Relative Something

I’ve been meaning for some time to describe how much, and how quickly, our horse Hunter demonstrated new behavior after Dunia began training his attention and responses, upon which Cyndie and I then experienced the epiphany to re-frame how we had always perceived him.

Hunter, moving too fast for my camera positioning.

Within a single day we began to see a series of disruptions among the three chestnuts of our herd, but primarily between Hunter and Cayenne. Prior to Hunter’s new displays of confidence, he was subordinate to Cayenne. She would pin her ears back and he would submit to whatever direction she dictated.

All of a sudden Cayenne was finding she no longer had total command over Hunter. He was pushing back with emphasis. There were times during their little spats of positioning to send a message with a good swift kick, where neither would back down and the alarming dance would carry on 2 or 3 times longer than is usually needed for this sort of thing.

There wasn’t any sign of hesitation in Hunter’s decision to demand a new level of respect, despite Cayenne’s initial resistance to accepting his new assertiveness.

Giving me a bit of a smile.

Of course, such changes in individuals also makes an impact on those around them. Legacy’s leadership is usually rather subtle, but as the two younger horses continued to wrangle over their relationship, I witnessed him take some bold steps to put them both in their place and convince them to give their ongoing battle a rest for the time being.

Just as quickly as the disruptions among the herd started from Hunter’s new attitude, they settled back down. I was surprised to suddenly find Hunter and Cayenne congenially eating from the same hay feeder, at the same time! That was a first.

Soon, Hunter was doing the same thing with Legacy.

The herd is once again a “get-along-gang,” which has us very pleased. How could we think of Hunter as anything other than the champ that he is to us now?

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