Mara cues lytha

This weekend Mara was not in a state of mind to be ridden. I had her all saddled and ready to take things slow, but after an entire hour letting her graze by the Kraemers, she was still too upset to do anymore. I was discouraged, but told myself there's no time limit.


Today, Sunday, I wanted to try again, but spent most of my day working on my fence.

Our hay was finally baled and taken away, so I was able to divide our entire field in half for the next 8 months of grazing.

As I pushed plastic posts into the ground every 7 steps, I looked up to see a 1950's style firetruck rumbling down our road. That's my donkey farrier. I thought nothing more of it, until I heard loud door slams. Still I thought, I don't have any information on his visit today. (I'd forgotten.) Suddenly my man emerges from the path, holding a lead rope, wearing his Birkenstocks in the long, wet grass. Ugh. He tromps across the field and puts the rope around Bellis' neck, who I'm sure, has never had such a thing happen before. She followed him, perhaps thinking he was going to spoil her more with food and love. I put down the post and joined him.

He handed me the rope. His feet were soaked. Bellis stopped, thinking this turn of events through. Why did he hand the rope to her? Then she decided to follow us. Nothing gets by a donkey - they have to ponder things a while.

When we arrived at the barn, the trimmer and his apprentice were sitting on our brick wall, and I said, "I suppose there's an extra charge for the wait?" 

"Of course!"

My man stuck around to watch and talk with him. The farrier joked and pointed at Mara's feet as he finished cutting off a chunk of wall from the donkey's foot. He said, "No way would you ever let that horse's hooves get this long!" 

It's true, but also, he was a week overdue - last week he cancelled.

I asked him for his opinion on Mara's feet. Wait. First, I said, "So I had this trimmer out, E. L."

He said, "Yah I know."

I said, "Then I give up. I'm not talking anymore cuz you seem to know everything I'm gonna say."

(This was after he said he knew I was spending my weekend fixing my fence, somehow - probably jokingly.)

"SO - E.L. said Mara's feet are too short. What do you say?"

He said, "WELL....they're not long."

My man cracked up laughing.

He said, "You ride in Easyboots?" "Yah." "Good, cuz otherwise, there's no way this horse could manage out there. There's no hoof wall left to wear down!"

I thought, Hm, how odd. Does he want her to walk on her walls out there? *ponder*

I would ask my hoof-obsessed readers to please comment here. (Detail: It had been two weeks since I trimmed her - if you remember that post, with photos. So they're not shorter than they were in the photos: ))

After 10 minutes work on Bellis, and 10 minutes talking with us, they departed with 25Euros. Not bad for 10 minutes' work! 

In the interest of really getting some good info on Mara's feet, I contacted my old barefoot expert who spent time in America learning California-style riding and barefoot trimming. I sure hope she can come by sometime. She would always take about 2 hours with Baasha, going over every little detail. That is what I'm looking for right now. Also, it's so nice to be able to speak English with a barefoot expert!

Back to my fence I went. I have to say, I spent most of my weekend on electric fence troubleshooting.
 
I couldn't figure out why the voltage was only reading 2k, and last month it was 10k. I took some sandpaper out there and scraped the rust off the gate handles where they connect. That was kind of stupid, I learned. Rust does not make a fence drop in power that much.

Finally my man came out and sure enough, he found a spot where wire touched Tpost. AGH! It's always the same! I need to just learn this once and for all. If the fence is grounding out somewhere, it's most likely touching a Tpost somewhere. I was aggravated cuz I'd spent the entire morning cutting blackberry "arms" off our fenceline, some of which were so thick and heavy, the wire was being pulled down. I thought that would be the problem. No, it's never the plants. It's never the sparking at knots or connections. It's always a Tpost. Got it.

Finally done, I took Mara out for some streetside grazing/Kindle reading. She was again quite agitated, even snorting nervously in our front yard. Geez, horse, you live here. At one point she spooked and kept all 4 hooves on the ground, but flexed all her joints backwards, so all 4 legs were at a 45 degree angle suddenly, like a gumby horse.

 I ask myself again. When is she gonna calm down.

I have to insert an aside - a special moment that I dwelt on a bit today. She reached over to touch the Kindle with her nose and I pulled it away from her. Then she looked at me and reached over and touched my other hand very gently with her nose. It is what she does, without words to say, "I'm done here." I said, "Yes, of course we are." But I asked her to trim a rosebush on our way - it was getting red petals all over our driveway. She obliged. That has only happened twice with Mara, where she cautiously reaches out and touches my hand with her nose. I know it's her way of saying, "I want____".

Tonight my man's mom and grandpa visited again, and they came out to meet the donkey and horse. The donkey is an attention hog, and J's mom asked me about Mara, how she is. I said she's only afraid of the two things. The ones that move and the ones that don't. But strangely, as Opa reached through the gate to stroke her forehead, she stuck her head through the bars and, with half-shut eyes, enjoyed the contact with this very old man. I guess I wasn't too convincing that my horse is fearful of things. She has a strong draw toward people, and I'm grateful for that.

Later my man and Mara played "kissy" again. He moved his head all over the place, and she followed his chin with her nose.

So, no riding for me this weekend, but relationship building. She's learning what my baseline behaviors are, and I'm offering her the chance to build her confidence through her fears, a very small step at a time.

I'm also working on not getting upset when she spooks and almost runs me over.

As I read and she grazed/reacted to the scariness of life, I noticed a heavy fog rolling in. It was great. I'm so done with summer.

As I finally turned the animals out to pasture tonight, the fog had engulfed most of it. It was gorgeous. I tried to get the two to run around with me, and succeeded a little bit. But they mostly want that expanse of grass now, finally.

Funny, most horses around here get pasture in Summer, and paddocks in Winter. Mine have grazing strips from June to September, and half the big field, alternating halves, the other 8 months.

 I do wonder if I'll ever see her lying down.