I rode a total of 50 meters this weekend...

....and led my hyperventilating mare the other 3:45 hours.

I was very excited to try out my new easyboot gloves but one of them broke immediately as I tried to put it on. The gaiter just ripped 1/3 off, the stitching coming apart as I bent it back. I’m no newbie to gaiters, and I wrote this in my return mail package. I was so incredibly bummed I just sat there staring at the horse, all my plans of actually going on a real trail ride or with friends disappeared down a spiral of disappointment.

What is going on here, why can’t I just go ride this horse?

Also, the 00.5s across the street fit perfectly, and my new ones are a real pain to get on. My man had to help. Then I remembered you can use a hammer to help if you’re a weakling like me. I rasped the hooves to make it easier, but my man said there’s no way they’ll fit in there. We had our measuring tape and her hooves seem to be 4 mm wider than the boots themselves. But they go on, so who knows.

I took Mara down an uncommon trail and saw a little creek I wanted to take her over to see if she would. The problem was there were sharp branches of fir trees poking out everywhere. I broke the one I thought might skewer her, but when she leapt the creek with an exaggerated, sky high/long jump, she took down many of those branches. I was shocked she did not lose an eye. That was a pretty bad decision but we spent a lot of time there, contemplating water in its liquid state, and I stared at the flickering sunlight reflecting off the water onto a tree for a while. I got her to walk politely over it on the way back, but she didn’t trust the other direction, leaping it massively again. OK we’d better just go somewhere else.

Right next to that scary creek is a post with several rolls of barbed wire. She’d seen it once before, but for some reason it’s even scarier now. I almost couldn’t lead her past it, so I did some lunging circles away from it, then when she got closer, I let her graze. We did this about 10 minutes, til she was standing right next to it. I was disgusted because I’m certain it will be just as scary next time.

I walked her to another stable she’d never seen, and for some reason there were no horses around! Odd. Walking along their fence line, a plowed field on the other side of us, Mara was almost airborne, she was walking so freakily. She kept her distance, but wow, she was high.

I swear, she gets no grain, and since our hay got mowed last week, she cavorts and gallops the field for the fun of it, self-exercising beautifully, hooves thundering on the ground as she loops our field. But somehow she’s pumped up high still.

On the way home I jumped on her but only rode about 10 meters – she was way too nervous and wanted to race, not just walk.

She always has a big sweat mark under her saddle/bareback pad, as though I’d actually ridden her. That’s all from nerves. *sigh* (Though I love a sweaty horse, I want it to be through actual work.)


Saturday was not much better, because I took her to another new area. This time it was a pretty big jump in distance.

I’d dreamed of taking her to the Eifgen river (stream really) because I know a safe place where horses cross. The trouble is it’s an hour away by foot. I decided to go for it. The scary part is we have to go through the little “downtown” part of our village to get there, going by bakeries and shops and scary garden gnomes. What I assumed would be the worst part, what really had me worried, was we had to cross an overpass over the “highway” below (70KPH road).  A sunny Sunday, there were lots of motorcycle groups out, taking this road way too fast and very loud. We stood at the edge of the bridge, and I let her get a long look at how cars approach on one side, and then slip out suddenly from the other. I have no idea if she’s ever been on a highway bridge before. But it was no problem. I told her, “OK, that was the worst part, I promise.”

I lied.

I had completely forgotten about the cow fields ahead, that the trail winds in between. So, cows on both sides. OH CRAP.

I thought man if I can get her through this, I can get her through anything. Let’s go.

Why do both fences on either side of us have to be low, nearly invisible barbed wire?

Why did the cows decide that they simply HAD to come greet my horse, from both sides? Was it her ear-shattering alarm call? (When a horse blows abruptly through its nose to alert others of danger--you know how impressive that sounds.)

We made it, and I made her stand on the far side, just past the cows, thinking about it. Not that it helped, they were still all staring at her, some of them getting up from their naps to come even closer, as close as they could get to the novel creature, a fire-breathing quivering “not cow.”

Man, I thought, how the heck am I gonna get her home, through that gauntlet? And how annoying, I’m not even thinking of riding her, I’m still on the ground like a wussy, leading her around!

We went 0,9Km straight down to that little river and I was happy to see she walked right into it with me. In fact, on the way down there was a perfect little rock-bedded stream  that crossed our trail 3 times and I just walked her over it again and again, going in circles. She’s totally fine. She’s just like Baasha – leap water/puddles whenever possible, then get wet when you must.

Finally at the river I waded right in, relieved to be there. She was right with me, no problem. I was annoyed to see LOTS of trail users down there. Almost constant people. Well it was a sunny Sunday.

As we stood there a group of people and 6 dogs approached.

I didn’t have to count. This one lade started shouting at me (over the watery noises), “We have SIX dogs here and they’re dirty and we need to bathe them here!”

I blinked at her kind of stupidly, trying to figure out what she was saying and what she could want from me. One other lady said, “Is the horse OK with dogs?”

I said, “I don’t know the horse very well. Probably, I don’t know. I am trying to see if she is OK with water at the moment.”

There was some sort of discussion amongst the group and they didn’t seem happy with my answer.

A couple of the loose dogs just walked right into the water and plopped down, bath accomplished. The others were on leashes. I said, “Go ahead and bathe them, I’ll move upstream a bit.” So I walked about 3 meters further away, making a distance of about 7 between us.

One lady came closer and said, “It would be great if you took your horse out of the stream and went back up the trail in that direction.”

What-what?!??

She did NOT address me with the formal “you” – when means she was completely out of line.

And then there’s the asking me to leave part.

I said, “Go ahead and bathe the dogs – it’s no problem.”

I watched as one at a time the people led their dogs to the water’s edge and knelt down, trying to stay dry, and splashed their dogs with water. I smiled at them.

After they left, I wondered what the deal was.

I think I figured it out.

They probably wanted to take the dogs off leash and let them splash and roll around in the water. But since a horse was standing in the river, perhaps they thought their dogs would approach the horse and bark or bite or get kicked or something.

That is the only reason I can think of why they would ask me to leave.

I called my man on my cell after they had left. He said, “I would have told them, ‘Are your dogs embarrassed to take a bath with a horse watching?’”

Yah, it would have been better if my man had been there, as usual!

Also, this is another experience where my being a foreigner influenced the situation. I think if I had been back home, I would have explained myself to the ladies. I would have said, “I just spent an hour getting here, by foot, to see if my horse is afraid of water. You can surely understand why I’m not inclined to just leave after arriving.” But I cannot say for sure. What I am certain of is that if my man had been there, there would have been more of an information exchange!

BTW, horse riders pay a yearly fee to use these trails. Dog owners, pilgrims (this is a pilgrim trail), and bicyclists do not have to pay. (But I have not started paying again, not yet.)

I did jump on Mara to ride up that steep hill but she was way too jumpy and forward, jumping at things she’d seen on the way down, falling to her knees at one point. Yellow-blooming scotch broom is a problem? Oh geez. 

We spent a lot of time with the cows as soon as we’d gotten through the gauntlet again. It was fun to watch the cows drink from their automatic waterer. They’d each lick the water first like a dog, and then lick their noses, and then they’d start sucking. Automatic waterers are normal to Mara (not to Baasha), so this did not bother her. She did not like the one cow with the placenta dragging behind her, coming right up to us! (What’s up with that placenta – these are milk cows.)

I had said a prayer that I not lose my horse that day, and thank God I did not. When I got home I put a little pill container/geocache on her saddle, with my contact info inside. I put an American flag sticker on it to make it easier to identify me if we are found separated *lol*

We got home together: )