Safety Dance

Max and I went pretty OK today, mostly, aside from a storm in a teacup, or a tempest in an enclosed space!

I had planned to ride him out into the world, but I do now tend to give him a lunge on a large circle first, just to take the edge off him a bit. This has been working well for us so far, warms us both up because I have do do lots of quick walking and jogging along, too.

But alas, we have low flying helicopters doing manoeuvres over our area again. Caught out a rider yesterday and her mount is about as bombproof as they come on our yard. Luckily they were on their way home on the lane, and ned was a pretty brave boy, considering. The girl came back to the yard in a bit of a tizz and said she heard the noise, and then this massive helicopter just loomed over them over the hedge. "So low! I could see the pilot's face! He had blue eyes!"

I had just been parking up at the time of this helicopter pass, and thought "What the hell?" the noise was unreal, and I couldn't see what was happening, but I thought my little truck was falling apart.

Crazy stuff, and very similar to what happened to Max and me a year or so back when I had him out in hand. A grey, overcast day, I could hear the noise of the blades whirring, but couldn't work out where it was coming from. Then beaming headlights over the hedge, very low helicopter, could see the pilot clearly, and Max turned into the Tasmanian devil on the end of his lead rope. He went every which way but loose (thankfully) and I remember thinking, very calmly, "This could be it" as I braced myself to be run over and trampled by Max gone mad.

I was tucked into myself, praying and then... nothing. I looked up at Max, standing at some distance, snorting and completely freaked out, but still with me, and still connected to me by his lead rope. He was ridgidly tense, coiled, but there; eyes on me for reassurance, but ready to run.

It was one of the most frightening experiences I ever had, but also a heartbreaking, heart swelling moment. Heart broken that my boy was so terrified and I couldn't explain and tell him there was no danger to him, and heart swelling because despite every instinct in him to forget everything else and run, he'd stuck with me, he hadn't hurt me or even jarred me in his terror, and was now standing, trembling, looking to me for guidance.

I know they have to do this low flying stuff for pilot practice (for search and rescue, they told me, when I wrote to them) but it's so scary when it's happening, and I just wonder about kiddies out on their ponies, let alone the rest of us. You can have the most brave-hearted horse ever, who will plod out in all weather, stare down all manner of weirdness and commotion on a hack, but a low flying helicopter is another creature all together. You're off the map. Here be monsters!

Advice from the MOD is to wear reflective clothing, because if the pilot can see you, he'll take evasive action. And oh yes, there' a toll free number you can call every morning to see if low flying is on the cards for your area.

Call me haphazard, but I don't think to call the MOD hotline every morning to see if it's safe for me to venture forth on my trusty steed.

So today, there we were, Max and me, in the indoor school doing our warm up lunge. I had turned the sprinklers on for ten minutes to get the dust down, and we were going along fine, until another helicopter. It sounded like the school was going to come tumbling down on top of us.

Max went loopy, but in a contained way. I didn't have to drop the line, because he went in circles around me, while I talked soothingly to him. I tried to get him to stop, but he wasn't having it.

He looked magnificent though, I have to say. Really high stepping, tail out like a flag (the Arab comes out in him at times like this and you would think he was a different horse all together, if you saw him).

The noise faded, I finally got Max to stand, and walked up to him, patting his neck and forcing myself to be really laid back, voice calm.

"Nothing to be afraid of here, sir. See? It's OK. I'd tell you if it wasn't."

"Fear, fire, foe?"

"Nope, just noise. Just you and me. Safe. Completely safe."

"Sure?"

"Absolutely sure."

We carried on for a bit after that, but even the noise of the sprinkler's water tank refilling had him on edge and he just kept this mad Arab extended trot going,tail aloft, snorting and eyes out on stalks.

He was beautiful, and I loved the beauty of him, but didn't like what had produced it.

"Sssh, Max. Calm. Promise it's ok. Listen to me. Safe."

"No! The world is not safe! Take cover! Hide! Run then hide!"

Decided to call it a day when we had a bit of hush from the water tank.

Max was all frothed up and truly it would do neither of us any good for me to be in the saddle and try to coax him out and about after all that. Yeah, I could have done it for sure, but wise? Pleasant? No.

So we wandered over to the school door, and I opened it wide. Max stood for ages looking at the view, assessing it, deciding whether it was safer out there or in here.

He eventually stuck his head down to snatch at the grass, and I said "Oi! We don't eat while we're working! If you're happy to eat, then you can walk on, young man."

Back into the yard and had a sponge down and some carrot stretches, then an almighty big apple which got him all frothing with apple juice drips and pretty much ecstatic expression of pleasure on that face, to replace the fear and high alert that had been there moments before.

Then out into his field to play with the Boss, who was waiting for him.

I hope that tomorrow I can get through the yard work fast enough to take him for a round the block hack before I leave for the surgery and show him the world isn't always scary.

Don't care who thinks I'm lame for not attempting to ride him out this afternoon. I will always take my cue from Max, listen to his opinion and assess his comfort zone.

That's my view, and I'm sticking to it!