To understand my amazement in Red Man's interaction with people, you have to know the whole story; from the first day we met, up to the present day. There is two years to cover and countless memories to relieve, but it is well worth it, so let's get started.
~The Day We Met -- The Day We Moved~
The first time I met Red Man he was a much different horse than he is now, back then he was closed off, unreachable. He had wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, turning away and fleeing whenever I, or anyone for that matter, approached. Skittish was putting it extremely mildly, he seemed terrifide. But there was something about him that screamed 'please don't give up on me', so I didn't, I tried for hours to get near him, failing everytime. Red stayed his same evasive self for a long time, so long that I almost gave up hope several times. But then we had a break through.
He aproached the fence slowly and cautiously, almost like he was fighting the urge to turn and run, but finding the treat in my hand to appealing to do so. After what seemed like an eternity of holding my breath and stay still as a statue, I felt him warm breath on my open palm. But the moment was short-lived as he snatched the treat before fleeing to the rear of the small pasture. Yet to my amazement, after several minutes he returned in pursuit of another treat. We repeated this process of eat and retreat for over an hour, before I called it quits for the day, wanting to end on a high note as he munched on the final treat.
A few months later we took another huge step in the right direction. He approched the fence, as was custom when I has treats, but this time instead of fleeing once he had his prize, he remained nearthe fence as he gobbled up the treat. I was elated to see him making such process, amazed that he had chosen to remain near me throughout my entire visit. He even got more confident, reaching over the fence trying to get some more goodies. Maybe some would call it the begining of a bad habit, but not me, I saw it as a giant leap in the right direction.
A few months later the end of a relationship lead to the oppurtunity of a life time for me and Red Man: we were packing up and moving. Well at least I was packing and Red was moving, to a new farm that is. Little had I know that getting him out of his herd was all that was needed for Red Man to prove who he really was. From what his previous owners told me, he had trailered with no problems and they had even got a halter on him; something we all had thought impossible. That drive to the new farm was probably the most nerve-wracking drive of my entire life.
But he was and always will be worth all that worry and work and then some. Because he has become so much more than we ever expected, and I couldn't ask for anything more.
