After the Splash

Splash! Splutter! I quickly stand up in the knee deep water. The horse I had just been on top of, JJ, a chestnut Arab gelding, about 15 hands tall, is looking down his long nose, his ears and eyes asking “what are you doing down there?” “Errr, I was sorta out of balance when you jumped sideways,” I answered. I gathered up the reins, took a step toward the grassy bank to leave the pond. Then a thought occurs to me. My boots are already full of water, my chaps and jeans are soaked, I’m not going to get any wetter, so why not? Right there in the water, I manage to get my foot in the stirrup of my English saddle, (not so easy when the jeans and chaps are waterlogged,) swing aboard and point JJ toward the middle of the pond. JJ was not thrilled about this idea, but then he wasn’t really keen on the idea of getting his feet wet either. For that matter, nor was I, which is why I had lifted them up a few inches, just before JJ had jumped sideways. I had intended to walk into the water until it was a couple of feet deep, turn left and leave the pond at another spot. Now I figured we would just go straight across. I was guessing there was about 40’ where JJ was just barely going to reach the bottom or perhaps even have to swim. As the water got to the top of his shoulder, JJ started to hurry with a couple of small lunges toward the far bank. Which meant that he actually sank deeper in between the lunges. Water up to my waist as I was riding. As we came into the shallows again, JJ wanted to go out. I wanted him to be more relaxed about the deep water. So we turned around and went through it again. Then once more. About a ¼ of the way through the third time, I felt JJ quit trying to rush. He had figured out that if he walked normally, the water didn’t actually go over the top of his back. This time I let him walk all the way out of the pond since he wasn’t rushing. We rode around the farm for about another ten minutes, then went back to the pond. No hesitation at entering, and no rushing to get out. A very successful learning experience.
This could have been a very unsuccessful experience for both JJ and I. How I reacted to getting dunked made the difference. I did not get angry nor blame JJ for his self preservation instincts. I am the one who wasn’t as balanced as I could have been.
I was able to see a further learning opportunity that I hadn’t planned. Being flexible or being able to change what we are doing when we see a chance to, is a very important skill in teaching horses. For that matter, the ability to change our approach and sometimes our goal is a very important life skill.