Not Your Average Pet Sitting Job

Last week Dave and I were pet sitting for the neighbors while they were away for six days. We've done a lot of pet sitting in the past for friends...you know...normal pet sitting...feed and walk the dog, empty the cat's litter box, etc. This time it was a little different. Okay...alot different. See, the neighbors have 3 horses, a miniature cow, 6 dogs and a cat. I've been spending more time around their barn in the past few months as I'm trying to overcome some of my fears with the horses. I want to get to know their personalities a little better and be more comfortable being close to them when I'm not on their back. So, when they said they were going on vacation, I volunteered us! I'm glad to say that overall it was a good experience and I have gained a bit more confidence. Everything went pretty smoothly with the horses with a few small exceptions. The first morning, CC, the cutting mare, kind of rushed me when I went into her stall with her feed. I was trying to upright her bowl so I could pour the feed in from the pail, but she was anxious and didn't want to wait. I put my finger in her chest and asked her to back up, but she didn't. That's when I got a little nervous and decided it was best to back out of the stall and come up with a new plan. After I took a couple of deep breaths, I realized I should probably enter the stall without the feed, upright her bowl, then grab the pail of feed and go back in. That worked perfectly. When I went back in without the pail, she backed up when I asked her to and allowed me to get to her bowl. Then I grabbed the pail of feed, dumped it and we were both happy! The last night we had a little bit of a situation with Doc, the reiner, after we put his sheet on. Doc is a gelding, but tends to act like a stud! He can be kind of obnoxious, especially around those of us that are less "horsey". In any case, Dave and I decided the best way to get his sheet on him was to put his halter on and lead him out of the stall so we would have a little more room in case he spooked or acted up. Everything went fine until I turned him around so he could go back in his stall. I had lead him just a couple of feet into his stall when I started to untie the rope halter. I just assumed he would understand that I wanted him to go all the way in the stall since that was the direction we were facing and he was used to being in the stall overnight. Well, as soon as I got the rope halter untied I could feel him pulling backwards instead of going forwards. I tried to nudge him into the stall, but he didn't want to go back in so I moved out of the way. He didn't really have anywhere to go because there are chains up on the "aisles" of the barn. So, here we are standing in the aisle trying to figure out how to get him back in the stall. I probably could have put the rope halter back on him and lead him all the way in the stall, but I was a little freaked out at this point, and he was being obnoxious so I had no desire to get too close to him. In the end, Dave came up with the idea to grab some hay from the tack room and throw it in his stall. Luckily, that worked. I do need to point out that none of the horses have ever done anything that caused anyone to get hurt. It's just that I have an innate fear because I was never around horses until just a few years ago. So my adult mind rationalizes that an animal that big and strong could hurt me. And it's not even that I think they would hurt me on purpose because none of them are mean. I'm just afraid I'm going to do something wrong that's going to suprise them or spook them and I'm going to get kicked or something. But little by little, I'm getting better.