I rode a Fjord horse (bareback)!!!!

What a day! Wow, I'm spinning from it.

At the end of the day J picked me up and said "You smell different, it's very strong. Not Mag's smell."

I said, "I RODE A FJORD HORSE!" Bareback, completely at ease, totally happy. There is joy in riding, it's there!

***


Gabi invited me for short walk and I told her how Moritz broke his neck ring and Gabi was, "Oh, that Jasmin, she thinks she knows everything! And she tries to use a neck ring on that Haflinger, when he's so naughty! Oh,...." and she went on and on and complaining also about Birgit, the mother who wants to help but doesn't know enough to be truly helpful, and I felt sheepish, I didn't intend to elicit gossip, especially not about the ones who help me....

Gabi told me to take Mag forward, in front of her and her nasty Pinto mare and her dog on the line.

We were at the Christmas tree farm and the truck was there loading Christmas trees, and someone was closing the gate to the tree farm, but it was not a gate at all. It was a big long fencing panel with some sort of fabric on it to make it opaque. It was not attached to anything, so to open it, you had to just pick the whole thing up and heft it around. And as I was chatting with Gabi, that was the moment the dude picked up the panel and held it aloft. Mag fruck out, as any horse would. Fences do not just suddenly hoist themselves into the air!

The guy was compassionate as he saw Mag flip out, snorting, tail over his back. He held out his hand to greet Mag. Mag touched his hand and I said, "Yes, Mag it's Christmas, and look at all the trees on the back of his tractor trailer!"

As we arrived home Willy was tipping a wheelbarrow over and Mag jumped out of his skin again. At that moment I began to lose my cool. What the heck, why are you super-charged today!?

I tied him to the wall with a net of hay to placate him and suddenly, at 10 AM, a couple arrived with 4 loud, loud, loud kids. WTH. It's Monday morning.(Later Willy told me it's a weekly Kindergarten class. That explains it.)

These kids were being taught to clean hooves, but I saw up close how tiny kids cannot really clean a hoof.

They went and rode two ponies, it was not a proper lesson, it was just these two adults, I don't know what that was about.

As I was cleaning Mag's "special" hind foot, suddenly these kids came running full speed down the hill, and we were behind a wall so we couldn't see them, but hear and feel them running and squealing. Mag jumped a little and since I was under him, I got quickly into safety as he skittered a bit.

OK no big deal, kids at a riding stable, running around. Mag has to learn that, but hey, I distinctly remember passing quiet and slow behind their ponies as the kids learned to pick hooves.


Before they left I said,"Hey, wait. Your kids put me in danger today. I am not blaming them completely, because most horses here are OK with kids running toward/behind them, but when your kids did it today, I was under my horse, and could have been injured."

The lady said, "Kids, LISTEN! Say again please" I said, "You go ahead" cuz my accent and kids, no way.

She repeated what I said. She tried to tell them how they put me in danger by running around. She told me, "I had no idea you were there, I would have told them to be more careful."

***

I took Mag up to the indoor but Gabi was doing in-hand work with her school horses. I enjoyed watching. She was at the horse's head and she'd tap or wave the whip at its hip and it would do a sidepass with her. She praised each one, and I couldn't leave. I said, "How do you do it, when I try, my horse wrings his tail angrily!"

She said, "Make it slower and easier and give him treats, the first few times."

I slipped away to the outdoor...

I had worked him after a long warm up, into a nice jog over two, only two poles and then I asked him to show me a little energy.

HE FLIPPED OUT COMPLETELY.

He took off at a gallop and tried to pull me off my feet, his old trick, but I had a cavesson on his nose, and gloves on. I needed all my strength, despite that. He was on fire, he ran around me through the puddles in the sand ring full tilt, tail touching his backbone, as if he'd been struck by lightning.

I "let" him go, and asked him "Why?" but he kept it up, full blast, tearing up the ring, tearing it up til there were deep holes in the footing.

I don't understand this lazy vs. abruptly crazy racing behavior.

Gabi came over as I had him back under control, she missed it, but I'm certain she heard his trumpeting snorts. She saw his tail position and said, "That's not a good sign, that tail." I said, "I know, it's his danger tail."

He jogged compliantly around, over the two poles I set up, and I showed her how he knows how to yield his hind end on the line.

She came in and said, "Let me try."

She had him doing the sidepass on the line, but he thrashed his tail the entire time. She explained how the different exercises work the different muscles and told me I should not ask this except every 3rd day, it's too strenuous. But she kept pushing him to cross over both fore and hind.

And Mag said, as always, "Enough work, I prefer leisure."

She jumped at him exactly as she had on that trailer loading experience. She whacked him and yelled, "YOU WILL WORK when asked!"

