It was pouring rain, as it has been for weeks, and I stepped into the stall next to Bellis to escape. She knocked her forehead into my elbow 3 times very meaningfully, "No standing around, feed us."
Even Hartmut has not been by these past 3 days, due to the rain.
Our pasture has a river running between the two hills, grey with churning.
Two lovely photos showed up on facebook today and I want to share them because they're Mag's family.
What does it mean for a horse to have soft eyes? Is it an emotion or is it all the time?
I know what soft eyes are in centered riding, it's the concept of unfocusing on a specific point and allowing your vision to go wide, which the horse immediately feels in his back.
I remember a vet at an endurance ride. The straight-B vet if you know him (lol). Before he began Baasha's exam he turned to me, "My, but he has soft eyes!"
I didn't know what that meant but I took the compliment.
This is Penitent, of Mag's P line. I cannot be sure but it looks to me as if the horse is not shaved down to the skin on his face, but naturally so. How can his eyes be so big naturally? Can the modern show ring learn something? I also love the white halter cuz I'm the only person I know putting white tack on white: ) He, like Bandos, was built like a brick house, as they say.
Today I found this photo and couldn't help but think, what soft eyes, and ....are they like, purposefully batting their eyes at the camera like kids today pursing their lips and looking becoming as they take multiple selfies? Soft eyes, yes. On purpose for the camera? I ask myself.
As I browsed my cloud I found these old photos of me and Mag running around in the Summer, and it made me so happy to see, I have to share them again.
Reinforcing the idea that Mag's greatest pleasure is to run around with me, making me feel guilty that I'm not actually a professional halter-horse trainer and cannot let him do his favorite thing in front of an audience in Aachen. *sigh* And that I'm not a jogger cuz he'd be over the moon if I ran up and down our streets with him!
I stopped to catch my breath (the photos are out of order).
Mag has eyes no "softer" than Baasha, and I think the long white eyelashes help give the impression.
If you've been reading long, you remember the day we came to this fallen tree in Wuppertal. He's still wearing a halter over a bridle cuz of lack of trust. I learned that day that I could tie him up anywhere and he'd be fine. Since he's watching a group of dog people approaching, I believe soft eyes can also apply to the alert horse. Or?
7 comments:
That dapple grey on the right is freakish looking.
To me, soft eyes in a horse means that they are alert but in a happy way. Like you would be having coffee with a friend or when you are totally relaxed. I have noticed that Carmen has soft eyes more and more these days. And she's nickering at me a lot. Which makes me think that she might actually like me. :)
I tend to agree with Teresa that soft eyes indicate a state of relaxation, in human and horse. But I also think certain breeds (notably arabs and andalusians) tend to have large round eyes that are most attributed the qualities of softness. So I believe some of it has to do with conformation.
Also, in shows and in professional pictures, oil is often rubbed around the eye to give it a heightened expression of softness. So pictures are not the best way of identifying a soft eye.
As for relaxing your eye, relaxes your horses back ... ummm ... I guess anything that prompts relaxation and deep breath in the human might relax the horse as well?
On another note, could you ride in your paddock?
Yes, relaxation, also dare I say "happiness" or at least "contentedness"? When all is right with the world...for some horses, it's an easy State to reach, because they are naturally mellow and happy. Others (Mara) not so much!
The Dragon's eye gets soft when she looks at kittens, or baby humans. Here's my favorite "soft-eye" photo of her (not grey, nor Arab, nor oiled!):
https://pin.it/dks43ixcoiep2t
It was taken as we walked into a lake at the Caribou Gold Rush ride, about mile 20. A pretty day, not too warm or too cold, soft trail, and she was taking care of me (this was pre-hip replacement), so it was essentially all of her favorite things except kittens :-)
Such beautiful horses, including yours. Love the photos of you playing with Mag. Hope the rains slow down!
Aarene, I often think of Mara, the times I walked her through the woods and she would be stiff as stone, when she wasn't trembling. Zero trust, my friend Tami told me after riding her.
Fiddle's relaxation is lovely in that photo, soft body!
KB, thank you so much! I wish I had good photos of me and Mag playing, those were just stills from a video. Maybe next Summer. Right now I feel like I'm living on a sponge. A sponge covered with a layer of black goo that even the best traction shoes cannot hold onto. The horse had a black goo coated forelock today. Like dreadlocks. I don't even bother to try anymore.
Great action shots :-) Shedding? Yes! Farah was starting to move into "full shed" mode when I was with her. Large eyes, soft, top of the list~
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