![[Wild Hearts Blog: Reflections on Natural Horsemanship]](../Images/blog_top.jpg)
![[Celena and Zephyr]](../Images/celena_small.jpg)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009
Ben Meets Owl
I was out at the barn with my fifteen-month-old son, Ben, a few days ago on a day off. We were going around, playing in the dirt and with the animals. Luckily for me, Ben absolutely loves animals and the outdoors. On my days off, when I still want to go up and visit the ponies, he is always happy to accompany me and get just as dirty as he possibly can. I don’t mind – I’m just happy that he’s happy out there!
My business partner, Anna, was riding one of our horses in for training while Ben and I tottered around. We would go over and watch the horse’s progress for a little while, then go find some animals to play with. I was trying to encourage Ben to play close to the arena so I could see how the horse was going, so I pointed out a plastic owl that lives on a post beside the arena. He seemed interested, so I picked him up to have a better look at it.
Well, I’m not sure if it was the staring yellow eyes or the black beak, but my animal-loving little boy started shaking and crying, scared half to death of this fake bird. I had never seen him have that kind of reaction to anything, and I quickly moved away from the owl and reassured my son.
Once Ben had calmed down, we went back over, this time to the back of the bird where there was no scary face. I scratched the owl’s plastic body, and Ben was intrigued by the noise. I would scratch it, then suggest he scratch it.
Using this technique, we slowly moved around to the front of the owl, making the funny sound on its plastic feathers. If Ben got worried, we’d move away from the face; a few minutes later we would once again make our way towards the fierce face. Within a few minutes, Ben realized that the big staring owl wasn’t a bogeyman.
In the meantime, Anna had ridden over to the fence and was letting the horse ‘soak’ while she watched me and Ben with the owl. She started laughing, and said, “Celena, do you realized that you just desensitized Ben to that owl the way you would desensitize a horse?”
As soon as I became immersed in natural horsemanship, like many others, I recognized that the philosophy was applicable in many areas of my life. But I can’t say that I ever expected to use advance and retreat with my child!
POSTED BY CELENA AT 6:52 PM POST A COMMENT
CATEGORIES: ANNA, APPLYING NH, HORSEPEOPLE - A BREED OF OUR OWN, MY FAMILY
![[Share this page]](../Images/share.gif){kind=small}