over the past several years I feel like I have become very adept at managing my emotions. I try not to act when I’m mad. I try not to make emotional purchases, or eat because of emotions. I try to make clear decisions. I try to instigate positive emotions on a daily basis. I try to make sure that emotion does not cause me to hurt others. and selfishly I use this awareness to keep from getting beat up by my own emotion. this management has drastically improved the quality of my life. I have actually been pretty proud of myself concerning this issue. lol
well not very long ago one morning I was roping a few steers on my horse Rainstorm and he entered the corner in the wrong lead. well i became embarrassed because “his” mistakes were affecting “my” roping. well the first thing I did was jerk his mouth around until i knew that I had taught him a lesson. well then he missed the corner and entered in the wrong lead. so I jerked and spurred on him. then he crashed into the next steer. so I loped him in the left lead until I got him lathered up. well the next ten steers didn’t get much better. so then I ran the heel o matic on him “until he did it right” lol then later that night I took him and ran ten more steers and it got worse. and guess what I noticed. “my” emotion was out of control. what? me? this is my specialty. by the time I had cooled off I felt terrible. Rainstorm is a badass horse. I literally went outside with a brush and spent the next 30 minutes trying to apologize to him. How do you apologize to a horse? I didn’t know.
well the next morning I was hell bent on treating my horse right and with respect. I took my spurs off as a sign to him. I ran 14 steers on him that morning, and let me tell you that the first five were pretty rough because he was so nervous. but I kept my word and continued making gentle corrections and our last 7 or 8 steers were just beautiful runs. I have been sticking with this method for a while now and I finally feel like I have a partner now instead of a slave.
I thought I was so much further along as far as emotions were concerned but this awakening let me know that I have lots of growing to do. why would I treat my horse this way? I would never treat a person that way. Now I use my relations with my horses to measure where I truly am emotionally. how do you treat your horses? do you take your internal life out on your horses? everyone thinks that they do things the “quiet way” but be honest, where are you really concerning this issue?
I think that there is a direct correlation between how we honestly treat our horses and where we are in our emotional lives. my wife says that there is direct relationship between how men treat their horses and how they treat their women, (oh shit) lol growth can be humbling
thanks for listening love and laughter aaron jensen
