Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Mag learns to play on cue

When Gaby said my horse desperately needs to PLAY I turned him loose and you saw what happened.  Nothing. How on earth would I tell him "play now"? If I've got a whip, it means we're working right?

Think, think!

Tanja wanted to let our horses loose together in the arena and I finally agreed today to give it a try, after we spent about a half hour doing ground work together. Then Tanja noticed Mia was slightly off and changed her mind. As we discussed it, Mag took his lunge line in his mouth and held it like dogs who carry their own leashes, adorable! Mia rolled but I covered Mag's eyes and said, "Not while we're working." Hm, how to teach him when it's OK......

I told Tanja I'd never encouraged him to play before and I have no idea what he'll do. She put  Mia in the audience section of the arena, closing the lunge line that serves as a divider to the sections. I never shut it because I don't consider it an effective barricade. I guess others feel differently..........

I've got it. I'll use my body in a playful manner. I'll jump and hop and skip and tilt my head and basically "play horse" like I did when I was a kid on the schoolground with my "herd."

At first Mag backed up several steps in a row, "Good heavens what does that mean?" His eyes were huge and he was truly confused. Then I got even more animated (lookin' like an idiot) and he got it. PLAY!

OMGosh I'm so glad we'd warmed up first, because otherwise I think I would have seen him literally break himself in two. He was bucking like a bronc, rear hooves in the sky, leaping and kicking out toward me (that's not rudeness is it?) and galloping full speed and performing sliding stops to land nearly on top of Mia. SORRY, I'm SO SORRY! I yelled but what could I do. Mia remained pleasant and never glared at him.

Tanja said, "My he has power." I nodded, torn - it's nice to see him want to play, but it looks like an injury about to happen. Then again this is what he'd do back home in our pasture.

Then Tanja lost her head (?) and I lost some respect for her. As Mag was running full speed around, she took Mia and left without saying a word, and didn't shut the door! Suddenly his best friend was gone, and fully open door, I started calling, "Tanja, TANJA!" in a very scared voice. OMgosh come back and shut the door - I was too far away and Mag was running right for it. Then he slammed on the brakes at the chest-high lunge line "gate." Tanja came back and shut the door, oblivious to what almost happened. In my head I saw Mag crash out over the pavement, slipping and falling, then rushing out onto the nearest Autobahn and dying in traffic.

Normally people are so considerate, they ask if they can remove a rump rug, and every time someone comes or goes, they announce it. She's new to horses but she's not new to German arena rules which she knows better than I do.

Anyway, I thought of a silly signal for "roll now" too - 1. I remove the lead line 2. I gesture at the ground making pawing motions with my arms. Again, totally stupid looking, I'll try to improve it. (Pawing with my feet is more realistic.) But he got it, and he rolled and rolled and rolled, as usual, an absurd amount of times.

I didn't do any trailer training today cuz we were having a wind storm with sleet and I didn't feel like dealing with that. I gave him his bucket in his stall and told him how fine he is.

Tomorrow I'll go to observe the adult's lesson. I got my bareback pad back from Tanja and I really wanna give it a try on Mag.

Oh, and when I arrived today, I whistled to him and he gave me a very deep demanding neigh of greeting. It may not be just for food, his greeting, I believe it's his need for stimulation and living in a Winter paddock is terribly boring for him. He might also appreciate my familiarity and predictability. So I enjoy my "Hi you consistent one!" welcome neigh, without quite believing it's love, yet.. : )



This is the time of year (snow, ice, sleet) that I go through Spring and Summer photos and cannot believe how alive the earth can be.

One last thing - I emailed Susanne, my friend who leased me the TB mare at this barn in 2007, and with whom I rode in Wuppertal on Mara. I told her I was temporarily keeping my new horse there. She wrote me an email that filled me with non-Christian feelings. I'll quote:

"Much more important than Gabi's arena is the social contact your horse will have in the group of other horses. Especially for young horses I believe this is terribly important. Too bad you're not there permanently - for your horse it would be better to stay, with others of his kind. A donkey is no replacement for a companion horse. Donkeys and horses don't speak the same language. Maybe you'll consider leaving him there in the herd, or boarding him in a stable near you, or getting another horse."

