How to Talk to Horses

 Chloe had even ever noticed him to begin with. I thought perhaps she meant Stella, who had left on the trailer earlier that day for a day trip.

However when I described Stella as a bay horse, Debbie said it wasn’t her. She continued to reference a big change in the barn and a horse leaving. I just had no clue what she was talking about and honestly was disappointed that after 10 years together this was the best that Chloe could do. I cringe when I recall saying to Debbie, “Oh typical, Chloe. Not giving me what I want from her.”

Looking back, with the new information gained just 15 minutes after my phone conversation with Chloe, and my taking the time to process everything, Chloe was giving me exactly what I was asking from her. I, as perhaps is typical, just wasn’t listening.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am guilty of humanizing Chloe. I want her to think like me. I wanted her to tell me a story. But at the end of the day, she is a horse. She can’t think in terms of stories or complex thoughts. She feels and thinks in the present. So when I asked her for proof, she gave me 3 things that were in the moment, things that if I were there I could verify.

Her eye WAS watering, it was irritating to her in that exact moment. The horse who she was in the pasture with during my phone call, IS stiff and sore in her right hind hock. And unbeknownst to me, at the exact time of my phone call, there was a big change occurring in the barn. A horse did leave. A horse that was not a bay.