Cookie Tag, part 2

It is 85 degrees outside, high winds, sunny with huge white thunderheads scutting past.  The kind of weather that promises serious storms in the next day. Too warm for this time of year. The heat has pushed all the flowering trees into early blooms, and even the lilacs are opening. The wind, heat, and my splitting headache foretell some bad weather on its way.

After a LONG day at work, sitting in on the Commission on Cancer recertification process for our Oncology Program, I was grateful to come home and spend some time outside. Took a book and my chair, and a pocket full of cookies, out to the pasture.

Sophia saw me first, and very gradually drifted in my direction.  When she got close, I offered her a neck scratch--her favorite--and a cookie.  She stayed nearby, and grazed in a circle around my chair. At one point, when I was not looking, she snuffled the back of my neck. Sweet girl!

Walter was the next to engage with me.  Came straight up and stopped 10 feet away. I held up a cookie and invited him in, which pleased him greatly. We then had a profound time of connection.  He stayed next to me for at least 20 minutes, trying out small variations in being there. If he put his side next to me, would I scratch it? Yes. If he sniffed my hands, would I let him? Of course. We had face rubs and back scratches, all at his pace and his initiative. He put a hoof up against my foot, and we shared a little foot rub. There was a lot of licking and chewing. It was quite special.

Eventually, I decided to engage Susie, and Walter played stick-to-me the whole length of the pasture.  Susie was grazing at the far end of the north pasture. I stopped about 20 feet away and greeted her, and she played I-can't-see-you for a few minutes. I waited, but was thinking that unless she approached, I would not push things. It took a few minutes, but just when I was ready to take Walter and go back to the barn, she came walking up, asking a question. "Why, yes, Susie, I DO have a cookie...in fact, I have a pocket full. Would you like to play tag with me?"

Indeed, she was up for a game of cookie tag, with trotting, turns on the forehind, big stretches, and even backing a few steps. And, such good manners, when the cookies were gone, she did not mug me, but went nicely to the trough for a drink of water.

This is a great trust-building exercise for me, too, as I am not terribly used to having a horse "chase" me, LOL. But she stops on a dime when I stop, good girl. 

It's a challenge to just be where we are right now, and not be trying to imagine where we are "going." So countercultural to do less rather than more. I love the intimacy that is developing between us all.

That's today lesson from the herd.