Unmovable Horses

Photo by Ty Holland

After riding Apache in the morning on Friday, I still had enough energy left over in the afternoon to try and work another horse on the lunge line. I chose Wyatt, since he is a school horse and one who might do well on a lunge line. Bad choice. I took Wyatt to the round pen to see how he did and it started out okay. Wyatt was a little lazy but did what he was supposed to do including changing directions when asked. It was going well enough that I decided to go ahead and hook up the lunge line. Suddenly the game changed. Wyatt was no longer willing to move. He just stood in the center of the round pen looking at me. I shook and snapped my whip at him but he just stood there. I began flicking the whip closer and closer to him until it was licking the backs of his legs with it but still nothing. It was clear I was going to have to go to extreme measures to get him to move. Although Wyatt had no fear of the whip or the sound it made I knew there must be something that would motivate him to move. Horses are afraid of certain predators but I didn't think I'd be able to tie a wolverine to the end of the whip. Instead I used an item that all horses have a mortal fear of---the plastic WalMart shopping bag. Once I had that fearsome item on the end of the whip it was game over. Wyatt still required a lot of motivation to keep moving (unlike Monte or Apache) but since I was ultimately able to get him to move, I chalked it up as a victory.