A great horse story about a plain grumpy old quarter Horse’s Power over children that somehow rescues an over worked camp counselor from the havoc of horse camp.

 

 

The Power of One Horse by Lise LeMay

 

I taught riding at a kid’s camp for 2 summers several years ago. Each session of two weeks created major havoc as 100 kids descended on the barn, staff and horses. With 40 horses and 12 counselors close relationships were sometimes hard to create or not at all possible.

 

On a rare occasion they were formed with the most unexpected people. We had a boy name Mike whose reputation from past years preceded him. He was 9 years old and was extremely hyper active and could wind up an entire group of children. We were told he was difficult with his parents and with his teachers too, they were investigating the possibility that he had attention deficit disorder. The counselors all wished me luck with this tough case. Dreading it I entered the session never dreaming I would witness the power of a horse work on such a difficult child.

 

The first few days were the disaster I expected them to be.  I tried to reach Mike and help him to pay attention, I wanted all the children to have fun and not feel like they were in boot camp. Nothing I tried seemed to work. On the third day I put Mike on one of our old predictable named Dakota.  Dakota was a horse we rented from a dealer for the summer camp.  He was a bombproof old quarter horse. At approximately 15 hands high he was a classic example of the old time quarter horse. I must admit to this point I had barely noticed this gelding other than that he was chestnut with four stockings and a blaze and a permanent grouchy expression on his face. 

 

After placing Mike on this horse I began to notice Dakota’s expression was somewhat less cranky Mike had nice soft hands that didn’t bounce the bit like some other kids. I noticed immediately that Mike was paying attention to me. Every thing I said was internalized and completed with full attention. Was I onto something here? After this first lesson I noticed if I had Dakota, I had Mike’s attention. After that I brought Dakota everywhere I could as my example horse, name that horse part, grooming, and tacking up were all done with Dakota standing quietly and all the kids paying attention.  The whole session went very smoothly and Mike was my star pupil; I made sure I made a fuss over all of his successes. His parents were delighted and I explained that it was all Dakota’s doing.

 

On the last day of camp I found Mike hugging Dakota’s neck.  For once the old horse looked somewhat happy, his lower lip was drooping and his eyes were half closed ears rather than layed back were lopped off to the side. Mike seemed to have brought the best of Dakota out too. A strange sniffling sound came from Dakota’s neck. I asked Mike what was wrong. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes,  “Who’s going to look after him now that I am not coming back?” Having left a few favorite horses behind myself I knew the heart break he was feeling. I cut a small piece of hair out of Dakota’s tail and gave it to Mike as a keepsake.   “I will take care of him,” I promised.

 

All summer I thought about my promise to this boy. And in the last two weeks of camp when the rented horses would be going back I convinced my boyfriend that we should take this horse as a companion for my horse. To my astonishment he agreed. I called the dealer and although he wouldn’t sell me Dakota (Unfortunately a horse as quiet as Dakota and the size to carry an adult is priceless in the horse rental business) He did allow me to take him to my farm and keep him for the winter, which I did. Although Dakota never became really friendly with us he did become fast friends with my gelding and the two would play like foals for hours at a time.  Having made the mistake of putting a western saddle on him one time, we decided he must have been a gaming horse in his past life, while he was quiet in English tack, he still had some get up and go when he felt the western tack on his back.  He was certainly not a packer then!

 

One day I noticed he was having a hard time swallowing. I felt around his mouth figuring he must have something stuck in there, but I couldn’t find anything. I went inside and called the vet. The vet said it sounded like he was choking and he was on his way but in the meantime to reach into his mouth as far as I could to see if I could find something.

 

I went back out rolled my sleeve past my elbow took hold of Dakota’s tongue and reached back… way back… almost up to my elbow down his throat… I found it! He had gotten a small twig about the width of my finger stuck back there! I pulled it out. Dakota just stood there shocked and if a horse could say thank you, he would have. He looked into my eyes and nuzzled my hand and watched as I walked all the way back to the house to call the vet, and was still watching the door as I called the vet. It seemed to me that he was exuding gratitude. The next day he was like an overgrown lap dog and wanted scratches and pets and love, completely out of character from the horse that most of the time studiously ignored us. Dakota did return to a somewhat less grumpier form of himself after that day.

 

 At the start of the summer I begged to buy this special horse again, but it was not to be. I wanted to take Dakota back again after camp that year but mid way through the summer his heaves made it so he couldn’t work there anymore. The dealer moved him on to another job. We never saw him again, though I heard he had gone to be a trail horse. I keep my eyes open for him, but I will likely never see this old guy again.

 

Although that was my last year at camp I was told Mike did return to camp the following year and as I understand it became fast friends with another horse and had another successful camp. His parent’s felt he had grown up very much and had done better in school, they no longer felt he had attention deficit disorder. I am sure they never drew the connection but I always felt Dakota may have started this boy on the track to success.

 

One thing I can say for sure, no matter what other horses come into my life no matter how fancy, talented or friendly, I will never forget the plain grumpy old quarter horse; who won the heart of a troubled boy and reminded me where this passion for horses all started.   Lise LeMay

CHILD’S NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT HIS IDENTITY.

 

 

 

Rosepine Ranch | Equine Consultant

Tags: ADD, Canada, equine therapy, great horse story, Horse camp, horse rescue, horse therapy

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