In the moment...

I don't know what to make of anything right now. I was watching Sammie yesterday, so happy to have his head in between RI and her trainee, who were sitting either side of the patch of grass he was munching on after our lesson.

Trainee was idly playing with his forelock and RI was giving his head the odd scratch as she chatted away. Neither had any feeling that he might do anything harmful, you could just tell by how relaxed they were with him.

Sammie just looked so relaxed, as if he was meant to be there. It's hard for me to remember sometimes what he used to be like when he first came into my life, and then see him as he was today; it seems like the Sammie I see now is just the Sammie he's always been. Relaxed, comfortable in his space, master of his domain. No hint of any baggage.

When I got him back to the yard I ground tied him (just his lead rope dangling on the floor). He had all four of us (YO, RI, trainee and me) moving around him, busy with our stuff, and again he just looked so relaxed, accepted all the buzz around him, was not perplexed or alarmed by an of it.

Trainee went up to give him some fuss which he welcomed. He had people walking in front and behind him and he couldn't have given two hoots about it. Not wary at all, just watching the goings on with curiosity and interest.

In fact he was being so good that YO offered him a bit of her Cadbury's chocolate finger, but he wasn't too keen on that so it was swiftly replaced with a carrot which was much, much better!

It gives me so much pleasure to see people interacting with him in this way. When I first got him, everybody was so wary of him and would avoid handling him if they possibly could. He was not a horse that people would feel inclined fuss or be too close too because he was deemed unpredictable.

It just struck me today how much softer he has become. How much happier he can be in the company of humans (well, the right sort of humans anyway)

I've always thought of him (maybe wrongly) as a horse with behavioural issues, but today, nobody would have said he had any issues at all. He just looked like a regular horse that had led a quiet and regular life, always treated with kindness and respect, nothing to raise suspicion.

I guess it's because others didn't see him at the very beginning - a broken horse, totally closed down and so angry. When people see him like he was today, they can't see his past, what I know was there.

That's good I suppose, but it also means that people don't realise how far he has come.

Maybe that just has to be one of the many special things between him and me.

I know, and Sammie knows, and that's probably enough.