The Woman Broke Horse...

Women take a lot of flak for being soft on a horse. Kissing and pampering, treat giving and cooing, it all comes under the dismissive term 'woman broke.' The other day I was at a roping, and I had entered on the heel end for the first time on my grey horse, Hombre. Now I know Hombre is a bit too type A for the heel end. There is absolutely nothing about this horse that likes to lay back and wait for his turn to jump into action. He is a front man. A gunner. He likes to move first and let the other guys follow. So when the announcer said we'd burn one before the roping, I jumped into the heeling box. All the way down the arena, Hombre was mad. He doesn't like complications, and waiting for that header to make his catch, was a big, stupid complication! And then the header had the audacity to miss! My goodness, that was a huge annoyance. Hombre had a little temper tantrum, pawing and slamming his front end up and down, so I....petted his neck.     That's right. Isn't that a terrible thing to do?     Some guy at the stripping chute called out mockingly, "Good boy...gooood boy..." Clearly making fun of me for praising my ill behaved mount.      For some reason, this fellow felt he had the right to judge my horsemanship. His opinion of such, really is neither here nor there, but I have to admit it made me grit my teeth a little.     You see, I had two choices in that moment when Hombre was feeling emotional; I could reach down and soothe him, let him know I wasn't going to meet emotion with emotion, or I could go to war with him.      I chose the first one and my horse settled down, working better and better every trip, and we ended up winning the roping.     Had I chosen the second one, we'd still be locked in battle and hating on one another, and Hombre would have seen to it that I was publicly humiliated...again.     So, I guess, if that is woman broke I can live with it. I have known quite a few women over the years who could get by a pretty tough horse, and it wasn't their ego that was leading the way, it was just good, practical horsemanship, and their willingness to be kind in the face of a building storm.     I must clarify that I do not 'treat' my horses much, feeding crunchies is not my thing, and cooing doesn't come as naturally to me as cussing does, but if reaching down and rubbing a horse's neck will save me from a long drawn out melt down, then I will keep petting my ponies! Believe me, I've done it both ways, and petting is a lot easier than spurring one down.     And a bit of advice for the guy in the peanut gallery? Quote;  "It's better to say nothing and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."       Have a great day folks!