Raised In A Barn – Horses, Children, and Life Lessons

Another guest post from Eleanor D. Van Natta over at Sage By Nature. You can find more of her writing on her horse blog.

Image from marilynnm63

Sometimes the Best Lessons Are Taught By Those Equines

I have to admit that I have had more fear about – and close calls with – all the hotwire at barns than the horses, but I am still always on guard when I bring my children to a barn.

You Can’t Watch Them Every Second

These little independent and trusting humans with fast movements, often-shrill voices, and an affinity for walking behind and underneath the horse need a lot of supervision.

Being a mom of two young children as well as a horse owner, I have had my share of skipped heartbeats and caught breaths as well as moments of complete awe and brought-to-tears inspiration. All from dragging the kids to the barn with me – be they in my womb, carried on my chest, pushed in a stroller, or scariest yet, running free.

Horses Care About Their People

One of my first memories of my mommy protectiveness jumping up through my throat came when I was pregnant with my first child.

Image from theunquietlibrarian

I was leading my horse Sage back to her turnout, and we needed to go through a narrow hot wire “gate”. I unhooked the end of it and started through. All of a sudden there was a 1000 lb animal breathing down my neck and prancing in place like a Lippizan stallion.

She was scared, but all that touched me were the whiskers on the end of her velvet nose. We got through, and I sighed a huge sigh of relief after realizing how close I had just come to being trampled by a horse whose only concern is supposed to be for her own safety.

I remembered then an incident that had happened a few days earlier; going through that same gate she had come too close to the hotwire and been shocked. So somehow, and for some reason, she held herself back from racing through that gate and running me and my un-born child over.

Another endearing moment came more recently and involved my children out of the womb.

Protecting The Herd

Image from jemsweb

Sage was in pasture with a mare that she was very bonded to, and neither one of them ever appeared overly dominant to the other. My two little girls were “fishing” in the water trough, one on each side of her as she drank, when the other mare started to approach from behind.

I was only a few feet away but too far to intervene when Sage backed up quickly and whipped around to menacingly pin her ears back at the mare. Had she not backed up, and simply turned, she would have been on top of either or both girls.

So she had to have some sense of awareness of their little bodies and some concern for not stepping on them. Dare I go as far as thinking that she was protecting the little ones in her “herd” from the other mare? Protecting my foals?

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Be sure to check out Part 2.

About Eleanor

Eleanor Van Natta is a wife, a mother of two little girls, and a caretaker to one dog, one cat, and one horse. She has a Zoology degree from the University of CA, Davis, and prior to becoming a stay at home mom she had a career in environmental and pharmaceutical sales. You can find more of her writing on her website: Sage By Nature.

Read More By Eleanor
For Better or Worse – As Long As I Can Have My Horse
Learning From Wild Horses – Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.