Mag - second visit

I had to go back because he was the most affectionate horse I'd met in years, reminiscent of Baasha on our first meeting, putting his face gently against me, thinking people are the greatest.

I arrived early to have a chance to fit my Specialized saddle to him, as Aarene recommended. The horse was nowhere to be seen.

So we waited in the car while J graded physics papers of his students (he can still do his job while on horsey road trips). I saw the owner's wife walk out of her house with a halter after a half hour of waiting and she said, "I'll go get him."

I took this opportunity to watch how he's caught. She had to walk an acre to find him, and then I could see, she rubbed on him and haltered him and there was no issue, she took him the long distance back to the barn.

I groomed him, and discovered that he is really wimpy. He has no musculature anywhere, really. He also doesn't pick up his hooves, or if he does, he lets them hang on the ground so he's not holding them up. Hm!

I adjusted my Specialized saddle for him. Loin template 0 fit him perfectly, good, cuz that is the default for my saddle without alterations. The shoulder was problematic. The panels just didn't seem to touch his shoulders, they rolled away too much. A little is good, but how much? I put some shims in but that made it somehow worse. I determined that with the lambswool pad, my saddle might fit him best without shims. Now I see, in looking at my wool pad, it seems to be less compressed in the middle, which is telling.

But the horse did not mind the saddle, even though the owner saw my heavy duty carabiner and removed it, saying it would disturb the horse. I asked him, "How many people has he run away with?" He replied 2. He said they didn't know how to ride him, and I do, so I shouldn't worry.

But I asked Sarah, the teenager who rides him weekly, to ride him in my saddle. She apparently did not want to and the owner came back and said, "Sarah can ride in her own saddle to show you what he can do. If you want, you can ride in your own." OK then.

They seem to be especially careful to avoid accidents.

Sarah interrupted my saddle fitting and she threw her huge western on Mag and took him to the arena to show me what she typically does with him.

I saw that she rode him better than the owner, and it was apparent that the teenager is enamored with Western riding, as she slid him to a stop, and tried to get him to bring his head down on a loose rein. And she only sits the trot. At times she had to really kick him with her heels to keep him moving, even though she weighs the same as feather does. Lazy arena horse. I felt better because I didn't have to resort to kicking him when I rode him, but it did take a lot of encouragement and clucking to keep him trotting. I think rather than kicking a horse, the judicious use of a dressage whip teaches them to respond to small cues so the horse never needs kicking.

I thanked her and finished fitting my saddle to the  horse.

Then I asked Sarah to lunge him with my saddle, to see if he lunges better with her than with me - I had to actually touch him with the whip when I tried. Unfortunately, he was no better for her, keeping him in a trot was a matter of whacking him nearly constantly with the whip. I kept saying, "What a lazy bones, so much whip for just a trot?" Obviously he needs some tuning up, and I'm good at that. First, you need a proper whip that makes a cracking noise. Then when the horse doesn't respond to you waving the whip on the ground behind him, you crack it. That usually does it, but if not, you crack it on their hocks and then they're good. You go to not needing it much after that.

I got on Mag and finally felt at home on his back. I asked him to trot and we had no stiffness, no resistance like last week. Love my saddle. It looks tiny on his long back. The saddle ends about 4 inches before his last rib!

Just like Baasha, he's lazy in the arena, and I get it, it's deep sand. Every stride is work. He huffs around, and coughs.

Yah, he coughs. S saw it in September, we saw it last week, and today again. The owner said some of the new horses from Poland have a cold. A cold? Well that's possible, but why aren't they treating it?

Baasha had a cold once in his life and was successfully treated with ACC.

Then my man and I took Mag out from the property for a trail ride.

I realized I had no mounting block, so I said we'd wait for the first obstacle. I'm embarrassed,  but I had heard that it twists your saddle and the horse's back to mount from the ground, so the last few years, I just didn't. And lost the ability.

We finally found a fallen tree that bounced when I stood on it. The horse was not afraid, and he reached down and bit a few chunks off to eat. Good boy.

I asked J to hold the other stirrup and the halter rope as I used the tree to mount. As I did, it bounced a good deal but the horse only barely flinched. I didn't predict how much it would bounce, but that was definitely the most challenging mounting block yet for him.

Then I rode forward and tried to get a handle on him.

Mag kept looking at black rotted stumps fearfully, but proceeding anyway. One stump was particularly scary and he froze. I did nothing. I wanted to see if he'd decide to proceed on his own. He did. Whew. How a horse deals with fear is so much more important than how often they experience fear. 


 I wish I'd have taken off my rain coat - I am wearing, for the first time ever, my brand new Kerrits IceFil breeches, a gift from my friend Tami when she visited. Not only are they the most luxuriously soft material, they are so flattering my thighs look tiny!

My husband was looking at his Garmin for geocaches in the immediate area. I thought it would be great if we found one on this trip.

But then we came to a fork in the road and Mag pulled me left with all his heart.

I said, "Oh, this trail must go home."

I stopped him and J caught up and I asked where the geocache was, and he pointed down the trail where Mag was trying to go. I was getting annoyed because Mag would not hold still, facing home.

