The Look of Eagles: a Guide to the Feisty Horse

I always say that Courage poses dramatically. It's his version of a vice.

any excuse to use this picture

On more than one occasion, I've been told he has the "look of eagles" that you hear old-time horseman talk about. It makes sense when I think about it--in a lot of ways, Courage is one of the bravest horses I've been around. He is afraid of nothing. He'll occasionally startle, less frequently actually spook. He always wants to understand a situation and once he understands, he's unflappable. Spooking isn't his problem. OPINIONS are his problem.

In short, he exudes character out of every pore of his very-fine body.

when your friend doesn't know you're taking ass shots

That can be a good thing--early on in our tenure at our current barn, I was riding outside on a windy day. As we approached the gate of the arena, a GIANT tarp flew straight up in the air above our heads about ten feet in front of us. I prepared for last rites, but Courage didn't even blink.

Tarps aren't scary.

But character doesn't exist in a vacuum either. It's not secret that Courage LOVES his Eskadron bandage liners. I bought him sweet XC boots that are air-ventilated with non-slip lining. Pretty great idea right?

super cool boots

WRONG.

Guess who hates non-slip interiors with every fibre of his sculpted body?

Yeah he bucked more in his one attempt wearing these than I've seen him do in the rest of his life together. Put him back in polos and liners, BAM, bucking gone.

matching game on point

It's no secret how sensitive Courage is--I've gone on and on about how if I drag my shit to the barn, he will promptly lose his. This year, I've worked very hard on zen-master status, but Courage has taken to reminding me that he has shit too, and he'll flip it just whenever he pleases.

You doubt? I went to catch Courage out of his field the other day, which is something we do every.single.day. with zero issues. He ate the cookie I offered, then flung his head up and FLEW backwards like I was a horrible horse abuser.

I didn't react.

Then he walked off, flicking his ears back at me.

I talked to my friend and didn't look at him.

He walked a fifteen meter circle and stopped at the furthest point from me.

I chatted and laughed with my friend about her horse.

He walked between us, stopped square, and looked DIRECTLY at me.

We pretended he wasn't even there.

He walked forward and stopped a little closer to me.

I took one slow step towards him.

He pinned his ears and moved off briskly.

I went back to chatting with my friend.

He stopped on the far edge of his circle and looked at me.

After about 10 minutes of his YOU CANT CATCH ME CUZ WILD STALLION PLZ CHASE antics, he walked right up to me, I haltered him, and we went to work.

In every line of his body, you could see him waiting for me to get mad, chase him, give him ANY excuse to go flying around like a lunatic.

yeah i cherry picked a better shot

It was basically the same routine under saddle. He had decided that he wanted to pick a fight, so he blew sideways (because trotting omg) and DARED me to do something about it. I didn't kick. Didn't pull. Didn't react. Just kept posting around the circle.

It wasn't our best work ever. Trotting on a floppy rein with his nose poked out is not wildly attractive, BUT you know what he didn't do?

Flail. Bolt. Spin. Rear. Or even buck.

yeah not posting a shot from going right

It's taken over a year, but we finally got through a day of OPINIONZ without any major theatrics or trainer rides to prevent them. That. Is. Huge. Last year, he couldn't have kept it together. Last month, I couldn't have ridden through it without having a full personal meltdown. Instead of giving up on each other, we've just kept trying and figuring each other out.

It's still not always pretty, but we got it done. The "look of eagles" comes at a cost and maybe finally, he's decided that he can trust me a little, even when he doesn't want to, and things will still be ok.