Expert Richard Jontry, Phd

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Thousands of years ago young Alexander the Great convinced his dad to buy him a young black stallion if he could ride it, even when he was throwing all other riders. Alex hopped aboard, rode into the sun, and returned after sunset (probably just as the owner of the horse was about to BBQ his dad). Obviously Bucephalus overcame his fear of shadows, because he became Alex's trusted war mount. (Until the day he was mortally wounded and carried Alex away from battle before dying. Alex named the site after him >sniff<.)

I've just recently taken my green broken filly outdoors to ride her. My 3 yr old filly isn't throwing me, but she really hates to lose site of her shadow, in case it suddenly jumps back into the edge of her field of vision again. (Her only main fear in life are those velocity vectors, like people coming around the corner of a building. She's fine with plastic (food source), large objects (could hold food), and smaller animals (might be edible if we stomp on it to catch it). She doesn't fear horses or people, just biting flies and shadows -- anything that suddenly jumps at her from the side (or bites her on the underside).

Other than repeated exposure to them, how do I convince her that shadows aren't evil? Her hangup sort of upsets trotting in a straight line/turning near sunset (when it's cool enough to ride after work). She's fine if I jog alongside her -- now the (shorter) shadow can chew on me first.

It's definitely the shadows, because I can ride her during overcast conditions (normal in Michigan) and there's no problem. She starts acting up, and sure enough, I see our little friends the shadows coming at us at an angle. The clouds usually aren't right at the horizon, so SUDDENLY there are shadows just as the sun sets.

Any suggestions?

Regards, A-----

Answer

‘One day, not long after settling the problem of the sun and the moon
and which as more important, the wise men of Chelm made a discovery. "Maybe the sun isn't as important as the moon. But we can still use it to tell time!"
So they had Chaim the carpenter build them a sundial.
Oh, what a beautiful sundial that was, so beautiful that people used to stop to see what time it was even when they didn't really need to know.
But the sky can't always be sunny. One day a storm came along. Rain poured down on the sundial.
"Oh no," cried the people, " The sundial is getting wet. We can't let our beautiful sundial get wet."
The wise men of Chelm held a meeting. They talked about the problem of the sundial getting wet, and they thought about it for long hours. At last they reached a decision.
What did the people of Chelm do? Why, they hired Chaim the carpenter
to build a roof over the sundial, of course!'

Dear A-----, Aside from riding your green broken filly under a roof all the time, there are other solutions. First, she is clearly not "owning" her own shadow if she is frightened by everyone elses. She does not yet realize that if there were no light, there would be no shadow, and I doubt if you can always ride her in the dark.
Therefore, I suggest you bring to her attention the necessity of making friends with her own jumpy shadow, as well as other sudden shadows.
Since she seems to really enjoy eating, you might consider having the shadows feed her. In ancient lore feeding monsters is the accepted way of becoming friends with them.
Be creative. Attach food to the pesky shadow figures, and they will soon be friends.
Please let me know how this works.

Richard I Jontry, Ph.D


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