Thursday, January 19, 2017

Energy-saving-mode Mag

At 7 am I got an SMS from Bettina saying my bucket had not frozen overnight. Hm! Maybe she'll stop shutting Mag's paddock off! I quickly looked at the temp and it was -7. Yesterday was -8. But today warmed to a delightfully drippy 0. Which makes driving feel safer.

But J's mom fell on the ice and broke her arm! I found myself not just taking care of Opa's apartment today, but washing baby bottles. I took the task very seriously, and found it surreal, burning my fingers on the hot water so the kids don't get sick.

At the barn Mag was so eager to get out of his paddock, he was shifting from foot to foot as I told Willy about a rain gutter to water trough that I tried to fix but am too short. Willy laughed at Mag, "Look how much he wants you to get him!"

We went straight to the trailer and Mag jumped in, and today the sun had warmed up the interior of the trailer, so he was relaxed in there, no trembling. I stood on the ramp for 10 full minutes. Willy joined me and when I asked him how long this will take, trailer training, he said, "Add one year to what you have now." *lol* Funny man. He told me I should open the front and I said, "I can't, my horse has to learn to get into trailers that don't open in the front."

Mag did not leave the trailer on his own today at all. He even stood there when I entered and came to his head, which sometimes he thinks is a "get out now!" thing. Instead he "let" me sweep up the spilled beet pulp and then together we took it out to dump it in a wheelbarrow. Goooood boy!

I saddled up even though no one was in the barn. I thought, well, either someone will show up, or I'll get on alone for the first time.

Nina showed up. Nina is one of the "elite" at the barn who has been there forever and seems to hang with the cool crowd. Nina and I have two connections - she is a high-school teacher just like my husband, and she leased the TB mare Tolima after I did. I hadn't spent any time alone with Nina until today.

She was doing liberty work and in-hand work with her Leitstute. I call that mare the Dowager Countess because of the way Mag cringes every time she comes near, and the way she rules the entire place. She's a shiny black Peruvian Paso, only about 14.2, I think. She has a hay allergy and gets a fancy breathing thingy every day, Nina attaches the thing to her face and walks her around.

As I warmed up Mag I said, "Would you mind staying here with me a few minutes, I'd like to ride and I'd rather not do it alone." She agreed.

She watched Mag walking circles calmly around me and said, "He's pretty relaxed by now huh?" I said, "Today, but not yesterday!" : ) It was funny to watch Mag, every time he got near the Dowager Countess his face scrunched up. I gave her plenty of room.

She said, "You know, that photo of Tolima you gave me was really hard to accept - it was so unexpected, a new image of her." I said, "I understand what you mean." If someone had a photo of Baasha without my knowing....

As I got on she commented, "I also worked hard to teach my mare to hold still while mounting."

I rode him over to her end and watched her massage her mare's ears and forehead. I witnessed true love between human and horse today.

I was making sure Mag was walking up properly but then Nina started talking to me about Tolima, how she was in danger so often riding her, and how her owner, who you know from my blog, didn't do right by her. I said I don't know about that, just that my friend rides like a teenager with no fear of death, and that recently she told me she's glad my horse is here in a herd rather than with a donkey.

She said that Tolima wasn't given optimal care (which I never saw in my 6 months with her) and that she had fallen in love with her, and was at the airport, Nina was, when she suddenly started crying and called home and wanted to know what was wrong and came to the barn and found Tolima with a broken leg in the field. And the vet took 45 minutes to arrive, and said without getting out of his car, "I can see from here it's broken, she's a goner." !!!

Nina told me how long it took her - well, she couldn't come to the barn for at least a year, she was so traumatized.

I tried to ride Mag around her in a large circle as she spoke, and follow her on the inside when she walked her mare around, but I realized Mag was checked out. Like all lazy horses, he switches to energy-save-mode quickly. In fact if I answered Nina, Mag would just stop. "You're just talking about something else, this has nothing to do with NOW, so why should I work?"

I said losing them suddenly is sometimes worse, but planning for a euthanasia is difficult.  She said she's had both now, one with her cat.

She told me she bought a horse of her own after Tolima but had no connection, and she admitted it was probably her fault for being so devastated. She said when she got this mare, she had to learn to ride all over again, as if she were a beginner, because she's lost so much confidence. Sounds familiar.
 
She bought the Dowager Countess, even though she's a lifelong TB lover and really really wanted a TB. She said, "You love TBs too, don't you?" I said, "Oh no, they are too difficult for me."

I got Mag into a trot, three times around, that was my goal, and he was fine. But he was very very leery of the scary end today, and the open door - I've never ridden in there with the door open and he acted scared of it but was just fine when the mare went first. I'm so not worried about scary arena ends with Mag. That is nowhere on my list of things to work on. I just want lots and lots of positive rides indoors, and then outdoors.

Nina said when her new mare fell ill that was what bonded them. She finally had a heart horse of her OWN. I would hate to think that would be what it would take for me to find a heart horse, but I'm happy for her. I told her I had a similar experience, after my horse died, I failed to bond with my next one. That I hope Mag is the one, but I'm very reluctant to give up my heart.

Then I jumped off, realizing my time was nearly up, and Nina went and got this big plastic ball and they started playing ball together! Mag and I stood in the audience area, and the mare was loose, but chasing this ball around, pushing it with her head, it was so cute! I couldn't leave and Mag was transfixed.

Mag was staring at the mare pushing that ball around with both ears and both eyes, like a statue, like, "This is something completely new, what is this!?"

I kept laughing and I hope that someday Mag can play ball too.

I told Mag he's wonderful and put him away.

I'll try to get a pic of the Leitstute.

My confidence shaking mare, pictured below, had such a great topline and muscular rearend! But that wasn't from athleticism, that was just how tense she was, 24/7, keeping herself fit from never being able to relax. I would love another reddish purple horse though, the one I have now is yellowish green. Ah, egal, the best color is the color of sweat, from a horse who did a good job.

Mag has no butt at all, but he doesn't spend his time in stress.


6 comments:

TeresaA said...
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AareneX said...
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Oak Creek Ranch said...
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Crystal said...
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Camryn said...
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Achieve1dream said...

Whew! I'm glad he was fine in the trailer again. He must have just been having a bad day. It happens.

That's sad about the horse with the broken leg and her horse getting sick, but I'm glad she's better and that they bonded over the whole thing.

Chrome is definitely my heart horse. There are only two other horses who come anywhere close to how much I love him. I don't know what it is that makes him special... I really don't think it has anything to do with him being half Friesian even though that's why I got him. I think it was all the time I spent with him when he was a baby. Teaching him everything he knows and being there for all of his "firsts" is an incredible way to bond. I'm too chicken to ever want to do it again (teaching the under saddle stuff to a green horses), but I'm glad I did it with him. Raising him as a foal was unforgettable. :)