Brody had stopped whinnying to me. In the paddock, he greeted me every day with his “cranky face”, ears back, nostrils wide, and tense wrinkles around his mouth. Then Friday, a full blown bucking bronco show when I waved him away from the door of the feed shed while I filled his dish. Brody was sour. How could I get him sweet again?

A week of rain had been followed by another rainy week, making the paddock footing slippery mush. We’d played on the weekends, but didn’t do too much together during the week. And when we did play, Brody wasn’t licking his lips or sighing or yawning at all. I’d lost focus and couldn’t come up with any plans that really lit my fire. I’d go out and scratch Brody’s itchy spots, groom him, feed him some treats, put a light blanket on for the night. Then a case at work got complicated, I wanted to get fall cleaning done before company came over… We were in a rut and Brody was bored.

I knew what we needed. Our connection always felt strongest after a long (at least two hours) and challenging session. We had company on Saturday, but Sunday morning the weather was perfect and the footing was firm. I set up the cones for a Figure 8, and after about ten minutes of mouthing and pawing them, Brody was ready to stick his nose through the halter. I asked Brody to maintain a trot and mixed Figure 8s and circles. He can be keenly sensitive but I managed to keep him guessing at least part of the time by making sure not to cue him too early. Doing circles, Brody picked up a canter and told me he needed to run. I let him, making sure to change directions between varying numbers of laps.

Next we worked on forequarter and hindquarter yields, then moving back away and forwards to me. When Brody got lazy, I cantered him for a bit then gave him a chance to show more effort at the slower stuff. Worked like a dream. Brody was breathing hard, licking his lips, fully engaged.

I opened the gate so we could handgraze out in the yard. The grass had grown and the gate barely opened four feet. Head high, Brody rushed through it so we went in and out around twenty times, stopping for a bite of grass between slower passes through the gate. After Brody went through calmly four or five times in a row, I let him munch on the lawn for a while.

I showered, changed, and went to visit my uncle Bill, who’s still in the hospital. On my way to the car, I called goodbye to Brody. He whinnied back. And tonight we played for another hour. We stretched to improve some more difficult exercises, like moving sideways to the left and sticking next to me as we walked with my stick resting on his withers. Brody was really into it, sighing and licking his lips as he processed the lesson. Feels great, like we’ve found our connection again!

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