My Puzzle Pearl

I was absorbed in my own thoughts in the pasture when I felt a light touch on my sleeve.  I turned to find my three-year-old Fell Pony mare Pearl beside me.  As I stroked her and scratched her in her favorite places, she pricked her ears forward and stood still and relaxed, seeming to truly enjoy our time together.  This exchange was a thrill for me because Pearl has been a bit of a puzzle, a good kind of puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless.

The last thing her breeder told me about Pearl when I decided to bring her home was that she lays her ears back but she hasn’t ever done anything mean.  I was somewhat surprised to hear this because I hadn’t seen the behavior when I’d been with her in her herd there.  But after bringing her home, I quickly became familiar with that expression on Pearl’s face, and her breeder was right; she wasn’t doing it out of meanness.  In time I came to understand it as an expression of unconfidence.  Then a friend said that that sort of expression of unconfidence is relatively common in equines yet often misunderstood.  I completely understand why.

While it was easy to think that Pearl’s laying her ears back was a communication of aggression, my instincts told me otherwise. 
Nonetheless, I watched her turn her butt to the other mares and kick at them, but with a fence in between.  Then I found out that when she was turned in with the other mares, it was the other way around – Pearl was getting the kicking rather than giving it.  She put up a tough girl look that really wasn’t representative of her nature.  She has shown me that treating her as though she’s being aggressive isn’t a way to make progress.

I figured that in time as Pearl got to know me and my ways of communicating with her, she would come around, and I was right.  Now I’m able to ask a little more of her in our ground work, and with that has come an increased understanding of what I expect.  And also with that has come the small uptick in her confidence that is expressed by her approaching me for attention and putting her ears forward when she’s with me.

We still have much work ahead of us to get her confidence even close to that of my other mares.  For instance, one evening when I really needed Pearl to come to me to be haltered, she instead ran off, costing me a sleepless night and veterinary bills when another pony ran after her and had a close encounter with a fence that I wish they hadn’t had.  I have dug down deep to not blame Pearl, and it really helped when she touched my sleeve as a reminder that she’s trying.  And my other mares are a daily reminder that in time Pearl and I will get to the type of relationship that I want and need with my ponies.  In the meantime I will enjoy solving the puzzle of Pearl.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020