Lukas 4, the skaters that weren't, and Oklahoma where the wind...

Lukas did not give me a lesson today, even though I would have liked one. Instead he told me what he thinks I should do with Mag.

He says I should send him for 90 days training. At 1800Euros I'm not sure that's an option for us.

He says we need to get another horse, a boarder perhaps, that the donkey is not enough for him. I explained that we tried that twice and how both times failed. It could work, he's right, but I'm not enthusiastic about trying again. Lukas feels that having a horse to play with would help Mag be calmer during training. I think that's a stretch - I honestly can't believe Mag wouldn't have kicked me if he had a horse instead of a donkey as a friend.

He says it is essential that we have an arena to train Mag in, so he'd be willing to come help me with ground work or massage techniques, but he doesn't want to continue to ride Mag, that we should work on our relationship rather than under saddle work. This bothers me because I think what Mag needs most now is hard work, not massage. But one or two sessions can't hurt.

He says I should look for someone to lease Mag, someone who will help me train him. *lol* Someone will pay me to train my horse? Even if no money was exchanged, how would I know I found a good one and not someone who will mess him up? I could ask S if she knows someone who is looking for a lease horse.

He says S is willing to come over here weekly and help me out. I said, "How do you think she can help me?" He replied, "By observing, maybe she'll see something you missed like he was off balance or something." I honestly think S can help me, but also that she will disagree with me when I am "too strict" with Mag. I can't see how that could go smoothly, since we're fundamentally different in our handling of horses.

I got the impression that Lukas doesn't want to come here anymore, but then he said he wanted to do groundwork and massage, so I'll give him a couple sessions to do that, and then I'll ask that we start under saddle work again. If he's actually afraid, he'll refuse, and I can let him go.

I think you understand how desperate I am for help, to continue to let Lukas try to help. I searched the Internet last night trying to find any trainer in our city, but they don't always put themselves on the Internet.

That was Friday.

Today I got a message from S saying she'd trailered her horse out with her barn owner's to a lovely riding area near Cologne, but that after their ride I was welcome to come by their stable and talk. I said I was busy, and I was. But I don't feel up to going to her barn watching her work her horse..and what are the chances she won't just continue giving me the same advice she gave me last week?

Today I fell apart, privately, but J found me and said, "Let's take Mag for a walk right now." Even though he was too busy to go to our block party/flea market with me, and too busy to even go geocaching with me.

He met me at the paddock where I was cleaning poop and he said, "Where is Mag?" I said, "I dunno."

I handed him the rope halter and leadline and he only knows normal halters. I showed him what part goes where, sans horse, and he tromped out to the pasture without me. I heard him call and they came to him. He didn't have to halter them, they followed. As usual.

Then I asked him to halter the donkey and bring her into the stall. I have to say, I've never seen a rope halter put on in such a fashion, it was a mathematical impossibility. It was both upside down and inside out, but somehow on her. We got her to the stall and I tried again to show him, with the horse's help. Oh, but not before Mag decided he wanted nothing to do with us and started walking back out to pasture! I sat down and wanted to cry.

J went to Mag and, talking and petting him, and patting his thigh, encouraged him to come back to me. I again very slowly started to show J how to put the rope halter on, and this time Mag just stood there.

My horse was covered in mud, but oh well. We went for a nice walk. J wanted to go for a LONG walk, and he never told me where, or how long, I just followed along.

It was that extremely narrow  path along the creek and I had to scramble Mag up and down some cliffsides to get out of the way of other users. One dude took a photo of me in a tight spot where there was no room, so I put my outstretched arms along Mag's body and nodded that his wife could proceed without risk. If he was dangerous, I'd get hurt first. I wondered that the photo would be on YouTube tonight, or if he'd submit it to the Police. Later we saw a sign that horses are actually allowed on that trail, whew, even though each time Mag pooped, I carefully pushed it down the cliff.

Hey, Mag pooped twice, and both times......he KEPT WALKING. This is the very first day he's considered such a thing. I was so proud. "My future performance horse, who can poop and walk at the same time!" I told him.

Although I'm trying to teach Mag to not graze as we walk along grassy areas, it was cute to see, whenever we stopped to talk, that he'd grab a branch off the ground and hold it in his mouth like a dog. And another time, a pine cone, which made J laugh. He said, "You are like a dog!" I see it as self-comforting behavior, I don't discourage it, but I don't want him grabbing grass as we walk along constantly. So I'm teaching him a cue for "Graze now."

