A great 3rd lesson

Katharina was right - having us back so soon was the right thing to do.

She put the lunging cavesson on and asked him to trot on the 5 meter circle and used the whip against his side to get a bend. He immediately dropped his head and went around in a lovely, relaxed manner, even stretching his nose to the ground a few times. I kept up a nearly nonstop GOOD BOY as he showed us, "This is what you wanted right? I'm doing it right? Not what I would choose, myself, but if you humans need this, I'll try."

To the right was much more difficult for him, and he didn't offer to drop his head or stretch down but eventually it was halfway there so she called it good.

She said he's relaxed today, totally with her, and it would be good to get on if I want to. I did of course. I showed her that he knows how to touch each of my stirrups with his nose when I ask, something she'd been trying to teach him from the ground.

When we started walking around, with her leading Mag, he kept drifting side to side like a colt being ridden for the first time. It was an uneasy feeling, that he forgot how to balance under a rider. But after a while he remembered and I was able to ask for bend. A few times he tossed his head around like, "Leave me alone and let me do whatever I want!" but we scolded him and kept going. As always his whoa is really nice, well, when he doesn't automatically back up in addition.

Then on a direction change I asked for a turn on haunches, which he is still learning. She said we should do it from the ground first but on my second try he did it just right.

It felt great to share relaxation with Mag from his back.

I jumped off and rubbed him.

30 minutes total, but such a great session.

I had a lovely walk home with him, letting him stop to grab a fallen apple or pear along the way.

As I type this I'm also watching the livestream of the All Nations Cup - Germany's biggest Arabian horse show. It's fun to be able to watch from home, although I'm not good at picking winners. I saw one handler get pulled off his feet and dragged through the sand behind his horse whose lead got flipped onto the wrong side of his neck. It's fun to see the exuberance and training even on the foals. I saw one stallion who would not stop trying to bite its handler. My favorites are the ones who look as if they're posing standing relaxed before stretching. I saw a few horses from Mag's barn in Poland, one a cousin of his, Pustynia Kahila.

It makes me think Mag belongs there, he's as good as many, if not the winners. But we have other things to do.
 
Today was a wonderful reminder that if we end a lesson the moment the horse responds as we wish, we might just get our wish next time immediately.




Pustynny Mag learning trot outs - sharped with Win10's enhance feature.

Update from Aachen's All Nations Cup - they brought in a stallion and under an amazing light show had an auction for a breeding, which sold for 25,000 pounds (!) but it gets better, the buyer said he'd donate that to charity and go ahead and do the auction again! Then the breeding sold (again) for 20,500 euros, the winner being David Boggs! He was the only American I recognized. Wish I knew what horse that was.

Then they did a tribute to Sigi from OmElArab who died this year, who bred one of my bedroom wall horses, El Shaklan. I'd just read the entire story of Estopa, his Spanish mother, crossed with a Morafic son, which in the 70s was something new. Did you know Estopa was so great they decided to breed her to her son El Shaklan? Hm, OK.

And they just asked everyone to stand for the UAE national anthem, I suppose because they won so many championships today.

There was a laser show with fire and the entire arena was pitch black, I kept expecting screams.

The announcer says things like "The best Arabian mares from around the globe" but I really wonder how well America is represented. I see some of the horses were bred in America, but owned by Kuwait, for example. It's wonderful to see the people who both bred and own the horse break down and cry: )

I just saw the champion senior mare duck her tail into a J in her victory lap - perhaps due to the huge wreath of flowers she was wearing? Lots of horses refused to wear their wreaths.

I'm unable to walk away, the lights are down again and they're inviting everyone to come to the middle of the arena after the show for cocktails. I've always heard Aachen is fancy but oh my. OK it's the UAE anthem again. I'm getting to know this song: )

Anyway, you won't believe me, perhaps, but as I spent 7 hours today watching, I saw one horse that I knew immediately was related to Mag. OK, well, there were about 20 cousins from Ekstern, but this one I looked at and knew. Since they didn't say the name of the horse, I remembered the number, 130. I held onto that number in my head all day until I finally discovered there is an online PDF of the entries, and I looked up 130. It turns out to be a Russian/Polish cross but a half cousin of Mag, I just knew it. I know it doesn't sound impressive, but most of the horses in Aachen this weekend were from Germany, and the others were from the middle east, and only a few from other European states. Let's just say I never heard the American nor Polish anthem play.

LATONA

07.02.2008 / grey

registered in: PL

Sire:

EL NABILA B

by KUBINEC out of 218 ELF LAYLA WALAYLA B

Dam:

LARANDA

by EKSTERN out of LARISSA

Now they're doing laser shows again with "epic" music in a nearly pitch black arena.

Much music, fanfare. It seems they tried to make it not just for horse people, but their relatives that got dragged in there.

Whoa, the announcer just said, please enter, the UAE representatives, because they have won this year's show.

Now it's over and they're celebrating even beyond what I'd seen all day, on this last day.

After finally finding the entry PDFs, I found exactly two horses that travelled there from America.

Woo!