Ember Update 5

Hey, y'all! Sam here with another Ember Update. Don't know who Ember is? Meet Ember.

I didn't have a lot of time to work with Ember this week... Well, even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to. There have been severe thunderstorms in our area the past few days, causing the ground to be a lake. If we did try to do some training, Ember or I would probably slip and fall. It's never safe to work in a muddy environment.

However, the three days' worth of training we did manage to do this week were quite successful. Ember will take a saddle and a bit, she can be ridden, she'll lunge, she'll train at liberty, and she's good around kids. The biggest problem with Ember as of right now is how herd-spoiled she is.

She'd jump over a pool of lava just to get to your horse, Ellie. I think one of the hardest things about being a horse trainer is that you're not a horse. A human and a horse can bond, but that bond is nothing like the bond two horses typically share. It's their instinct to be with others of their kind, but it's not their instinct to be with us. I can work with Ember every day for her entire life and she still won't have that kind of attachment. It's a horse-horse relationship, something none of us humans will ever be able to understand.

Another problem we have is that she rubs. A lot. She rubs against the fence and against trees. She rubs against anything she can. I don't know if she's just itchy or if she got into something like Bullnettle (a weed that's like poison ivy for horses and cattle). Whatever it is, it's causing her to rub so much that the front of her face is almost completely bald... along with behind her ears. This is a problem I have no way of fixing, and I can only hope the hair will grow back before the competition on October 17th.

Last night, I was faced with an obstacle. I assume the latch to the gate got slick because of all this rain, so Ellie managed to unlock it (she's the master of untying knots and unlocking gates. Many Quarter-horses are). So when we got home from a long day up in the metroplex, I was shocked to find the horses were gone. Our landlord has 400 acres of property and we live on about 2 of them. They had access to pasture upon pasture of freedom. Since we couldn't leave them out overnight (landlord rules), we did the only thing we could: Drive around the land until we found them. It took about 45 minutes of driving without getting stuck in the terribly thick mud, but we did it. Ellie and Ember had run off to be with one of our landlord's geldings. The gelding was black, Ellie's a red-ish black, and Ember's a deep red... You can imagine how hard it was to find them in the moonless night.

Another thing that happened is a bit of stress on Ember's part. Our neighbors bought a pregnant mare a couple months ago, and they're starting to wean the foal. I think hearing all the cries from Echo (the foal) and Roany (the mare) triggered her memory. After all, Ember weaned from her foal just a few weeks ago. As a result of these triggered emotions, Ember starts pawing the ground, kicking the gate, and galloping across her pasture whenever one of them cries. And honestly, there's nothing I can do to help.

Welp. That sums up the happenings of this week. Comment below if you'd ever weaned a horse! Sam out!