A great day with Mara

Finally, I really needed a good ride. I don't like this feeling of dreading taking her out, but now that we have a plan to work on, I feel better. I wish I could write a shorter story, but that is not my way.


I hadn't ridden since our nail incident, but I've been lunging her on hilly hayfields, the steepest ones I can find, trying to teach her how to balance her body on hills and learn how to handle slipping. I'm only asking for a walk, but the hills I found are so steep it takes all her concentration. I work my way across a 50 acre field, slowly walking with her, trying to convince her to just walk but she thinks she needs to trot to gain her footing. Eventually she will walk, and encounter many, many scary objects (huge beech logs just lying there like ginormous crocodiles). But we work our way along and she never refuses.

One of the nice things about our region of Germany - I can just take my horse out to a hayfield and work her. At least, no one has complained yet. There are random hay fields all around us.

I knew she was ready to be ridden again so today I put the saddle on. As I groomed her we were in a zone together,  I always try to groom her respectfully because she doesn't love grooming. She never pins her ears but she will swing her head like "Oh please be careful there."

I took her to Herr S's to lunge her and worked on precision lunging for 40 minutes. I want to build on what she's good at, and she's good at ground work and lunging. That is a long time, I know, but we did mostly fine work, walk, stop and just stand still, jog as slow as you can, then fast and then I even got her to canter 6 revolutions; I normally only ask for 3.

I've been teaching her to sidepass over a cavaletti (she can't do it smoothly yet, but she did learn it's possible to back herself over a pole, to her surprise). She's also getting better at moving only her haunches over or only her forehand over, differentiating the cues.

After our hill lunging, working on the flat, even over cavaletti, is no physical challenge for her. I was amazed that she was dry and cold between her forelegs after those 40 minutes. Then I got on her, and she was perfect, standing still as long as I required, and then we worked on leg yielding and haunches in, and serpentines, and some trotting circles. I'm annoyed that the arena is in such bad shape that I cannot find a circle to trot anywhere without her falling into a muddy hole. It's a very uncomfortable sensation when she slips into a hole.  I am envious of people with indoor arenas where they can actually trot without this concern.

At one point Nordic and Nevisto came galloping up to the fenceline and Mara was concerned, but did not bolt.

After such a positive session I was excited to go into the woods and see if we could finally work on what Mell showed us so long ago, distracting Mara from her "stories" with lateral work on trail.

I led her by the shepherd's house and let her graze there with all the scariness - a strange woman was on the balcony looking down at us, and a dog was laying on a tarp right next to the trail. The chickens were entertaining, I love to spend time there - I pluck a clump of grass out of the ground and toss it into their pen and they all take turns being brave, eating it. Chickens eat grass, hm. Mara was still in that zone, with a relaxed eye and head lower than normal.

Down the muddy slope I noticed a deer trail and I had to take it. I was still leading her, and we descended into brush, stepping over multiple logs and Mara kept snatching pine branches to eat. I hope they're not poisonous. I was trying to find my way somewhere but failed. We ended up over the pond where I released  tadpoles with Baasha years ago. Then we eventually found our way back to the trail.

It began to storm, wind and sleet, but I was so happy at that point, the weather was just a fun addition to our day. I got some nice photos of her with my crappy Aldi cell phone.









I finally decided it was far enough and I'd climb up on Mara and make our way home. She was very good, holding perfectly still as I mounted, and then walked on a loose rein toward home. She looked at everything, but didn't hesitate.

OK at one point something scared her and she slid to the side, and I instantly leg yielded her, and she was fine. 

I practiced stopping and counting to 30. I dropped the reins entirely on her neck, as Mell did, each time. Then I would sit there and visualize birthday candles, those ones shaped like numbers. I don't know where this came from but it is such a cheerful image, those pastel and white candles, I picture each one in my mind, and Mara just sighs and gives up her striving for forward. It's working.

A hare ran across our path and she startled but didn't whirl around. That rabbit ran right up our trail in front of us, and I said "follow" and she did, at a trot. It was awesome. I coulnd't help but exclaim out loud, "I love this saddle!" Everytime I trot I just melt into it, a sitting trot is as easy as posting, and either diagonal, no difference.

We made it to the top of that hill with no hesitation, and usually Mara protests at the same old things, but she didn't. I can't say that she's fixed, but it was good to see my tool working.

I was confident enough to take her down another trail I'd never ridden on, and through a recently cleared forest of beech trees lying on their sides (4 foot circumference), on either side of the trail, and when Mara started to look, I just stopped her and counted to 30, and then asked her to proceed, which she did.

We made it to the end of the woods and I got off, took the bit out, loosened the girth, and let her graze there for 20 minutes. The grass tastes like Spring and she is starting to really enjoy this aspect of going out on trails.

It was the best ride I'd had in a long time, and I texted Mell about it, asking her for our next session.













After our ride I took some photos of her finishing her breakfast. I think I got the evidence that she has actually slimmed a bit since her arrival.


Later this afternoon my man wanted to go check on a geocache on our street and he conceded to bringing our hooved pets along. He took Bellis and I took Mara. This is after getting stepped on by Mara today for the first time and having to ice his foot, I felt so bad!

Bellis was in heaven, getting out again, and I loved how she reacted to the new scary thing - recently they'd taken down a bunch of chain link fence and left it in rolls by the street. It freaks Mara out every time. Bellis saw it, her first time, pointed her ears at it, and then actually moved closer to it to see how scary it actually was. The donkey reaction, so different from the horse, I was laughing. Mara was dragging behind us, sighing, like "I have to go out again today?!" My man even noticed her sighing.

When he went to check on the cache, he handed me Bellis and she was so upset about having to wait with me! It wasn't safe to bring them so I stood 10 meters away from the war bunker where the cache was hidden. Mara was happy to find bits of grass, and Bellis was actually angry that she couldn't go with my man. She tried to drag me off my feet toward him, but I had the rope around a tree very quickly. She stood there at alert, the entire time, watching my man, making sure he wasn't getting too far. She's like a loyal dog, on trail, but off trail, an independed cat. I remember this from when I first met Bellis. We went for a walk and some of our party fell behind and that donkey refused to go forward until they caught up. Must be a herding donkey.

We're having a beautiful golden sunset and hail showers off and on.

I hope for more of these good days with Mara.