Mara tests Mell and earns new nicknames

The nickname isn't very nice. "Princess A&*$hole" which I'm told in German isn't as negative as in English. Also, "Who's a Spooky Little Diva?!"

Mell is the very best trainer I've had and I was so happy to get her back. She's incredibly unreliable and this is why I gave up on her last year, even though she does such good work with horses. In fact, she's the only person I would hand the reins to and say, "Go ride my horse alone" which is what I did today.

Amazing to me was that Mell arrived at all - we're in the middle of a big storm that has lasted for days and some Christmas Markets are closed, and all the city parks of Wuppertal are closed due to the danger of falling trees. I just learned that they are warning people in our city as well to stay out of the woods.

I hesitated to pound the easyboots on, thinking no way is she showing up. The rain was coming down sideways, like it still is, and the wind is shaking the shingles on my house and making all the trees and bushes take new forms.

I watched Mell ride Mara down our street on a loose rein with no gloves on, no scarf, and an inadequate jacket. She refused to let me dress her up, so I made tea for her return.

As I watched her casually ride Mara down our street, I suddenly thought, "Oh no, this is gonna be a waste of money - Mara's gonna act just fine because Mell is a fearless rider. What have I done?"

I wish I could have witnessed what occured, but then again, maybe not.

I guess we didn't discuss whether it would be an hour or a half, so I wasn't looking for her. I looked out the window and saw my donkey was loose and I groaned, "Oh no, she finally learned how to break free." (I've been forced to tie her up when Mara leaves, because she destroys things otherwise.)

But then there was Mell standing at my doorway about to ring. She said the horse is put away, and she let the donkey loose. I said, "You did not have to do that!" Geez, really, I told her I'd do the tacking/untacking and all she has to do is ride, but apparently she wanted to.

In the house I gave her a cup of tea and asked her to tell me how it went.

Badly. I had to ask her to slow down - what happened? Lots of balking and trying to turn around and go back home, and one sharp spook where she ended up in the opposite direction, and two rears when requested to pass the scary sand arena with the waving flowers. She said she managed to ride Mara backwards by that place. I can't imagine it because Mara has so much trouble backing up under saddle, I wonder how she managed that. Then today is garbage day, and although she's not afraid of garbage trucks, she doesn't like the garbage containers that have fallen over in the wind. Earlier today I'd taken Mara with me to fetch our two garbage containers, and one of them had fallen over and it worried her a bit, but she let me drag them next to her to the house.

Mell said Mara freaked out about a little stream by the sheep pasture. I said, "How odd, she's never looked at that stream with me!" Mell said it's Mara testing her rider.

She says Mara has no confidence in her rider, and will fake fear at times, but other times she's legitimately afraid.

I was glad to see it was worthwhile, Mara got taken through her most-scary places with a rider who just stuck it out when she resisted. Mell agreed with me that Mara is not trying to lose her rider out there, she's just trying to defend herself from the world. I think a lot of horses with her level of trauma would take to dropping their riders and heading home alone. Hopefully this won't change.

She also said that almost all horses would have had some meltdowns on a day like today. So basically, she took Mara on her most-hated trail/streets, in a windstorm. It can't get worse than what she experienced today, that is, if I dare predict that.

We talked and talked, it was great to have Mell back, who loves to just hang out and talk horses.

As she was leaving, she looked over at Mara standing there and said, "Are you a spooky little diva? Are you?" in a playful voice, and I knew that Mell has a good attitude (no grudges) about my horse's issues.

Then I went out to my shed and got a surprise. Mell had not seen me tack up, but somehow, virtually all of my things were put away exactly where they belong. I was in shock - I mean, obviously the saddle goes on the only saddle rack, but my black bridle was hanging on its hook, even though I have about 6 hooks out there. The rump rug was neatly hung on the hanging rack where it belongs. The girth was almost where it goes. The easyboots were in the easyboot section. The donkey's halter was hanging on the donkey's halter hook, how could she know that? And most interestingly to me, she'd left the rope I tie the donkey with on the ring in the stall - how does she know it "lives" there? Most people when they tie up an animal, they take the rope down afterwards. The Schneiders blanket was on my horse, although the leg straps were not crossed in an X between the hind legs. Oh, and the lead rope I'd asked her to ride with "for emergencies" - she didn't have it on any hook at all, it was hanging over the doorway. How could she know I keep that one in the house and not out there?

I just sent her an SMS asking her if she's psychic: ) Probably just barn intuition, but I still can't believe it. She replied, "I keep my eyes open, and you're a very structured (?) person. Also, I'm as finicky as you are about my things!" I replied, "Go geocaching with us and help us find the caches immediately."

I guess I forgot to give an update on Mara's lameness. Yesterday I checked her at the arena and she was grade 1 lame, so asking Mell to ride her was a bit of a risk today. But Mara has been doing flying lead changes and pirouettes in her pasture, as well as prancing fully sound out there. I was only able to observe an occasional head bob while jogging to the left. Trotting, she's fine. But I knew Mell would just ride her at a walk, so I took the risk. Tomorrow I'll start walking her on the double lunge, and taking her for walks again.

Sadly Mell is going on vacation for the next few weeks, so I will have to wait to get her back out here. I really want to see her ride in the arena and give me her opinion about our progress/lack of progress for the last 12 months with KT. Meanwhile, KT is texting me asking about how Mara is feeling. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be riding again and I'll have a lesson with her.