Eryn makes it better

Eryn couldn't come over Friday, so I went and kidnapped her from her town, under the guise of "I'm going to the mall to get some shorts that don't have holes. And since you live right there, let's hook up. I can even bring you over to my house and you can ride if you want."


She agreed but said she wanted to coach me through issues with Mara, and not actually ride, even though she showed up with helmet strapped to her back, and riding pants and boots.

It was fun letting her show me around the mall and surrounding market area. I always get turned around in that town so it was fun to be there with a local. She took me to an ultra crappy grocery store that has a cold room that we could hang out in and cool down. Sometimes the crappiest stores in Germany have the coolest food for sale. I got frozen colorful ice stick things ("otter pops") and she got "Smarties with Ms on them" (what Germans call MnMs cuz Smarties came first). To give a better picture of these types of stores, you walk in and are not hit with a very welcoming smell, and all the food is stacked up on wooden pallets on the floor. It's warehouse style, there are no shelves, really, just boxes stacked up. Which makes it so they can keep their prices down. I just love the selection - they sell some imported stuff from other lands that I have no idea, but

crap I just burned ANOTHER batch of choc chip cookies due to blogging and not keeping an eye on the oven!

Anyway, shopping with Eyrn is fun - people stare a lot cuz she's not a quiet person. But when was the last time I went shopping with an American girl? I remember, it was Spring 2011.

Back at Finally Farm I was TOTALLY EXCITED because after 4 years, we finally got a back door to our house. Yah, we bought this house with a broken back door, and it had a garbage can propped against it to keep it from blowing open and letting animals in. Needless to say we couldn't use this door. Since it opens to our bathroom (very strange, I know), and since we are still (STILL) renovating our bathroom (12 months now, this contractor has required, and it's not done), getting this door in place was required to finish the tiles and the walls.

I was beside myself - ERYN LOOK  - I can walk through it, open it, and close it! Things doors should let me do! I'm also excited because it's made of some sort of synthetic material that will not decay (like the old door which is full of holes) in weather - because this is the weather side of the house and there is not any overhang of any kind to protect the door. It is simply just a door in a wall, that takes quite a pounding from rain and snow.

The old door, what was left of it, so cracked and holey, was easily ripped apart by my man, just with his hands. He put the chunks of door on the woodpile for burning this Winter. Woo!

Get this, there's also KEYS to this door, so if we feel like it, we can LOCK IT. After having a door that did not even close properly for years, locking seems kind of unecessary. Perhaps when we're on vacation.

Before and After pics of the entire bathroom project will come, trust me, I have been waiting so long for this, and you will be properly amazed at how crappy the bathroom was before. I challenge anyone to show me a crappier bathroom, or one that required more ridiculous steps to renovate. I won't talk about the money, but it's not money we had, so basically it's the bank's bathroom.

***

On the way to our house I stopped the car at the little horsey shop, cuz I thought it would be fun to look at tack with Eryn. It was awesome. She kept finding things for Bellis - pink splint boots, and a browband with pink crystals and shiny silver hearts. Too true, Bellis would look awesome in pink and sparkles!

Then we went through all the whips and I was amazed at how whips have evolved in the last 20 years. She showed me the best German brands. I was amazed. Then she found a whip of doom that didn't seem to fit in a horsey shop, it was made to resemble bone with joints going all the way down, like a long skeleton finger with 20 joints. The end was a black spear point, not a typical whip end at all. We were cracking up.

I asked the lady who worked there about getting riding lessons from the shop owner. The shop owner is in Berlin for a few weeks. Waltroud is her name. What a name, huh? Did her parents hate her? I should have known, Waltroud's dogs are living next door to me being dogsat. I've seen Waltroud give one riding lesson and it seemed OK, but I want to observe her giving lessons on other riders before I decide to hire her. I need, as always, to observe beforehand. She's the only trainer I know of in my area who would come to me.

Eryn and I had so much fun exploring that little shop. Eryn looked especially great in a velvet top hat, and she showed me the fine deerskin gloves that rich people wear.

***

I coaxed Eryn's life story out of her as best I could, because I was so curious why she's in Germany and what happened with her beloved Standarbred horse, GI. It's a great story, and the love part is rather similar to mine  (both with ex's and current loves).

