Joey

It was dark. Not as dark as night, but dark as in something was different. I could feel the ground shifting as the clash of metal was heard along with the wind whistling through the cracks in the trailer. I was scared, where was mom? I hadn't been apart from her the whole two years of my life. I couldn't understand things so I tried to stay calm. I could hear dogs barking, instead of shifting forward we were now going backwards. When they opened the door I saw nothing but a pen. I hopped down to investigate, not knowing anything about this new world I was soon to discover.

The next morning a girl came into the pen with me, curious as I was, I got closer to sniff and see if I could identify what this new creature was. She stood with her back to me, giving me clear signals that she was not here to harm me. I however, was not so certain at first. Next she faced me and started driving me away from her, just as my mom would do sometimes, except there was no place to escape! I was confused, not knowing what this girl expected of me other then she clearly wants me out of her space. After a while I realize she's not "chasing" me, however she's just pushing me out of her space. Much like my mom would do when she wanted respect. After I got over my flight instinct and was focused more on my curiosity, she suddenly turned so her back was facing me. Puzzled, I assessed the situation and realized I could get a better sniff since now she was inviting me into her space once again. Being the curious two year old that I am, I snuck a few paces closer to her to try and figure out what she was. She let me sniff her for a bit, then started talking in a calm voice, almost soothing to me; although I had no idea what she was saying, I could tell she was pleased with something I had done.

Later in the day I had started following this girl around, sometimes I would try and move away from her in which she would then start pushing me away and out of her space again, almost so that whatever I did it was on her terms instead of mine. I learned that she just simply wanted to keep my focus on her, no matter what she did, she wanted me engaged. If she moved forward with her back turned, I gladly followed after her, after all it's much easier and more comforting to be with her then being pushed away by her. She then started touching me, not much just in small ways at first. She would let me sniff her hand while she used her fingers to stroke my nose. Or she would let me smell her back while she touched down my neck and down my shoulders. I wasn't afraid of her because I knew that I could always leave the situation if it got too scary, but she never did anything to intentionally scare me. She showed me a bridge between the human and horse worlds, with which we could communicate on through body language.

I then learned about many other parts of a new world in which she called "desensitizing" which included her bringing scary looking objects to me for me to assess, smell, touch, and show me that they really aren't that scary after all. She started teaching me cues for certain things such as; wiggling the lead rope connected to my halter meant "backup" and pulling on the lead rope meant "come forward." She also taught me how to move my hip or shoulder, something I had never known how to do, or needed to do in the past I now was a professional at.

I still have much to learn from her, and sometimes I blow up more then I should have but she always stays calm, she understands that I'm still learning and growing. We take long walks together through the trees, up hills, through creeks. Sometimes the other horses come along. I never knew how much I would end up liking that girl, someone completely different from me can communicate with me, comfort me, calm me down, without saying a word. I know now who that low whistle belongs to, and I can't wait for the lessons to come.