I hauled a student and one of my horses to a Hunter Jumper show over the weekend. I had to breathe and find courage to pull a trailer I did not know with a vehicle I did not know and a horse barely fitting into his stall - protected by a head bumper!
My student had to summon courage to ride in this, her very first horse show and Sage, my big gelding had to trust us all totally! My rider had to trust the things I told her both at home and at the competition. As it unfolded, Sage jumped everything she pointed him toward.
It made me think a lot about trust and courage going together. They do. It takes courage for the horse to trust us when he hops up into a trailer or a van. It takes trust to find bravery and ride on the back of a motorcycle with another person. Much our lives, whether we are equine or human, demand a flowing tide, in and out, of deciding to trust each other and be brave for one another while we are brave for ourselves.
Horses can become fearless when they trust what we do around them. This morning, my gelding, Grits had his hooves worked on in a lengthy process to strengthen them. There were plastic bags and breezes and strange smells all around him. He trusts us, so he stood like a soldier for the process.
If ever, in his life with me, I had become aggressive with him and frightened him or intimidated him with things like plastic bags, he would have been on nervous, high alert all morning.
Sage, at the horse show, had seen it all before. He adores people and spent his day soaking in the attention and admiration. We "train" our horses and we "train" each other... by our actions and sometimes the lack thereof. If I want a horse to feel calm around flapping plastic, I fold up a sheet of it into the size of my palm. I then "groom" him with it, all over his body... slowly I unfold it in stages until (perhaps over a series of sessions) he can accept the large, flapping sheet of plastic passing all over his head and body. The main thing to do if he gets a bit worried is to fold the sheet down smaller for a bit.
I hope you have great courage, great adventures, great friends (of any species) and great dreams.
Katharine and the 
