Power of Motivation

My baby horse turned 2 on the 5th of March. Hard to believe it has been 2 years already, but yes she's not a baby anymore. It's always interesting to see their personalities develop and to see them come into their own. "Jinxy" as she is known, is an independent little stinker with a very strong mind of her own. My brother Gord and I are the schmucks who feed her, and occasionally get some attention for our troubles. My brother Jake however, is an entirely different matter. Jinx knows the sound of his truck. When he pulls in, she runs to the fence and calls to him. He in turn calls to her, which revs her up for pets and scratches. I remember once, I was riding the quad out in the field. Jinx chased me down, and when she realized I wasn't Jake, she got the most disgusted look on her face and stomped off with out so much as a backward glance. Bottom line, Jinx LOVES Jake. He is her person. And he can do pretty much anything with her. He talks to her like she's a person and she eats it up. Which brings us to the power of motivation. She wants to please him. To that end, she has learned many things more or less by accident one would assume improbable. Case in point, the other day a couple of yearling calves got out of the fence they were supposed to be in. Jake was at the farm with my dad. My dad is 74 yrs old, so his days of running across an icy field chasing cows have reached their twilight (if only he would admit it). So it fell to Jake to get the calves back where they were supposed to be on his own with the help of the dog. Not impossible, but can be tricky. Or so he thought. Keeping in mind that horses love to be the boss over cattle, and that Jinx loves Jake, she had them cornered in another part of the paddock. When Jake told her (as a joke mostly) to move them to another place... lo and behold she did. If that wasn't enough, when he got the gate he needed open he told her to bring them up. You guessed it, she did. And since he didn't want her in the corral they were in, he said "Wait there". Believe it or not, she waited at the thresh hold for him to close the gate, all the while keeping a guarded eye on the offending calves should they try to make a second break for it. Upon completion of her hard work, she was rewarded with the much coveted attention. Scratches, hugs, and a horsey cookie. She has proven that if you want something, hard work and have a willingness to overcome communication limitations, you will get you what you want. If an animal can use empathy, motivation, and a willingness to learn to develop very useful skills, what is stopping the rest of us.