I vented a bit to my husband, "Shall I tell her that my horse is stuck in a solitary paddock? Shall I tell her that if I had a nickel for every time someone said donkeys and horses do not speak the same language I'd be wealthy?" I wanted to retort, "My husband and I do not speak the same language either, we struggle almost every day with tiny misunderstandings and even major communication issues at times. A donkey and a horse can have babies together!"

As an animal owner I'm obliged to provide an environment that is as close to ideal as possible. But life is not perfect.

I've seen Mag groom Bellis, which I consider a sign of companionship. I would feel worse if they didn't do that, but since they do, I think it's a pretty good life for both of them. Just not perfect.

I calmed down and did the Christian thing. I said nothing. If she comes over she'll see Mag lives in a solitary pen.

Re: language. Donkeys and horses have complex body language that they use to speak to each other. I observe it every day and I can say that there are a few differences. Not the ones J and I have that we struggle with, but simpler broader differences. When both of a donkey's ears are erect, it is a much more serious matter than for a horse, who does it often. A donkey will freeze rather than spook but then again they can spook pretty well too! I'm no expert, but donkeys expend less energy in their threat/defense gestures. So the horses they live with (Baasha) are not likely to get hurt by them.

She was the perfect companion for Baasha, she was his queen (and donkeys never rank higher than horses!). And she has a calming influence on my new horse.

I'm so, so tired of hearing about how I'm not offering my horse the perfect life.

Dare I introduce the topic of housecats? Isn't their ideal home one where they come and go, and hunt and dodge cars? I totally understand people who keep their cats inside, - they want them to live! But my cat is a wild thing and at least at this point in her lifespan, she feels she must be out there. Ideally, she would be able to choose to be out 24/7 but we insist on locking her in at night because of the brawling that ensues if she's out at night. So her life is brawl-free, for our benefit. But I hope that soon she'll choose to fight less and sleep indoors more and then our "perfect life" for her will be exacting to her standards.

She still would wish for food she does not have to "hunt" out of a slow-feeder ball. She might prefer rain water to watershed water. She hates her regular wormings. Life for our cat is as close to perfect as we can afford. I would never, ever chastise someone for keeping a cat indoors or spayed or whatever other unnatural lifestyle cats should have.

5 comments:

Crystal said...

I agree with you. There is no way a horses life (or cats or humans) are going to be perfect. We do the best we can do with what we have. I think Mag has a good life he is happy he is healthy he is worked and handled well.

I had a horse who would never go out of the corrals if I didn't make her but for her own good she needed to eat all day so she was left on pasture with friends. Others would think it was great but to her it was not.

So as long as you do what is best for your horse and you in a balance then I wouldn't worry about it.

And I love hearing about you making him play. In the winter I quite often turn mine out together in the arena so they can run and they will race and roll and its quite entertaining. I don't like them to roll on line so I don't encourage that but many do there and I guess if it was busy it would be better but I'm usually the only one there.

Camryn said...

Her response would irk me as well. Shoot, my Mini's are both same species, same size even, yet I've only seen them groom one another just once! Pay her no mind is what I think.

ChicagoGrrrl said...

that is the stupidest thing ive ever heard. horses and donkeys, mules, goats can indeed be great friends. My grandpa had a horse and a cow that were buddies and lived happily together.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of a donkey not being a good companion for a horse until you started getting told that over there. Blows me away. I mean look at all the companion animals for horses that we use here in the states.

Achieve1dream said...

Oh donkeys are horrible companions for horses! Just look at my two, they play like crazy and my donkey stands guard while both horses sleep and the dominant horse lets him eat out of his feed pan when he wouldn't dream of letting a horse do that. Yep they just totally hate each other!! Glad she told me because I never would have figured that out on my own.

I hope you know I'm rolling my eyes and being very sarcastic. Just ignore her. She probably doesn't know a thing about donkeys. My donkey has been an amazing, perfect companion for my horse during time when I didn't have a second horse. In fact I think Chrome is happier without other horses... Rocky harasses him, but Zep just chills with him. Bella is great for Mag. In fact I think donkeys are a great influence on horses in general. I'm glad you just ignored her. It would be pointless to try to argue with her about it.