Then as we stood and talked, he tried to nuzzle her jacket and I asked if she had treats, no. So, he's just used to people having them? She whacked him in the nose, "Do not nuzzle me!"

I explained that I don't give Mag treats during work because he cannot focus on the work at all if there are treats around. She said, "Maenner!" (Men)

***

Willy walked by with a wheelbarrow of poop. He said, "My 6th today!" I said, "I'm sorry, that's just too much." Then Mag was fascinated with the wheelbarrow's contents and followed Willy along, nosing it, and Willy laughed and started speaking Polish to Mag. "Stay with me" he said in Polish. I mimicked him, trying to speak Polish. One thing's for sure, Mag loves Willy.

***

Jana arrived, I hadn't seen her since our first day - she's the teenager who leases the Fjord horse Maja who lives in the adjacent stall to Mag. I was happy to see her again.

As Jana was riding out, I said, "Hey, can I come with you a little, on foot, just 5 or 10 minutes if you have other plans, but it would be nice to have the experience for just a little while."

As we walked along the trails, she asked me where I am from, and told me she was interested in Colorado cuz weed's legal. I laughed, "In my state too" but honestly in Germany, no one knows that  Washington STATE exists.

I marveled at how much Maja looks like my donkey Bellis. The shape of the head, the coloring. Her nose is white and her lips black, like Bellis', and her eyes also have that same shape. So as we went along, I felt like I was walking with Bellis. Maja never flinched on trail at anything, even the bikes and strollers and an old man on a grey Arabian, which Mag really, really wanted to greet. Jana told me that he's  a mean old man, that he will race by without slowing.

We talked and talked, she's enamored with America, and I was just happy to be out with another horse for Mag to experience. I told her about the wildlife I have encountered back home, and how nervous I am about the wild boars in Germany. She said, "There is nothing to worry about!"

Back home she said, "Let's turn our horses loose together in the arena." Hm, that's familiar. I said, "Sorry, I'm not willing to risk an injury. " She complied but turned the Fjord mare loose to roll, and she did twice. And then Mag witnessed and rolled on the lead line, which is fine.

But he rolled so many times I lost count after 8. Good heavens. He was determined to get as much dirt into his ears and eyes and nostrils, scraping his forehead into the footing.

Jana was laughing, and she wanted to do something more.

"Hey, ride my Fjord, she's easy."

She had no saddle, but her back looked like a sofa, so I got on her.

Maja is so sensitive to weight and leg cues, I was doing serpentines and tiny circles, and she would yield sideways at the slightest shift in my weight and touch of my leg. WHAT FUN!!

I would throw myself forward and hug her but I couldn't see her neck, it was completely hidden in mane on both sides, a mane that was blond, white, and black at once. And her ears, they also had 4 colors on each ear? Blond, red, brown, black and even a little white tip!

I had a blast, I was jogging around bareback on a Norwegian horse who had nothing else in her mind except to do as I wished. How freeing it is, to feel that again.

Mag looked at us and Jana said, "What can he do? Does he buck?"

I told her I cannot promise anything...but you can go ahead and get on him if you wish.

She jumped on him bareback with only a halter but as soon as I was leading them around, I decided to tie lead rope end to the other side so she could have two "reins" - and it was fine.

I pretended to lead him around and he relaxed into following me, in the patterns I walked. Maja stayed in a corner, not even eating the hay bales.

Then I jogged and we trotted around and I said, "You don't need me" and she was able to walk around on Mag alone, as I jogged back to her super Fjord horse and jumped back on her.

"Let's play games!" I rode up and said, "Follow ME!" and Mag didn't know how, but they tried and we did patterns and circles.

Then I followed them around. I laughed a lot.

They only tipped their ears back a few times at each other, but not too bad.

We had so much fun.

"Oh, hey, don't tell Maja's owner, or anyone else, that you rode her."

"WHAT? Oh man, I knew I should have asked, 'Am I allowed to ride your lease mare? Anyone could have walked by and seen me!"

"But no one did."

"But if?"

"I would tell them that if they thought they saw you on the back of Maja; I'd say they were mistaken." LOL

I looked down at my breeches. "Jana, do you see the long blond hairs? I have obviously ridden a Fjord horse today and not my own."


I thanked her for her help, and she said, "There's really no reason to feel anxious, but I will admit I've never fallen off a horse in my life."

What, never?

"Then you have no right telling anyone never to feel anxious on a horse!" LOL

I thanked her again for a fun day.


I have no pics of that day, sorry.





Recently I found this horse, another of the Polish P-line that Mag is part of, and I was floored - to me, it looks exactly like my horse. That exact expression, "Life is great, isn't it!?" The pink nose is slightly different, and this one has 4 pale hooves, but otherwise.....Oh, and I love that he's named after a font.

I found a verse tonight that fits,  "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy." Psalm 94.