2nd ride on the bay gelding

This time I had J with me, because I need his opinion about Majour. I thought my Wintec would make everything better but alas, I'd forgotten how much more secure a Specialized is, and a Wintec really does nothing to help its rider. I remembered the time Aarene and I switched horses, and she got on my Wintec and said, "This is horrible! There's nothing here!" True, I've never ridden in a saddle that offers as much security as a Specialized, so now I know.

Get this - Majour was a wide gullet. Mara was a medium! I can't understand how this can be, his chest is so narrow, but apparently his shoulders broaden? He almost measured extra wide. In fact it was difficult to get my saddle stretched out enough to fit the gullet, J had to help.

The horse has two new injuries from the herd, and one looked very painful and red on his right hip.

After I saddled him and ran my hands under to make sure it fit, the owner told me to just get on. I said, "No, I need to walk him and slowly tighten his girth." So I walked him through the fields to get to the sand ring, and J and the owner followed. I loved our shadow on the ground, he has such perfect ears.

I listened to the conversation between J and the owner. J has become very equine knowledgeable, he can talk horse care, hoof care,  pasture care, insurance....At one point he asked about what she feeds and she said, "As you can see, he's well fed!" I gasped, omygosh, she thinks so? She has no idea what healthy looks like.

At the ring I remembered what one of my blog readers said and I asked to lunge him. Ha, lunging with a carrot stick? That's not gonna work for me - I just don't know the body language to communicate with him, even though I know the basics. Trying to get him to canter in that deep sand was pretty hard, and the owner was able to do it  - but only after whacking him with the carrot stick. The carrot stick was too short for me to reach him. Can he canter without me running around with him? I was getting tired too in the sand.


He keeps one ear on me.





I try to make more distance between us, and he reverses very well to my cues, exactly as Mara did. The owner said he can do it also as a flying change at the canter, his reverses are so good.



I'm like, a real whip would be nice. I don't brutalize a horse, I just ask for the canter with a kiss and my body language, and if they don't go to the canter, I threaten with a crack of the whip on the ground. Touching them is the next stage, one I don't normally need. I look like a clothesline in this photo, trying to get him moving.



Not a great photo, but I got him trotting at least. And you can see how far away the woods are.



He'd obviously been taught to stop (and swivel) after trotting/cantering, instead of reducing speed to a walk. This must be a Parelli thing. My husband zoomed in on the legs cuz he knows how important those are to me.

Then the owner showed me some of his fancy tricks, the yo-yo game, and that one where the horse side passes to the person, and away from the person, so fancy!



Here he is sidepassing away from her.






Finally I got on and felt better about trotting because of my saddle. He resisted a bit because he's lazy in the arena, but did it for me, and then backed, and sidepassed, and even turned on his haunches for me and the owner said, "Wow, that was really pretty, what you just did." The horse has willingness and is sensitive off my leg, which I appreciate. And I can fix lazy, I'm good at that, I just apparently can't slow down the fast ones.




Saiph mentioned an underbite on a horse whose lip looked like this - and it makes me wonder. My donkey has an underbite, it's what the seller told me prohibits her from breeding. I wonder if he has it too, and what effect it might have, if any.






Good boy.








After a short ride I was ready to go out on the trails, but where are they? Nothing but endless fields in all directions, with paved or gravel roads cutting between the mostly harvested crops. The owner pointed down a particularly long road and said, "You can ride to the woods there." I said, "Woods where?" Way, way in the distance, I saw some trees. How was I going to get there? Along that paved road between two enormous fields? Oh dear. I don't wanna.

The owner said, "We'll wait right here, you go on." The horse didn't want to either. She said, "Tell him to go." I did but he knew I didn't want to, so it was an exercise in forward aids to keep him moving along that horrible road. At one point I thought  I shouldn't have to use so much seat and leg, so I stopped and he lost all momentum. Come on horse, just go to the woods.

A tractor was mowing rows on our right, and he eyed it curiously but not in fear. I eyed it fearfully, is it gonna come up here and mow right by us?

I decided I needed to get control of myself so I started to sing. No favorite songs came to mind, so I sang Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence over and over, including the keyboard parts. That road was so long, I sang the song NINE TIMES before we reached the trees. When I told J about it later, he asked, "You sang ...aloud?" "Yes, and the keyboard parts." "Poor horse." Ha ha.

