Mara on the trail last Saturday

I guess it's a rare thing for me to take my horse out two days in a row, but I had a plan.


Try to expand her comfort zone, only ride when you've got that zone going.

I put my cell phone in my pocket, told my man where I was headed, and left.

Then I changed my mind. There's this little offshoot trail that follows our creek all the way to a river and all the way to the city of Cologne.

I thought, hey, let's just take a look. I know that there is a domestic herd of reindeer along the start, and I knew that would be something to see for Mara, if they were down there.

I was on foot, of course, but there were no reindeer.

I was sad cuz I remember being there last with Baasha.

She was on high alert, as usual, on a new trail. Every exhale she made was a long quivering snort.

Despite the magnesium supplement, her breathing is still not normal. Better, but not there yet.

I looked for that place Baasha and I almost had an accident, and found it. I was in memory lane, happy.

Mara was very uncomfortable, but I was walking along in a blueish green haze (I try to imagine my aura in a way that would help a horse and not worry it.)

We came to a creek and Mara stood paralyzed and I stood in the water, looking at the trees, breathing, and eventually noticing other hikers coming our way. No problem, Mara is not afraid of water, she crossed and stood politely to the side. She knows about getting out of people's way. We spent a good deal of time there, crossing a few times back and forth, and just standing, with a hoof in the water. It's a lovely spot.

Of course, I'm on foot, so everything's 5 by 5.

Finally we arrived at the freibad. A freibad is an outdoor swimming pool, in our town, a series of them. Funnily, I'd never been there in Summer before when they're open. Part of me is afraid of the nakedness, and part of me is mostly attached to swimming in filthy natural water sources.

This time each individual pool was sparkling neon blue, with only a few people splashing around to disturb the surfaces. It took us a very long time before we even saw our first swimmer. There were so many pools, and so many trees between us and the pools.

I was so hot and sweaty, and so tired of months of being that way, I fantasized about just jumping into those pools, fully clothed.

It goes without saying that my poor horse had never seen a swimming pool before. She was hyperventilating and peering through the branches.

We stood there a while before I thought to take a photo of her with my cell phone.

Then there were these little children climbing up the bank toward the trail, and I thought they might want to touch the red dragon steed snorting plumes of smoke in their direction, so I sighed and turned us around, back for home.

Mara was not any calmer on the way back - it looked different from her eyes.

I happily moved along and carefully took her up the steep embankment to avoid the crappy hack of a footbridge they'd built around a fallen tree's rootwell. No way am I letting a horse of mine step on any bridge in our area without first seeing another, bigger horse, go over. I learned this lesson the hard way.

She obliged, she loves bushwhacking. I pray everytime that she doesn't slide into a rabbit hole..

Once down on the trail I actually got on her.

"What about if I just ride you home Mara?"

She balked of course, at many things. The fun part was to just ignore that and sit there, breathing. There is no need to tap on her sides, no need to instigate something, if home is directly in front of her, and a freibad and horse-eating bridge is directly behind her.

The strategy worked. She overcame her hesitation on her own with no involvement from me.

I have to say, I'm gonna try to use this strategy often.