Horses and babies

It's hard to have both, but it would be harder not to

I bought Buzz when Isaiah was a baby. Everyone who knows me knows about my second baby and how neither of us slept for the first 15 months. He was small and needed me and we all just cried our way through it.

So, as one does when stretched thin, I acted on a whim and bought a quarter horse. Buzz came home spooky and nervous. He’s famous for being not-so-brave, but it was more than that. He pulled back on the fence, stamped and bucked. But I had a feeling he was a nice horse who had found himself in a bit of an emotional pickle. I liked his active brain, his handsome quarter-horse body, the way that he looked at me out of the corner of his eye like he was apologizing for his strong feelings.

I had to get to know him, so every day we walked the ranch together. I didn’t halter him, I just walked with him. Honestly, it wasn’t some stroke of brilliance, I just didn’t have time for much else, as I had a toddler and a never-sleeping baby.

So Buzz and I walked our entire ranch every day. He kept his head right next to my shoulder and his pace with mine. After a few days, he nickered at me when I came out the back door, waiting for his walk. Over time, he got less frantic. He quit rolling his eyes and pulling back when I tied him up, he started standing quietly to let me brush and tack him up.