen in her world. In her world, she’s ridden and then she’s put away. Baths are optional, a chance to graze is preferred. But nowhere in her contract is she required to stand quietly while her human is off playing with steers (badly!) and other people are doing other things that do not involve her as the center of attention.
She was better last night than the first night—she called out some, but not incessantly, and she did not dig holes nearly as deep as the night before.
Unfortunately for Ro, I absolutely think horses need to learn to stand tied—quietly—while their people are off doing other things. It is not something I want to do routinely, but I want to know she’s capable of it. All the better if there is lots of other stuff going on at the same time. There may come a time when she needs to stand quietly on a trailer while I run into the show office, and there may be a line. Or she may need to stand tied while I run to the port-a-potty. Or whatever. I don’t really care why—she needs to learn that she can stand tied and unattended without dying.
But Ro is not thrilled, no, not at all. She’s coping, but she is absolutely certain she has enough virtues and Patience is for… well, everyone else. She’s above such things. She’s certain. Just ask her.