The ups and downs

Today J' sister came to see Mag. She's a horsey person too, she rides an Icelandic, an adorable  caramel and cream fluffball with the most amazing rock star immaculate hair, alternating silk and fluff.

For some reason the donkey didn't want to go to pasture this morning, so there was no chance of getting them out there without trickery.

Maybe she sensed the weather report. The donkey really runs the show here.

Anyway it was nice that they were here because Sonja got to meet "the baby-faced horse" as she called him. Then she helped me arrange the circumstances to get them to go to the pasture. I haltered them both, and I took the donkey down the hill to the path. She had nice shoes on but she took Mag's lead and followed us through the spot he got shocked, but Mag is so good on the lead, he did not bump into her even though he was tense.

Then I let the donkey go and shoo'ed her to the pasture, cuz I could sense she didn't want to go. Then Sonja let go of Mag, in the most German fashion - taking the halter over his ears. As a horse who lived in Germany 1.5 years now, he may be used to that, but I'm not: )

Yay, they went out to pasture, through the path, together. I felt such relief. Every day I stress a bit about this.

Sonja said goodbye, with an invite for me to come watch/videotape a riding lesson on her caramel horse. Yay!

I immediately went to the pasture to continue the "come to my whistle" training. Mag didn't wait for the whistle, he came right to me and I gave him a bit of carrot. I then proceeded to clean up poop in the pasture, but he followed my every move, even grabbing the poop scooper in his mouth. So that didn't really give me the opportunity to teach "come" so I just ignored him and tried to get the donkey to come to me. She trotted right up and got her mineral snack and again when I moved to do another area. The horse stayed behind me the entire time, I have no idea why they had no appetite for grass today. What is different about today??!

When I was done, I still had the horse, and the donkey, at my side, and I decided to go through the path to get back (as opposed to taking the easy route, ducking under the fence and cutting through the hippies' property on a deer path). Bellis went with me. I wondered, will he finally follow?

HE DID.

I turned around to look and sure enough, Mag was trailing us through the path for the first time since his hot fence encounter.

Wonderful!

Halfway through the path, the horse even got the gumption to pass us! He hesitated when he was by my side, but I nodded my head at him, the signal to move on, and he did! He walked bravely ahead of us on that nasty little path.

When we got to our hang, he got nervous, and approached the corridor of doom and ---- he just went through it --- even ahead of us! He had his tail tucked and was Snorty-Mc-Snorterston, but he made it home. (Snorty McSnorterston is my new nickname for him, cuz he snorts at everything, including his daily hay bag, and his twice-daily beet pulp bucket.)

I cried out, "It's a freaking miracle!"

I ran full speed into the house and told J. Simultaneously thinking  I should call Sonja to tell her, after all her help today! But right then, she pulled back into our driveway; she'd forgotten her cell phone. I hugged her, jumping around spastically,  and said, "He came back.. on his own.. for the first time!" She said I should calm down and not get so wound up. She knew he would, eventually, and I knew he would eventually, but I was so done already getting that horse going to and from the pasture on his own.

I hugged J, I gave the horse a big bucket of beet pulp with some rocket fuel and by-products grain on top, and 10 minutes later he was acting weird.

He was thrashing his tail up and down and trying to lay down like something tickling him, but halfway down, he'd change his mind and get up, still thrashing his tail. I thought how odd, is he colicking  (from the racehorse food!)?

He was unhappy and kept circling the stall and half-dropping to his knees. I panicked to level 7 of 10. But eventually he stopped and chewed for a while, with that inward look of a horse who doesn't feel right. He stood and I rubbed his chest, his favorite thing, and he enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as usual.

A few minutes later he went out into the rain and nibbled on beet pulp, which just today he's started to acquire a taste for. I was so relieved. (Last night he'd cleaned up his beet pulp bucket for the first time !!! It's working! Young Annakin Skywalker in his pod.)

This seems like a roller coaster: My life, and in my dreams. I won't take you there: )

As I sit here I only have to stand up to see him in his stall and he seems tired. He has not lain down yet. He looks like Baasha, nodding his head in half-sleep, listening for the movements of the donkey.

I went from euphoria to worry in 2 minutes, but tonight, again, I feel this thing like happiness.

Perhaps it really is happiness.

J is brimming with amusement lately around the house (and going out to distribute carrots), I'm smiling more often, and our dynamic is more loving and playful than ever. I used a German pun today, relaying a telephone message from his sister Nora, that cracked him up. He said, "It means 'To let someone know something' and I said, 'Oh, I thought it meant to assemble IKEA furniture'." Yah, only one letter difference. We're on the edge of hilarity this week.


Yesterday the rain washed this horse thoroughly. Seriously, the half of his mane that sticks out of his blanket was silvery white, and the half under the blanket was brown, along a big brown stain down his chest.






I kept trying to take a picture of how wet he was - wet enough to see his pink stripe down his face! - but he kept nosing the camera so I backed up and gave up on closeups. Isn't it nice to have a horse that won't let you get close enough to take a photo? I've noticed all his scars are filling in with  hair. But I've also seen him whack his face on the stall wall simply in poor spacial conclusions.

And I remember when we first met Baasha, my sister and I, how every time we visited him, he had a new scratch. So accident prone.




Wait, your mane goes on that side too in the rain? Can you please decide? Cuz I'm done with this both side thing. And stop trying to look even more like Baasha with your mane on that side!







Trying to take a photo of his wet face and muddy legs...




You can't really see it but his legs are plastered in wet mud from the path. His legs should be white.

I have a call in with my trimmer to come out and fix this nonsense - but until then I'm using  Neosporin, Betadine, and vinegar. I'm not gonna trim until she comes which is hopefully this week.





You can see exactly how a high-neck blanket ("wug") works in this photo. His chest is not free from wet. But his withers are, and that is the difference between the highneck "wug" and a normal Amigo blanket that I have (I also have the neck attachment but I'm not sure it will fit him). I like this "wug" cuz he gets itchy and LOVES his chest rubs after I remove the blanket. Yah, I remove it at night, isn't that opposite. I figure he doesn't need a blanket if he's in his stall all night, when the temperature is so mild lately (6C).




About that amount of hay gets him through the night and more. I want him to learn that there will never be an end to forage here. All night hay, all day pasture. Until they decide to mix up that routine. He is not thin, nor fat, but I can see his spine, and he's pretty bony everywhere. It's so nice to be able so show him, no worries, the food will never stop coming.

He's just now learning to eat beet pulp, so I took the next step tonight and added oil to it. Every day, something new!