Scottie tells his side

"Did she actually say I was the problem??? Ok, so here's what really happened.

I lived on a big, beautiful farm in Middleburg with my mom, little brother and lot of other horses. The nice man there would ride me on a trail through the fields about once or twice every couple of months. One time he took me hunting and it was a lot of fun.

The man who owned me bought my mom, a registered Irish Draught, in Ireland. He did not know I was going to be born until after they came home. So there I came, and I looked Belgian. Well, I guess he only wanted race horses at this point, so he decided to sell me.

This is where Loretta came in. She came to visit several times before taking me home. I think she was a little intimidated by my size, but she said she liked my eyes.

Ok, here's the part where you find out SHE was the problem. It only took a few days for me to really settle in and make friends with Tango. He knew right away I was in charge, so no problem there. Loretta got me and took me out for a trail ride. It was very nice in the woods and wow, there was a lot to see! We went trail riding several days that week. And the next week, and the next week. Get the picture? I had barely been ridden regularly and now I had to go out all the time.

I was noticing that when Loretta was around me, she really didn't act like a leader. And when we went riding she would let me trot if I wanted to, or even canter. Hmmm, I thought, since there were only two of us horses and Tango is an old man, I quickly became his leader. Maybe I needed to be her leader too? Wow. That's a lot different from what I was used to. I never had to make real leadership decisions before and now I found myself doing it all the time.

Since I felt I had to be the leader, and that is a BIG, important job, I had to stay on guard and protect our safety all the time. I became very stressed out, which lead me to become extremely nervous. Soon enough, I was nervous all the time. Even when Loretta would take my saddle off and drop the girth, I thought a lion was under me trying to eat me! She didn't seem to understand this at all. I had to walk around all day with my head up looking for danger. This was a very difficult job and soon I was so nervous and upset that we could not go out riding.

I just couldn't understand why she was standing in the field, crying and calling me very mean names. I won't even repeat what she said here. I thought she realized she needed to change because she introduced me to someone that said they could help. This new person did teach me a few things, and I still remember them, but she also scared me. She never hurt me, but her actions were very abrupt, fast and startling. I was really scared and did not know what to do. Well, I guess I finally got through to Loretta because that lady stopped coming.

I'll tell Loretta I need to write more tomorrow. I have to go because I just found out there's a new pony in my field, and of course, I need to show him who's boss!


Scottie
p.s. do you want to know why she named me Scottie?
any Star Trek fans out there? Because she had to be beamed up to get on me!!!!

clear communication
visible results