Mara and friends

There's this Fjord cross at Herr S's named Dino that Mara has fallen for. It started that day his owner rode him in the arena *simultaneously* with me on Mara. Her first time having another horse in the arena with her, she apparently became "working buddies"  - nickering to him as he finished up.


Their relationship deepened this week, with her coming into heat on an over-fence visit.



First Mara models a scarf my mother in law knitted me.




And Mara runs around a bit..




..with no encouragement from me - I'm just pointing a camera at her.




I like how I caught the same exact phase of the trot, from a different view.




Finally, a visit with Dino. He seems to love her mane, he kept stuffing his nose under it "girl smell!!!" Do you notice anything odd about this horse's appearance?




I've only seen his owner twice since I started going up there.














Gandur in his Winter coat. He lightens up a lot in Summer but his face stays black, very unique coloring. His owner is there more than anyone else, I'd say every other day. The reason Gandur (and probably Dino too) are "in" during the day - he has scratches. His owner is upset about the fact the horses live in mud all day, and the 11 large pastures are too rich in Summer and horses have to be grazing-restricted. My idea would be to sacrifice a couple of those pastures so they won't be totally muddy, and not too high yield in Spring. But Herr S won't make changes, it is how it is.




Shiela would probably sink entirely in the mud so she stays "in" all Winter, October through May. Some guy from Cologne comes out and brushes her on weekends.




Then Mara shocked herself on the fence, oops, that was on?




She went to the end of the rope and stared at me like it was my fault, or that it was me who shocked her. Do you notice how odd the ears are on Dino? He has cat ears, with very little tip to them. I asked him if it makes it hard to communicate with other horses.




Mara don't test the fence again!




Check out Arndis' beard!




Meike the Fresian. Her owner probably comes on weekends when I'm not there - I've only seen her twice. I usually come weekday mornings on purpose to have the place to myself. This Saturday I was there at noon and strangely, no one was there but me, and the weather wasn't bad.




This is Lola, the flightiest horse on the place. She really, really hates it when I bring the donkey around. However under saddle she's the opposite - lazy and protective of her teenage rider. The girl is the daughter of the Fresian's owner, so they usually show up together.




I just had to show you guys the Schneiders blanket FAIL. So, it keeps *part* of the horse dry when it rains. The old-fashioned wither cut just lets the rain pour in. And check out the seam leaks along the sides. I think I'll wash it and try to sell it cheap on ebay. "Imported American blanket!"




"Am I being punished? I love being wet!" This is obviously not the Schneiders blanket. It's Baasha's new Amigo, and probably the worst color you can put on a chestnut, *sigh* but it's all I have. The belly straps BARELY fit around her fatness, but other than that it fits her perfectly. I think Melissa would call this the "mini-skirt look" - right?

Since Mara can't go in the stalls, I decided to blanket her, despite her love of rain. It's this weird maternal instinct, I'm babying her because she's on a bucket only diet. I even washed her tail yesterday. It went from brown to brown. Huh.




I read an article that said women sometimes subconsciously like it when their horses are not well, so they get to bring out the ointments and such. I don't know about that. Then again, I put bands in her mane to try to train it to lie correctly. I'm not sure I want it to lie on only one side, though. I guess I'll find out. She's not acting sick, but I do feel guilty that she gets no hay and not a single treat either.

Here is a video of her trotting around that day. Her trot mesmerizes me, I am free lunging her quite a bit lately for the pleasure of seeing her trot. On this day, for the very first time, she rolled in the arena. I was worried at first - is she ill? But she lay down, started to roll but then jumped up and shook herself, without even rolling properly, as if she felt it wasn't appropriate. I praised her and hopefully she'll do it more often.