When we reached those blessed woods, I saw a huge pile of gravel on my left, and a bunch of concrete pipes on my right. The horse saw both too, but didn't hesitate.  Into the trees we went and I felt much better about life. I hate open spaces in general, I dislike flat landscapes, and I feel best when I'm closed in by hills and trees. OK, let's trot. He responded immediately and we had a nice little sitting trot for a ways. Then a branch got caught in his legs and I wondered how he'd react.  He just kicked it free and kept going at a leisurely pace. Let's trot again, that was fun.

Finally I stopped him, he touched my stirrup cages with his mouth, so cute, and I turned him around. Oh dear, what's he gonna do. Race home? Dump the foreigner?

He just walked back, albeit at a much nicer pace, needing no encouragement, and in fact, I held him back a bit because I like to go home slower than I go out by habit.

Then he saw J and his owner in the distance. At this point they were two dots. He peered at them curiously. I felt the thought go through him, "Why are those dots so very still?" As we got closer the dots started to resemble people and he was still thinking, "Why are they standing so still, those people? That's not normal."  Mara would not pass hikers standing to the side of the trail, because she was stressed out about how very still they could stand, even though I was talking to the hikers and they were talking back.

He just kept going, no matter how still they stood. Finally we were close and they both said, "SO?!?!"

I smiled, "He was very sticky going out, but that's my fault I'm sure, I wasn't sure I wanted to go, so he wasn't either. He was fine though, he did nothing wrong, he looked at nothing twice."

My husband had spoken to the owner a good deal during our long enjoying the silence trek and has a better understanding of the lady than I do - she didn't really talk much with me. Some people just don't know how to talk to foreigners. I'm so glad they got along, and later asked him, "Do you get the feeling she's honest about the horse?" "Yes."

When we hit the main road, I jumped off the gelding and led him across the street. The lady snickered, "Oh, you don't want to ride him on the road?" I was shocked - it's a highway really, with a speed limit of 100. With no shoulder or sidewalk. Of course I'm not riding a horse on it.

When she turned him loose, he rolled in the dust (all that's left of the grass is dust) and drank, and then went to the salt lick where I taped him licking licking licking, and then I worried - is he so desperate for minerals? 




Toed out in front. I prefer a horse on the thinner side, but this isn't fit-thin, it's malnourished.








His little sister is at the fence begging for attention. She pulled my lambswool pad a bit under the fence and licked it before I could stop her. I took this photo to show the "grazing" these 5 horses have in October with no hay. It's California in Hannover. The long grass on the left is full of manure.


As I taped, J talked to her and she started to tell about her natural philosophy. She only immunizes against tetanus. She was worming twice yearly but now wants to switch to herbs. She believes the less you do to a horse, the better. The horses have not had hay since last Winter, and it's October.  She said he's so healthy he's never even seen a vet. What, never? My man spoke up and said, "Even healthy children need to go to the doctor for checkups." Good: )



It obviously makes me want to somewhat "rescue" him from this "natural" environment.

My conclusion about our little ride was that it was the ultimate test for him, to carry a rider with no trust in him at all, a rider in turmoil. My issues probably made him curious, but he did his job anyway.

We thanked her and left, and I drove home very fast, 140-160kph, making the trip in only 3 hours. I didn't say much. J said I looked stressed. I said, "I don't know what to do, I'm afraid of making a mistake again." He started to reassure me of everything he'd seen that day, and give his impressions of the horse.

J is afraid the horse will be sold if I take too long to decide. He said, "I think you could have fun with this horse. I'll ask my colleague if we can borrow her horse trailer and towing car."

J asked me if I had cantered in the woods, but I said no, the sight of his splayed and cracked hooves, as I mounted the horse, made me nauseous, I feel it's unethical to ride a horse with such hooves, and I did it anyway.

J told me, "I told her our price limit (higher than I expected to hear) and she agreed to it." She, you, what....

Also he said she wants first buy-back option if we buy him and change our minds. That is great, it helps with the decision.

Since I'm finding no other horses I like in our area, I am trying to compare him to my memories of the horses I rode before I bought  Mara. Do I like him as much as my beloved Wiszi? The gorgeous, calm Amja? I think so.