I said, "This horse is adamant that we must go that way, so I'd prefer not to."

My expression *lol* "Are you going to hold still?"

Oh, that dog is back.

I might be laughing because he finally decided to stand still.

J said ,"See if you can both look in the other direction, that would be cute."

The thing is, we'd passed an elderly man with  a Springer Spaniel and he'd collected the dog to let us pass, but as I rode ahead ad then waited for J, and then he went ahead and photographed me, it became a worry in my mind when that dog would appear again.

And it did, in fact, it was a very strange dog, it would trot long distances on trail, never leaving trail, ahead of its master, even catching us, and passing us.

But even as I turned Mag's face to see the approaching dog, the horse didn't care. We were between the dog and his owner -----the dog trotting happily and independently up the trail beside us, without owner -----and when the owner finally caught up, my man said, "Your dog is home by now." Yes, that was what was happening! Not a very loyal dog!

J absolutely agreed with me to the longer stretch toward home, to put more pressure on Mag. We didn't want to make it easy for him.

But he asked me to give it a go again to see how Mag trots out on trail. I said, '"Toward home on a barn sour horse is not my plan, but I'll try it to see if I can actually get him to stop." The owner had said getting Mag to stop is an issue.

I asked him for a trot toward home and he was willing, and then I asked for a slower trot, and he responded well. No worries, we waited again for J.

Then J had to make a pitstop and I asked the horse to hold still. He would not.

I had him pointed at J, our herd, to remind him we are not moving, but the horse was scrambling around and unhappy. I turned him back where I'd originally put him and he swung away again, unable to hold his place. My husband had to leap out of the way twice, as the horse disagreed with this holding still thing.

Finally the horse kind of scooted to the right, in an attempt to show me how important it was for us to go home now, and I lost my nerve, so I emergency dismounted. I landed on my feet and had both reins in both hands. He hit the ends of both reins and was halted immediately. I yelled at him YOU WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.


The horse turned his nose to me and then his eyes toward home and started to pull his face toward home. I let him look, but then, of course, he started to drift his hind end toward me, to put his entire body in alignment with home. I said NO and took the end of those stupid split reins and whacked him on the side that he was pushing at me, and only managed to hit my saddle, which made a loud enough sound that the  horse responded perfectly and swung his quarters away from me, and his nose to me.

He looked repentant, then sensed his home in the distance and started to edge that direction, including moving his hips in my direction again. I walked toward his hips and straightened him again.

He looked resigned. I don't know you, I don't trust you, but I know one thing - the way home. Don't you know it?

I told J, "I really don't like this horse at this moment. Please give me some time."

I made Mag stand facing away from home, and as soon as he consented, he seeked out a large tree and started nibbling it. That's better, he's not thinking about home.

Mag is self comforting by chewing the tree, but standing still and not trying to get home, so I'm happy to let him. Not really happy, as you can tell by my glare.

He looks sorry.

J saw it too and said "Let's go, and here's a bench for you to get back on."

Of course. Back on!

The horse was fine all the way home, but I admit, I asked J to hold the end of the leadrope. What amazed me, the horse seems so well trained to leading, that every time J stopped, the horse would stop instantly, almost throwing me forward. The sunset blazed between Mag's ears and I just enjoyed it, how the horse responded to J as his leader.

He gave a stump a worried look and J pulled his face down to touch it. Mag did, but also grabbed a branch in his mouth and pulled, but it was too strong for him to break. J helped him break of a piece and the horse walked along happily with a branch in his mouth. J has the perfect combination of indulging the horse's desires, and making the horse do things like walk through puddles or touch scary things.

Finally back home (we were gone over an hour) I brushed him and tried to pick his feet again but he wouldn't pick up his hinds. As I carefully removed the sweat mark at his girth area, he reached his head over and put his nose on my chest and held it there. It was as if he was saying he forgives me for getting mad at him earlier. Or at least, he'd forgotten and wanted to say he still likes me. How can anyone resist a horse that does this?

The owner spoke to us again, and of course he threatened that Mag may sell any day due to their only having three horses under saddle. I joked, "Yah, but can other buyers RIDE HIM?"

My husband was much more professional asking about policies and such. The owner said his price will go up as he gets more experience. J said, "Like the experience we gave him today? We'll send you the bill!" *lol*

I wondered what it would cost to have the horse trained one more month only on trails, and he said, "650 Euros, but you could do the same yourself."  It's true, I could do the same and even better, perhaps.

I gazed at Mag as he ate his hay as we spoke.

J said we'd sleep on it.

These are some of S's shots of him from September. You can see he has marks all over his body, he must play rough. He was much fatter in September - now you can feel his spine sticking up from his back, ugh.

There is a brand on his back, the number 14, I think. I really wish I knew if he has the Michalow brand on his other side. He's from the Michalow state stud in Poland, I saw his name on their website on a list of 30 or so other geldings they sell each year for cheap. Wish I knew what the brands mean.

His father Poganin. I love their chins. The father also has the mane on the wrong side and the right-side pink nose.

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