Mr. Moonie a.k.a Poopy Pants is one special boy. He lives at Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue and I have been working with him as a special project. He is a special horse.
Moonbeam came to Lifesavers in 2003 along with 150 other Shoeshone wild horses. He is beautiful. His first name was Poopy Pants because he has irritable bowel syndrome. Poor guy. Always had.....well.....poop running down his legs. With an adjustment in diet, that is better, thank goodness.
Moonie, Moonbeam, Mr. Moonie, Moonie Pants, I call him many things, so don't get confused, they are all the same horse.
Moonie has had an immense amount of training, has been started undersaddle, was even shown off at the Western States Wild Horse and Burro Show. He is a spectacular mover, very fancy. Moonie is also the most challenging horse I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
It is a pleasure because he will make me better. He has so much to teach me. Moonie sees absolutely no use for an equine/human relationship. He really doesn't see much use for an equine/equine relationship either. He wants you to believe that he is strong and secure and doesn't need you. But inside, you can see that he is unconfident and at times even fearful.
I am working hard to find the "want" in him. I want him to see purpose in allowing me to be his leader, to trust in me. I have been working with him for about a month or so. It's going slow, but it is going.
I worked with this special boy yesterday, and for the first time from the beginning of your play session, he "wanted" to. He had more try in him than I have ever seen before and it brought tears to my eyes.
Now clearly, having been started under saddle and shown, he halters and leads all those things. But I have chosen NOT to halter him yet. When you go to catch him, he sort of spaces out and tolerates you haltering him. I want him to WANT me to halter him. I want him to WANT to be with me. Yesterday was the first time I saw him truly WANT to be with me, but was too afraid. He tried so hard to please me, it was very overwhelming.
I would ask him to touch me, and he would take a few steps towards me, then, wanting to come forward more, but unable to, he would take a few side steps. Then not wanting to disappoint me, he would touch something in the arena, a cone or something, and then look at me with the softest most curious eyes, as if to say, "look at what I can do, aren't you proud" . I was proud. It was the first time he was truly looking to me for praise, and reassurance.
He never did touch me yesterday, but that doesn't matter. For the first time, he WANTED to touch me. For now, I count my blessings, and realize that alone, was a huge gift, and a gift that Mr. Moonie Pants doesn't give easily.
What a special horse this is.
Tags: Reservation Mustang