I know Eryn's blog is private now so I have no idea what's up there, but I have to share, she only had 6 more days in Germany as of her visit yesterday before her visa expired. Very tense times. But hopefully she'll share her story on her blog (and I'll get permission to read it).

The reason I baked all these cookies is I want to spoil her today, if she can make it back over. I won't be seeing her again for a long time, probably.

So what's the plan Eryn? She said she wants to see me ride Mara down that grassy slope where she fights/balks, and do it until Mara is convinced that fighting is no use. Ugh. I knew it.

But we did it. Mara put her toes on the poison grass of doom and made her way down, balked, fought, and Eryn coached me "Circle now, tighter so she doesn't drift back up the hill where she wants to go!" and then lots of reward her, she took half a step downhill! But usually there wasn't enough time to reward her as she was already balking and backing again. It was pretty stressful for me, and we had a big audience, all the neighbors that live in that house were out, working in their yard. Mara used that as one of her excuses not to go down that dreaded slope. The good thing is, it's a really safe place to have an argument with a horse. It's a mown hayfield with a chainlink fence around the house and gardens and chickencoop. So the very worst thing that could happen would be Mara backing/cirlcing into their fence and scaring herself. If it were barbedwire I'm not sure what I'd do.

It took forever to get halfway down that fenceline. Eryn was up the hill, shouting at me to breathe, relax, take a break, and that I should keep talking. She told me that the reason talking helps is when I'm talking, I have to breathe. Huh. I guess I hadn't really thought about WHY talking always seems to help me relax: ) Ingenious! (Invader Zim voice)

I would face Mara downhill, stare at the tall pine trees and say, "We're going to the trees, going to the trees Mara!" in a ridiculous shouty voice, I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy.

Eryn says when I get tense I resemble a linebacker. I had to crack up. Like, how, exactly? And she make a (catholic) sign of the cross, sort of, showing me how my torso tenses up to a solid block. She says I should be like those lego characters that lock onto their horses. I said "They're plastic!" she said, "OK they're playdough!" Better.

She said, "Do you see when you're relaxed, how fluid your body is?"

I said, "I'm not in such great touch with my body lately."

But I could feel it when I was breathing properly (4 second inhale, 5 second exhale), my center of gravitiy sunk right into the earth. Eryn shouted Centered Riding concepts at me, reminding me whenever I turned into the linebacker (*LOL*).

We finally got down that bloody hill and at the bottom, I let Mara come back up, where we'd repeat. We did it again and had about 33% of the balking/backing. Better.

Then Eryn said, "AGAIN." and I had a cramp in my leg from the drumming of my heels on her sides, and I complained but knew I had to do it again. I think that was the 3rd time, and Eryn was completely silent at the top of the hill, and she just observed. That time there was no fight, Mara realized it just wasn't worth it. Of course at the bottom, when I asked her to go further than she wanted, she fought me, but I got her to take a few more strides before returning to Eryn at the top.

Then Eryn finally came down the hill with us, being careful to follow and not let Mara just follow her. Once in the woods, Mara started playing that game again, "I cannot go forward, too scary, did you see that stump?" and I just circled her again, almost stepping off a small cliff at one point but somehow not getting into trouble. Good thing the trail is a two-track.

We made our little loop back up and Eryn said she was gonna stay behind Mara as we went by the scariest house of all - the shepherd's house with all the chickens and dogs running on cables between trees. I held mane but we did it. Mara spooked in place at one point, and looked and looked, realizing sheep on one side, dogs trying to attack on the other, but she'd done it enough, and it was the way home, so she didn't hesitate.

Eryn was especially thrilled with our progress. I kept saying, "Well, it's better, but my gosh, why can't it just be solved by now?" and "How could it possibly be worse, remind me!" Of course it could be worse - she could try to toss me. So far she hasn't thought of that.

Back at home Eryn explained to J how to help me the same way, how to go with me next time and encourage me to breathe if I start looking tense. I don't know if he can recognize that, but I know that just having someone to talk to and provide emotional support will help, and we'll be done with this.

She took Bellis to the arena and did more advanced lunging, it was really great. Eventually she was free lunging, getting a good trot out of Bellis, and I let Mara in to play. Mara did her best impression of pogo-stick horse, I swear she was bouncing happily around for the fun of bouncing. 

I think Eryn can come over again today, I hope! It would be our last training session together.

Parts 2 and 3 to come!