{"id":30722,"date":"2021-12-03T07:03:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T07:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/marks-journey-10-3\/"},"modified":"2022-10-21T07:27:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T07:27:34","slug":"bo2-03-11","status":"publish","type":"tva_lesson","link":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/bo2-03-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark\u2019s Journey \u2013 #10"},"content":{"rendered":"

What to do When Something Changes?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For most people, you won\u2019t have to worry about getting into a serious accident or having a debilitating illness.  However, even a small accident or a few weeks out sick can cause you to be laid up for a bit.  Which means that you may not be able to see your horse for a few days or a few weeks, or even a few months.  What then?  What do you do when something happens?<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, Mark had a serious accident and a serious illness.  He slipped and fell and ruptured most of the muscles in his left leg and therefore couldn\u2019t move it at all.  It was like a marionette puppet who had just had his strings cut.  <\/p>\n

After surgery to have everything reconnected and repaired, he had to go back into the hospital due to an acute pulmonary embolism and full-blown pneumonia.<\/p>\n

He was critical for 36 hours and the doctors didn\u2019t think he was going to make it out alive.  After another 8 days in the hospital on lots of machines, he was able to leave the hospital and start convalescing.  That took another month.<\/p>\n

Once Mark had recovered from his illness and was allowed to start walking, using a walker, the first place he wanted to go was out to the horses.  He really missed being out in nature and being around the horses.  He missed not only the peacefulness, but also the love and attention (giving and getting) with the horses.<\/p>\n

It was beautiful to see how the horses reacted to him.  When I opened the pasture gate, Jazz ran past the other horses to be the first one out to see him.  He instantly knew that something was wrong and stopped.  Jazz gave me a hug and then looked at Mark and his walker.  He just stood next to me and waited for my next move as if asking me if it was ok to go see Mark.  I think he could also sense that Mark was afraid of him.<\/p>\n

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Mark was worried about how the horses would treat him and if he would be safe around them.  Not being a horse owner before, and now that he was not able to move quickly or walk properly, he was worried that he wouldn\u2019t be able to get out of their way if he needed to.  So, we only brought Jazz into the other pasture and let the others stay in the pasture next to us.  The other horses wanted to see Mark again too and they hung out with us the whole time.<\/p>\n

To help Mark feel more comfortable, I put a bucket of carrots out for Jazz to eat while Mark slowly and cautiously went to the chair to sit down.  You will see in the video that Jazz actually moved over to allow Mark to sit down and be near him.  Jazz was really happy to be able to spend time with Mark again and hang out together.  They both really missed it.<\/p>\n

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When something happens and you can\u2019t be out with your horse for a while or if the connection gets broken, for any reason, just go back to the very beginning.  <\/p>\n

The connection will come back, quickly, and stronger than before.  Jazz was very cautious around Mark and he wanted to be close within about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

When he got close he checked Mark out and became slower, gentler, and seemed very protective of Mark.  A worker came around the barn and Jazz actually got in front of Mark and stood in a very protective stance.  It was so sweet to see.  Jazz was protecting Mark just like he would protect another injured horse in the herd.  Even though he had not seen Mark in two months, Mark was still a part of his herd and his family.<\/p>\n

One thing to notice is that Jazz really wanted to have \u201chis time\u201d to check Mark out to see what was wrong and when Mark kept touching him and petting him, Jazz looked frustrated.  You\u2019ll see this half way through the video at 2:44.  It was because Mark had his time to pet Jazz and check Jazz out, in the beginning, but he didn\u2019t give Jazz \u201chis\u201d time to touch and check him out.  So remember to allow your horse time to check you out, without touching him, just as he allows you \u201cyour\u201d time.<\/p>\n

You will notice the difference when Mark gives Jazz his turn to check him out at 4:34, how happy Jazz is to have \u201chis\u201d time.  You will also notice him sniffing Mark in order to learn what\u2019s wrong with him.  <\/p>\n

The connection was tight and you could see how much they both missed each other and how happy they felt seeing each other again.  You could \u201cfeel\u201d the love!<\/p>\n

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No matter what happens, you can always go back to the beginning and start over.  Once the connection is back, go back to whatever you were doing before the \u201cchange\u201d.  Everything works out! ????<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-30722","tva_lesson","type-tva_lesson","status-publish","hentry","tva_courses-bo2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson\/30722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tva_lesson"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}