Two Standardbreds walk by our house, no one stops to say hi

Friday before the Hoffest I heard horseshoes on our street as I cleaned up poop from our hang, and I peered around the corner of a building to see who it was. I thought it would be Herr Braun's carriage horses as usual. I was wrong; it was Herr H on his blackish Standardbred and Kat on Coin, the huge bay Standardbred. Herr H is the misfit of the city, what any American would call white trash, and I can confirm by going by the H property, and my  man having been bitten by one of the dogs there. And other details you'll have to trust me on.


I have nothing against Herr H, he is simply a young good ol' boy. I understand very little when I stop by to talk to him - his teeth keep coherence at bay, and his slang. Since we have universal health care here, it must not cover aesthetic dental work.

What I know about him is that he rides to work (where?) down the center of our roads, with a blinking vest protecting him and horse. He also rides far and long for fun. I think that's great. I remember when I met him once down by the river, he was on a chestnut TB, and I was on Baasha. I was happy that he stopped to converse with me, and called me "Wuppertal" which confused me. Then he said "Your horse license, it's registered W - you're from Wuppertal." I was amazed. Any German would not have been, but I'm American. I will never forget how his TB stood like a statue and Baasha skittered all over the place, you know, in his 20s, unable to stop for a moment. I was actually embarrassed. Baasha was doing wrong by his breed. That TB stood, appreciating the chance. Yah, Herr H likes to gallop. He comes into my blog often, I know, and will again. I don't want you to think I don't like him. I am a little in awe of him, and he's completely open and friendly with me. This is such a tiny community, though, one day I said to Nadine, "Hey, I saw Herr H!" and she said, "I know, he told me you stopped by." 

Back to my story, but I just had to say...

Nothing here is not shared with others in the horsey community.

Seeing Kat on Coin ride by after him on his Standie was a shock. What is she doing over on our side of the highway? 45 minutes from her barn - you remember when I rode over there, hoping for a nice training ride with friends, and finding her drunk and insisting to canter? And laughing at me and saying about Mara: "Power Pony Needs GO!"

I'd been waiting for her to call - in fact, I really had hoped we could be friends until the horse-etiquette-breach day.

My man looked at me sideways.

"So, you were hoping that she'd call.....so you could refuse to join her again?"

"Yah, exactly."

He shook his head. I said, "Are you shaking that in a "WOMEN" type manner?"

"Yes."

My man is too kind to actually say, "Women!" out loud.

Then again, I'm not the confident type to run out of my paddock, all the way up the street, and shout after them, "Wait! I would like to tell you I don't want to ride with you again, due to your lack of empathy toward a green horse's issues (and its owner's)."

***

Today I heard shod hooves going by my house again.

It was, again, Herr H, on his Standie, and Nicole on her Pintabian after him, on a loose rein (as always), talking nonstop. I remembered my fateful ride with her, how she talked nonstop to Sonja, and never to me, so I never had a chance to just "ride and converse" to relax my horse.

I thought of the time my man came home from work and said, "Hey, that Nadine you rode with who just did her first endurance ride (of 20 miles)  - does she have a black dog?"

Yes. That's the creature that bit Herr S in the leg for walking into his own barn, and then tried to bite Claudia, the nicest person you'd ever want to meet (with a hell-fire Fresian I'll talk about next). I kept my arms to my sides around that dog.

"It must be her, cuz I drove my car slowly behind her as she rode her spotted horse down our street, black dog beside them, and she talked constantly on a cell phone!!"

*snicker*

Yah, that's her. I haven't had the nerve to go up there and confront her yet on her "galloping away from me on my green horse" behavior yet.

***

So, what happened with me and Mara this weekend?

Not glowing, not horrid.

More to come.