Xadaa and Posa’s mothers were pregnant wild horses when they were culled from their herd, so their fillies were born in captivity. However, upon my request, they were not touched/imprinted/handled by humans at the rescue and left 100% under their mother’s care.
However, the foals were intensely interested in humans and they initiated (asked for) all kinds of human touch and play. For the first 4-6 weeks the mustang mamas did not want them near humans and we respected their wishes – even though the babies were asking for touch/interaction.
After that, Xadaa and Posa have been in charge of everything that happens with their bodies and humans. They have both asked to wear halters and ropes and have asked for grooming and scratching. Of course, they both are allowed to tell humans to leave them alone! They own their own bodies – they are not owned by humans.
Likewise, I am in charge of my body, and I get to choose when I don’t want to be touched, or I don’t want to play!
The girls are both 2-years-old now and while Xadaa is taller than her mother, she is so obviously completely undeveloped in every physical parameter (muscular, skeletal, joints, coordination, etc) that it is utterly mind-boggling to consider how/why humans ever thought it was a good idea to race 2-yr-olds with a rider on their back!!
As I talk about in the video, the Icelandic horse breeders have a much better rule-of-thumb, which is to not even touch the foals until they are 4-years-old. You can read all about that in Nancy Marie Brown’s fabulous book, A Good Horse Has No Color: Searching Iceland for the Perfect Horse.
Hope you enjoy hanging out with us for a while!
Jini Patel Thompson is a natural health writer and Lazer Tapping instructor. She began riding at age 2 in Kenya, and got her first horse at age 8 in Alberta, and so continues a life-long journey and love affair with these amazing creatures.
That was a great video Jini. Thank-you. Once again, I’m learning. The weather here is turning icy and my pony and his new found friend (they didn’t like each other for 3 years but are now best buddies) are ultra alert in this windy noisy cold environment and they stay close to each other in the paddock. They will take a run every now and again and I think this is them warming themselves up. Today, the big mare and I had a big discussion with a show and tell presentation about the rug on the fence which was flapping in the wind. She would not come to her feed, and seemed very upset with the rug. After 15 minutes and some encouragement for her to feel safe, I left her with the rug and she sniffed it all over – and then went to feed. I’ll see how she is tomorrow, but I think that rug will not be a problem anymore.
I will read up on the Icelandic horses and foals – thank-you for the insight.
Deleece
Where are you located Deleece? I am continually putting new stuff out and then walking away from it. If we don’t CARE whether they inspect it or not, that removes the pressure of our desire and opens up more space for exploration I find. Likewise, your nonchalance and showing that we feel perfectly safe – and then other horses behaving the same way – sends a clear learning message. It’s all good.
Well I see your back to sloshy wetness! We are headed into our …as you put it a few seasons back, crispy time of the year! Although since Dreamer once again this year was affected from the green grazing (LGL) starting in February🥺
I am looking forward to the crispy because then he can be back out on all the land instead of locked up on the 1/4-1/2 acre area we scraped to get rid of the green stuff! Looks like a track is our only hope for him in the future as I feel It is now one of our only options! To my joy and relief though yesterday I could feel how much better he is now …and he even invited me to take him for a short bareback ride and we were so connected and he was so into it! I let him lead (what I call a Dreamy ride) and he was excited to go! Unlike our hand walks lately where he has seemed a bit shut down? I think he really gets a since of pride taking me out on his back! Not sure if that was conditioned into him before we came together or if it’s just his personality? But the way it feels is just amazing & soul soothing! 🥰
The other exciting news is my son might have a chance to buy the 10 acres next door and if so not only would I get to enjoy life next to him but also my grandson Gun Sun! The added benefit being I could make a track with a couple of the acres adjacent to the already established back horse area that would make a huge track and not interfere with the rest of our acreage so they would still get to flow on that & the other adjacent neighbors 5-6 acres….over half of the year! Right now putting all my energy into him getting that place if that is what is meant to be!
Your young ladies in this film are so much like Buck A Roo! He will follow and follow and then nip and try and play and is such a character! I don’t think he was raised with a herd and he can be full on! I love him to pieces but we definitely have some strong conversations about biting! I too…wil seek shelter with Banner but even he can have a hard time holding off Bucks exuberance! Buck is 10 now and one very big big brown boy! He really dwarfs me! I am always trying to balance his independence and fun spirit (although sometimes it feels a bit like anxiety too) with safety around humans! He definitely is here to teach me a whole other level about energy! ✌🏼❤️🐴
Ooooh that would be SO exciting and wonderful! I’ll hold space with you 🙂 I just think you’re gonna put that track in and be like, “WHY didn’t I do this sooner??” If you go on some of the Track groups on FB you can get a lot of good ideas for enrichment etc. – could be a really fun project for you and hubby. If I owned the land I would put one in, no question. BUT I would do it by FEEL, not by logic. I also don’t like the idea of restricting movement to straight lines or one repetitive track. I’ll post a couple photos of plans that look/feel way better to me.
And yes, our “difficult” horses (children, etc) are the ones that teach us the most! Yin/yang we must honor both.
Here’s an idea – this track design leaves multiple options for movement. Plus the herd can split up into segments and go different ways
Here’s another idea that allows for more freedom of choice and more organic movement
I like the middle lane and the alley ways! Great ideas! I have already done and will do some more serious research when we make it! I plan on making it as enriching as possible and have lots of twists and turns and other fun ideas! You have seen what my husband can do….he can and will help me accomplish anything! 💛 I plan on it following an existing fence line and it definitely won’t be straight lines and will include as many trees as possible!
I am looking forward to it …I know it will be very freeing for all of us …well at least for these months that we all have to shuffle so much just to keep everyone not alone and no one eating to much bad stuff! I have learned through a laminitis online learning class that I am taking that clover is a real problem for horses and it turns out it’s the majority of our grazing😔…it also will be one of the things that thrives in a track environment because it likes compacted soil! So much to figure out! But we will get there!
I just keep learning and asking the horses for support and wisdom to help us all live our best lives! ✌🏼❤️🐴
Would love to see what y’all come up with! If you do an aerial plan for sure post or send it 🙂 And YES, look at everything through the eyes of your horses. Kaliah told me to do this as we’ve been looking at land again. So I did a meditation and 4 of the horses come forward and told me how they view the land, their concerns, needs, what they loved etc – I learned so much!!