Zahra Teacher

I had not understood enough about natural horsemanship and how important it was to communicate each movement one step at a time on the ground in order to develop trust, feel and harmony for each other. I wrote the following a lifetime away it seems on Saturday 11/12/99.
A cold and wet day and played with Zahra in the stable as usual with asking for her head round and then down. Yielding right and left, backing one step at a time. Then as rain stopped went outside for side yielding, shoulder yielding, backing with the 12 foot rope, circles, driving and backing in. She had her saddle on and I leant across her both sides as I had been doing for the last 3 weeks. I used a five gallon water barrel to help ease myself up as she really resented mounting from the floor. I have tried to make things feel different and safe. I had got to the stage of using an upside down bucket to stand in the stirrup, as it was lower.
I felt that she was very comfortable with this approach and asked Rob to stand with me, stroking her head and reassuring her whilst I slowly sat astride her. I used the barrel as it would ease me on with less trouble.
The last two times I'd tried to get on I'd been thrown violently as I hadn't prepared her enough. The second time was when she was pressured and frightened at the yard inside a barn where she was bring broken in and I remember being pitched and spinning in the air wondering where I could fall safely away from wheelbarrows and walls!
This was a test of my trust of Zahra and her trust of me. We had been working together since the end of August '99. I can't tell you how anxious I was as I leant across and slowly and carefully slid my leg across the saddle.

My mentor and teacher who has taught me the most has been Zahra, our Egyptian Arab mare that we bought when she was eight. Nothing has been straight forward. She had done nothing for four years, had been backed at four and a half and turned away. She was backed again by a very experienced and knowledgeable person but it was a disaster as she didn’t understand. She came back a nervous wreck and too dangerous to ride. She had defended herself in the only way she knew how. All I thought I knew didn’t work with Zahra and I had to find another way to reach this very complicated and intelligent little mare.