It was one of those days when I dislike my horse very much. Usually when I take her out on foot, ground driving, she's fine, but yesterday she was giraffing at everything, heart pounding through her chest, and unable to just walk down our street in a straight line.
She was feeling so overwhelmed and one point I kissed to her to proceed, and she jumped up in the air and bucked with both hinds in protest, as if to say, "Don't pressure me!" Since I'm behind her on the ground, I was worried about getting my teeth kicked out, and I was amazed that a simple verbal cue could elicit such a reaction from her.
I had to tie my shoe and I knew it would be tricky, and sure enough, my horse did not make it easy, something spooked her and she spun around, getting the lines wrapped around her body. Then there was a car parked in the exact middle of the trail and I had to disconnect the driving lines and lead her down a muddy slope around it. Finally back on trail, I reconnected everything and tried to proceed.
I had brought my Kindle because I'd hoped to find a bench, tie her up, and read, but that was not going to happen. First, it was blustery and a little bit rainy, and second, no way could I tie up this horse in the woods safely.
So after just a few minutes, at the stream crossing, I put the ground driving lines up (tying them to the surcingle) and circled her through the water both directions. She tore up the banks pretty badly, and spooked herself a few times, but I praised her when she stopped in the water and started pawing at it. Playing in water always gets a big reward from me, because she's such a freak she needs to be encouraged to play out there.
I finally took her to a little tree, wrapped the rope around it, and then backed up to the end of the line so she was faux-tied. 45 minutes we just hung out there, as I waited for her to settle down. I praised her whenever she took a breath, and whenever she chewed on the tree I laughed because that is absolutely fine with me."Eat the tree Mara" is a command I'm trying to teach her as a calming behavior on trails. She's often too stressed to think about eating in the woods.
It was Saturday, that was why we were out there, to expose her to other trail users, but guess how many people we saw on our 1.5 hour outing? Zero. No way. The weather wasn't that bad, is every single resident of Germany at the Christmas Markets?
On the way home she spooked directly in front of a car, into the middle of the road, and she spun around again getting nearly tangled in the driving lines. It was pretty spectacular, her leap/spin, and I glanced at the car and raised a finger at the driver to please wait a moment. Not like he had a choice, but I needed to get the lines organized and get the horse safely to the side. As soon as I'd done that, I noticed the driver was a nice neighbor, and he rolled down his window and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spook your horse!" I smiled at him and said, "It's not you." I'm glad it was him and not one of those people who hate to share the road.
I made my horse back up, do serpentines off the shoulder, stop, back up, turn and go back down the street the opposite direction, I did everything I could to stretch out the tiny distance home. She actually started jigging at one point, but I was able to slow her down til she was walking in slow motion, but it was a 4 beat gait again. I'm very careful not to confine her too much with the reins, because she doesn't need a reason to explode.
Then a neighbor drove by right as we arrived home, and talked to me from her car for a few minutes. I was glad that my horse stood there for that, but when we were done, I took the horse to her paddock and tied her to the wall for a while.
I'm going to take her into the woods again today to see if she's any better. I'll take her to the spot where I know I can tie her safely and read my Kindle.
***
I wanted to say how much I miss America at Christmastime, not just my family, but the way the entire cities are decorated, and you hear music everywhere. I realized this year that I hadn't heard a single Christmas song outside of my own home. It's not common for stores to play Christmas music, and I don't get out much. Today we hope to go to a Christmas Market. I'll be sure to listen for music. I guess living in the country, having no job, and having no TV makes it possible for Christmas to slip by practically unnoticed.
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8 comments:
Not common for stores to play Christmas music? I wish that were true here! Maybe it's because you live in a rural area? If I got that right, anyway ;-) To be honest, my concept of where you actually live is slightly blurred: "Somewhere in the West where I only ever pass if on the way to France"
But I guess I know where all the people had gone to: my place. I hardly managed to trot at all on Sunday because the woods were just so crowded.
And maybe we can blame our horses behaviour on the weather? Because we fought the dangerous crocodile river... again, after having managed to walk through it for a couple of times without incident, lately. I should add that "crocodile river" is the smallest of trickles which only occurs if the adjacent field becomes too waterlogged. It's maybe as broad as one hoof. But you never know, there might be crocodiles lying in wait. And we all know small mares are their favourite food, right? :-)
Yikes Mara!!! I think the gerbils were loose... I hope she's better on your next walk. I'm glad the driver was fine when she spooked in front of him. That's one of my biggest fears with riding on the road is what if my horse spooks in front of a vehicle.... but I guess we have to take risks sometimes...
I completely sympathize. It's been a long time since I had one of those "why can't I have a NORMAL horse" days...and then I had one, big time, this week. Argh!
I survived, though, and you did too. They do get fewer and farther between, I think. Yesterday I took Fee out for a solo run, and that's exactly what we both needed.
As for Xmas music in stores, bah. Several times recently I've walked out without making a purchase because the music was too loud/too dumb/too repetitive. The only radio station I can stand right now is the tiny public station in Everett that will NOT play holiday "classics." If I could send the music to comfort you, I would!
Miss T, I pretty much only shop at Aldi and Edeka (no choice there, hate that shop), and neither plays music. Probably if I went into a large store they'd play music - I know Bauhaus does and I love the songs they play. I did all my Chistmas shopping at Aldi (for my family - Weihnachtsgebaeck) and Amazon.de, so I didn't get to hear a single song while shopping. My husband tried to find a radio station that would play a Christmas song for me, and WDR 4 played one, strangely. Ironically, when we finally made it to a Christmas market, there was an Eisbahn and the music: pop. *sigh*
I love the name Crocodile River - I'll have to find one around here and name it that.
Ich habe nie versteckt wo wir wohnen - auf unseren Autokennzeichen steht GL. : )
Achieve, it seems like you don't have trails near your house, because you're always on the road. Well, that will make trails a piece of cake. It sure is nice that your husband is playing the role of buddy horse for you.
Aarene, I think I know what you mean because lately I tuned in (online) to Spirit 105.3, the Christian station that always plays lots of carols this time of year, but I couldn't believe it - half the time (more?) I was listening to loud obnoxious commercials. All I can think is that station much be rich.
I kind of have to agree with the others. The Christmas music in stores is annoying... and on the radio.... I won't listen to the radio in my car LOL!!! I'm also the type of person who changes the stations or turns the radio off for every single commercial though... and a lot of songs. :)
Nope, no trails at all. There are some fairly close by, but we can't get there without hauling and my trailer is out of commission right now. I definitely appreciate hubby being trail buddy. It's not ideal, but it's better than riding alone or not at all. :) Have your riding buddies all quit for the winter?
Sometimes I wonder if there is something physical and hormonal going on with Mara, like ovarian cysts.
I never intended to make it sound (well... "read") like you hid where you live. I simply meant to say that the greater area is a white spot on my map. ;-)
And the grocery stores don't play Christmas music here, either. Not that I ever notice, grocery stores are the places that I run into at 5 minutes to 8 in barn clothes and try to get as much as you can before the store closes. That's one of the things I definitely preferred about living in Schleswig-Holstein: opening hours of grocery stores were just so much better. My local Rewe used to be open until 11 pm.
The radio (that would be either Bayern3 or Antenne Bayern for me) seems to play quite a bit of Christmas music, but I only ever listen to the radio when I'm in the car, so what do I know?
Miss T, I guess I can say Servus to you? For some reason I thought you were in Niedersachsen. Sorry to sound abrubt - that was an edited reply after I'd written exactly where we live, and my husband who is a school teacher made me delete it. With good reason, he doesn't want students finding this blog, but I've made it not google-able so I doubt it would happen.
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