This photo is of Yuka from Japan, with our miniatures Dom and Blondie.
Even with her very new and limited English back then, Yuka understood what I was asking her to do and “got” the connection to listen to our miniature pony Dom, instantly. The first thing she heard was “I hate you.”
That shocked me, because even with some of the terrible things that I had done to Bobby, he never said that to me. I am not sure if what I think when I hear those words is exactly what Yuka meant (language can get in the way of understanding sometimes) – but the point is Dom was definitely NOT happy.
And he wasn’t happy because the first thing that Yuka did when she saw the ponies, was run up to them saying “ahhh… they’re so cute!” And she scared the pants off little Blondie, Dom’s best friend because she came in to them so fast. Thus the reason that Dom was not happy.
Yuka was our first official WWOOF’er (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and a city girl from Japan. She didn’t know the back end of a horse from the front end and even with no knowledge of horses whatsoever (I don’t think she had even seen a live horse before) Yuka understood the basic concepts of listening to the horses in her first day here and then spent the rest of her two weeks developing her skills and confidence.
This photo was taken in her second week I think.
How cool? It’s a huge vote of confidence and incredible trust for a horse to lay down with you.
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