Driving home from the barn

What a strange feeling it is, to drive home from the barn. It's soooooo familiar, you're head is full of barn stuff and you stink of horse and your shoes are muddy and you're driving home not noticing that you're driving, you know?

But Mag's still here, so I came home to him. He was supposed to move today but we're having a windstorm and Gabi isn't comfortable driving the horse trailer in the wind. OK, but I already baked her two cakes, and they were not going to be as good tomorrow so I drove to Wuppertal to deliver the cakes. The cheesecake was in a cooler on ice (baked yesterday so chilled overnight) and the peach crisp/cobbler (half and half) was in an ingenious Pyrex insulated warmer. I also had a thermos of hot peach syrup and a box of fancy vanilla icecream for the cobbler/crisp. Well, she's ready for a party. Ironically I don't eat sugar anymore and this is the first time I've baked in 12 months.

I helped Gabi move horses - two at a time, each of us, to the indoor so she could freelunge them and let them roll and it sure was cute, the way her horses rub up against each other, jump on top of each other, and inspire each other to frolic. I went through this enormous pile of horse stuff in one corner - lots of toys and training things - all of it I can use! Hoola hoops, a soft plastic "pond", flags, cones, poles, jumps, 30 years of stuff. I was organizing and folding and swatting dust off things and she kept explaining what things were to me.

Then I helped her get another arena full of horses and she free lunged them as well. Her horses are so hairy! I was rubbing on them and getting their sweat on me and I remembered again how much better Arabians smell than others. Or maybe when Mag lives there he'll pick up barn smell. Ew. (My sister and I have always contended that Arabians smell different. But I know that a horse who spends most of its time at pasture is gonna smell much better than one who lives in a stall. Then again, Mag smells like nothing to me because I'm around him so much I don't notice.)

I cleaned my stall and tried to clean the automatic waterer but I've never had one of those in my life and how on earth are you supposed to clean them!? I did as best I could but really, really don't like them. I attached my frost-free bucket to the wall and filled it, and hung another bucket for vitamins. Gabi was complaining as she took down Winter blankets hanging from the panels of Mag's stall - "I told people to get their stuff off your stall - why do people have to keep numerous blankets and hang them everywhere!" I thought to myself well, I do the same, to air out my blankets, I drape them places and it doesn't look tidy. I have an enormous saddle locker so I'll keep my extra blanket in there when it's dry (there are designated blanket drying racks for when they're wet).

Then this family arrived and the lady came right up to me and introduced herself and wanted to know where Mag was and she tried to help me hang my bucket and she told me how her childhood dream came true and she has a horse of her own - a "white pony" - a Connemara named Mia. And to her surprise, when she got her first horse home in August, her husband fell in love with Mia too, and actually - her husband was doing all the work! I immediately noticed that the horse (slightly smaller than Mag, but same coloring) seems to be in charge of the family, but it's adorable to watch them dote on her. Klaus would say, "Mia, hold still, hold still, hold still" but Mia was doing whatever she liked as he tried to brush her. Pony's got their number: ): ) :) Their two boys were running around everywhere being loud but also helping sweep and scoop poop, so that's good. The younger kept saying Hallo to me every time he saw me, probably cuz I'm a foreigner and he finds my accent funny. The mother, Tanja, said, "Oh, the kids speak PERFECT English, so we have to practice with you!" I laughed, "No one speaks perfect English! Not me!" The husband kept speaking English to me but I didn't because he really doesn't need to. If they really want help with English, of course I'll help. I find it hilarious when people use English words to their horses, but oddly. Last I was there, a lady who had a Paint horse used English commands but not quite like we do. She wanted her horse to move over, but instead of saying "over" she said some other word, I think it was "turn."

As I puttered around I started puttering slower and slower, realizing I was savoring the feeling of being welcome, and of belonging to a community - a club. How odd, I really didn't expect that.

It was especially surprising because I never felt that way at the barn across the street where I paid to use the arena with Mara, back when I was allowed to. I always had to defer to the boarders, and sometimes leave and come back another time. I was not a member of the club. Now I am.

Huh. I guess it's been a really long time since I've boarded a horse at a big barn. Since 1999, the end of the Dressage years, when I started CMO/Endurance, I knew I couldn't keep Baasha in a stall at all, ever again, so I found pasture board from then on. So I guess that means it's been 17 years since I've boarded at a big barn. I asked how many boarders Gabi has and I think the answer is around 20. Not a "big" barn, but more than a private pasture with trees for shelter, what Baasha had (and needed).

I know it's gonna frustrate me to not be able to turn Mag out into a field and let him tear it up. I hate bathtubs in paddocks and guess what Mag will be drinking out of. Ugh. (Although it was no sharp edges, I checked, I LOATHE bathtubs as troughs.) I also know not everyone is gonna be friendly, and that I'll feel overwhelmed by socialization. But today was just perfect.

I asked about a shared vet-call in December, when Mag's tetanus is due, because hey, I'm at a barn, let's share the anfahrtskosten (cost of coming to the barn, I can't remember the word in English).  Gabi told me to put a request out on her barn's WhatsApp thingy. I said, I cannot, because I have no smartphone. Then she said, "Well, write it on the blackboard!" WhatsApp, pffft.

It turns out the barn guy, Willy,  (the person hired to clean stalls and turnout/bring in and do repairs) is Polish, and he might be able to help me read Mag's passport. Gabi took me to him and he asked me if Mag is from Janow Podlaski. I said, "His father is but Mag is from the other state stud, Michalow." He started talking about Janow, and the fine horses, the millions of euros they sell for, and how the government switched out the directors of both studs this year, a scandal, because the new directors aren't horse people. I said, "I know, because it's government, and government is more concerned about business than horse knowledge." I think Gabi was a little surprised at this conversation, and I was glad I'd been paying attention to what's going on in Poland. She just added, "I know that some of the best Arabians come from Poland, that is what I know!" Willy said he looks forward to speaking in Polish to Mag, because he'll understand. Absolutely!

Finally there was nothing more for me to do so I slowly left.

What a weird thing to drive home from the barn.

Right now Mag is enjoying the windstorm, prancing around in the big field, pestering the donkey to join him in prancing. Enjoy it while you have it!

This is Tolima, the TB I leased from that barn in 2008. So beautiful, so nutso. I'm ready, so ready, to bring Mag to this very spot. Maybe I'll take a photo, it seems to be November.