A very elderly couple approached and I pushed Mag down the hillside in a spot that looked so unstable, but J told me to do it, and Mag clutched the hillside to avoid falling, as they passed us finally, but stopped to ask directions (AGH) and J explained and explained and they kept talking and I kept thinking my horse is gonna sink into a root well. Finally they thanked us and left.

We came to a creek where Mag's hooves previously had punched a deep, hock deep hole above the culvert. I was afraid it would happen again so J said to take him downstream and let him crawl up the steep side. I did, and poor Mag, he sank to his hocks in mud, and barely clamored out of there. Good boy, yes, you almost died!

Then we came to a parking lot full of puddles and Mag drank out of them, watching people collect Elderberry blossoms into plastic sacks. Germans are hunter/gatherers. It's so cute how they reap from nature at every chance.

These same people had to squeeze past Mag later on the narrow trail, but they were friendly, thankfully.

I love that trail but on a weekend it's always a matter of will I be able to get Mag off the trail enough to let people pass, and without scolding me?  I notice when people are scared of horses. I wish dog people would notice this.

There is a Freibad (outdoor swimming pool) on this narrow trail and I thought people were skateboarding in it, from the sound, and from what I could see through the bushes. It was very loud. Crash and slide, and slap and splash, oh, there was water in the pool for the first time this year! Mag has not seen that. But what...J said, "No, it's not skaters." What? It was .....um, what do you call it when there is a cable, a pulley machine, where people water ski without boats. I'd seen it before, on a lake, fascinating! This was just a pool, no, two pools, and they'd constructed a ramp in between so the people could do fancy moves as they flew through the air between the two pools. All wearing helmets. Mag was transfixed. I actually saw his heartbeat in his chest, and that never happens. I asked J to stop because I needed to show Mag this scene.

We stood there long enough for Mag to relax (which J noticed, Mag's most obvious clue) and then we proceeded. I was totally amazed at how well he handled that, because it was very loud, the pulley system, and the slapping of the boards on the ramps, these people were flying through the air loudly about 50 meters from where we stood.

What I enjoyed so much today was Mag's seeking out puddles to drink from. I'd take him to a puddle with the intention of requiring him to step a hoof into it, and he'd invariably take a long drink. Every time. It was so cute. J had to keep waiting as Mag tasted and drank deeply from each puddle or creek we crossed. What a good boy. And I did the circling game/lunging on a shorter line, and required him to trot into those puddles, which he did. He didn't want to, but he did, even though a high speed bicyclist came roaring by those puddles.

J chose to take the long way home (!), a route Mag had never seen, and he breathed loudly/snorted a little. We encountered a field of baby goats, and they were literally frolicking. Mag stood there, "Whoa.....I've never..." Then that same couple from earlier came, and instead of photographing us again, photographed the baby goats.

Mag was not afraid of the "cougar rocks" - these huge boulders by the goat pasture that look like predators, that took me and Mara 45 minutes to pass. J told me to let Mag graze there, for "bonding" and I said, "Well, OK, but let's sit down on the boulders, cuz I want Mag to learn that when I sit, it's OK for him to graze, but not otherwise." Amazingly, he never looked at the boulders. He'd seen them once before, but they are very intimidating and I expected him to react, but J laughed, "Do you see how much grass he has packed into his mouth at once!" Yes, he's talented that way. A herd of furry sheep stood right there beside him and he didn't care. Good boy.

The field of hay above us was waving in the wind and I started quoting OKLAHOMA. You know it, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. And the waving wheat can sure smell sweet, and the wind comes right behind the rain........ I did not sing this time, I was more subdued today than usual, but always think of Dick Solomon when I see such a field on the horizon. (These horizons do not exist in Seattle because of the mountains, there is always something beyond your field of vision but before der Weltraum unendliche Weiten.)

We finally arrived home and J helped me bring hay down from the loft, and I washed his shoes as I promised, and told him how much I appreciate what he did for me today, when it's finals time for his students, and he has a stack of grading notebooks on our kitchen table.

I can't say it enough, I'm so thankful.




Showing how compliant, so far, Mag is in an arena. It seems to be his happy place.





These images are from May, and the video below too, but I wanted to have something visual to share.