More Cowbell. More Confidence.

The first weekend in March, Autumn and I attended a bomb proofing and bonding clinic with horseman Michael Martin.  What is a bomb proofing and bonding clinic?  It is a two day clinic where you literally scare the living hell out of your horse and see if they still like you by the end of it.  Why would I want to freak my horse out to prove that she still wants to hang out with me by the end of it?  It is rather simple.  If something out of my control frightens her I want her to know that I will face that danger and make sure that she is safe. 
Michael explained that if our horse was to get frightened by something that we were to literally stand and face that fear.  For instance, if I were on the ground it would be up to me to get in between the scary object and Autumn and stare it down until it wasn't seen as a threat anymore.  I was struck by the fact that I was not supposed to look at Autumn to calm and reassure her.  The way Autumn sees it, if I'm not watching that scary thing coming at us, who was?  A few times during the clinic when she was nervous she would stand behind me like an 1850 pound little girl hiding behind her mom. It made me feel great that she felt that safe standing behind me. 

The first thing Michael had us do was to make what he called a "human arena".  All the spectators and riders stood in a large circle, some with their horses, holding a whip.  One participant then went into the center of the circle, took their horse's halter off and set them loose.  The horse was then chased off from their owner.  Any time that horse came close to the edge of the circle it would be shooed off.  The idea was for the horse to figure out that the safest and most comfortable place to be was with their owner in the center of the arena.  It took some horses longer then others to  return to their owners.  My heart melted when a horse finally joined back up with their owner and followed them without a halter.  Autumn was pretty cute, she didn't even want to move away from me when they went to shoo her off. After some heated whipping she slowly moseyed off to the edge of the circle to say hi to everyone.  With everyone confused on what to do with this giant, happy, unthreatened horse with a bow in her forelock ignoring the snapping whips, I called her back to me.  Autumn came back to me for her pets and followed me back to the circle as my heart swelled with love for her.

Ron with a tornado of fury on his back...actually, a leaf blower

 Micheal, his wife Pam and their right hand man Ron then  transformed the arena into an obstacle course of horsey terror.  They blew us with a leaf blower and chased us with the deadly plastic bag.  We had to walk through hanging tarps and over tarps littered with crunching bottles, jugs and crinkling plastic bags.  We had to walk over logs, climb over platforms, balance over a teeter totter.  Autumn had to  sniff a bear rug and llama fur and trot with the American flag waving at her side.  Then we totally got medieval when they broke out the foam swords to storm the castle.

Meanwhile, over the P.A. system they played "scary" sounds...babies crying, honking cars, dogs barking, sirens, construction work sounds and they even broke out the bag pipes.  Yes, bag pipes.  Michael Martin was showing no mercy.  There was one more thing to make sure our fever of fear was cured and that prescription was more cowbell.  Anytime, we completed a hard task we had to wack on that cowbell and have it ring out across the land that we were not afraid.  I have to admit, between the bag pipes honking over the  P.A., horse's freaking out all around us while trying to complete the obstacle course my nerves were starting to get a bit fried.  In all that commotion it dawned on me that Autumn and I were doing great.  I wasn't worried about her spooking.  My concern was protecting her and keeping her safe and she knew it.

When the horses in the arena seemed to have a handle on the obstacle course, Michael had us head outside for the grand finale.  He had us get off our horses, gave us some instructions, walked across the field and opened fire. He fired off a few rounds of blanks from his pistol.  Autumn danced around a bit.  I just kept her moving and kept my cool.  Before I knew it she was dragging me around to  graze and could care less about the noise.  By the second day of the clinic I was in the saddle gun slinging.

To bid us farewell, they threw a few smoke bombs at us.

Ready for battle.

At the end of the clinic I felt like I had a war horse beneath me.  A war horse that trusted her rider, believed in her and would go anywhere for her.  That great feeling was accomplished in only two days with a whole lot of cowbell.

Word!



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