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© Peter Futschik: Rad and Deb @ Boneo
Work Walkout
Here is the how it happened story, no names of course! Sitting in a small team meeting. Yes I did finally have a team. Too little too late. Already exhausted. Just running through the agenda. Sensing a weird sensation, people staring at me with concern. Slowly out of the fog a realisation that I was floundering.
It would have been very tempting to lie down like Skye is in the photo below. She has given in at that moment, the physical pain too much to bear. Wouldn't it be lovely to rest on soft green grass and just give in to feeling awful. Horses look so ungainly and vulnerable when they are lying down. Here she is with her sore hoof (front off-side foreleg). You can see the white bandage wrapped around her hoof. In fact there are 3 layers involved. It is no fun at all trying to get these bandages on your horse! Or off for that matter.
Skye had an abyss which is very painful. But horses can't lie down for very long because their weight will crush their internal organs. Skye had to stand up and get on with being a horse.
Just as we too have to get up and get on with being a human.
Horse Led Recovery
During my work crisis I made an impulsive decision to buy a horse. A totally unsuitable, but very handsome, 3 year old chestnut gelding, warmblood thoroughbred. Any horse people reading this know that these horses are extremely strong, usually over 16 hands tall and slow to mature. Rad fitted the type.
I have to admit that the young woman, who had galloped on a quarter horse, across the Thredbo High Plains, keeping up with the brumbies, owned the day. When we first met Rad came up to me, nuzzled my head and won my heart.
Our relationship hasn't been that uncomplicated since.
Intriguingly Rad was an anxious horse with confidence issues. We were a challenging match. Not that his breeder or my family would have been able to convince me otherwise. Our partnership lasted for 11 years until I lost him in April 2023.
Rad's Gift
Rad greatest gift to me was to teach me humility, patience, courage for a mature rider, and to live only in the precious moment. I was thrust out of my depth on the very first day that I trucked Rad to his new home, an upmarket agistment property with all the bells and whistles. Within a few weeks he would rear when I simply tried to take him out of his paddock.
Rad understood that I knew nothing and wasn't to be trusted as his leader. And he certainly didn't have enough confidence to be the leader. One day he literally ran away from me as I was about to mount him and galloped to some magnificent dressage horses at the other end of the arena begging them to save him from this incompetent person. Me! That really teaches humility.
When I loaded Rad 6 months later on a truck to take him to a closer, more sensible for us, property he was so wild that people who worked there told me outright that I should sell him. And get myself a nice schoolmaster.
The Day Rad Came Home
I choose to persist with Rad. I wasn't prepared to give up on him or us. I recruited a coach who got us going because, as I discovered, riding a horse is only 10% of owning a horse.
About 5 years later I floated Rad and Skye, home to our horse property on the Mornington Peninsula.
Our own place where humans and horses could thrive together and continue to learn from and challenge one another every day.
By then we had come a long way, regularly heading off to adult rider days and competitions. I designed, and had built, an arena, round yard, stable complex and 6 paddocks. For my own horses. And soon after we became the local horse community hub.
By 2019 we were a solid partnership and I began to offer Equine Experiential Education for NDIS clients and others with my newly minted Horse Instructor qualification. Rad also stepped up to be an excellent horse for intermediate rider lessons.
© Deborah Hann; Rad's first day at his new home. 2017
Postscript
Unfortunately I lost Rad in April 2023. My horse adventure continues without him. I am a better person and horsewoman for having chosen my green 3 year "foal" as we jokingly referred to him for years.
The Equine (EQ) Link
Equine Experiential Education programs can significantly assist people to draw on their unique strengths and attributes and tap into their job crafting and leaderwork capabilities. Equine assisted Team building exercises can enhance this work.
Dr Deborah Hann
Revised 11 December 2023
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