Mag turns 6 and does nothing

Following people's urgent suggestions, I turned Mag loose in the outdoor to let him play. As expected, he sniffed the ground the entire time. I don't feel comfortable taking a whip and forcing him to "play" because that resembles work and if we're working, we're working. However, I did tell Tanja that it would be fine to turn Mia and Mag loose together and free lunge them for fun.

I took a video of Mag doing nothing.
I looked at my dumbphone this morning and saw a message from Tanja from 12:32 am last night - "Mag is fine, no worries." So both Bettina and Tanja were in the barn at midnight taking care of the horses as the fireworks blew off directly next to the barn? I wasn't worried even though I've never had Mag for Silvester.

When I arrived today, Bettina said Mag has a new best friend, one of Tanja's kids hung out at Mag's stall during the fireworks and Mag licked his face.

Later, when Tanja showed up with her kids and husband, Klaus said, "Mag cleaned our boy's ear for a very long time with his tongue." I said, "He didn't hurt him did he?" No. I believe the kid is mentally disabled. He's like 6'4" and never says a word, he just stares at you. I thanked him with a big smile. I asked if he'd be so kind as to hold Mag's rope as I cleaned hooves but he said no. I totally understand. I had just seen him fetch Mia from the mare herd so I thought he'd be OK but no, not yet.

The trailer work did not go so well today and I got a little discouraged. See we had a visitor, an Icelandic horse was turned out in the "round pen" by the trailers and there was a brand new shiny trailer with Duesseldorf plates between the round pen and our trailer. That new horse would prance around at random and roll and make noises and it was very, very exciting for Mag, and even exciting for some of Gabi's school horses! Mag went in the trailer but he kept hearing that horse and 2.5 times he left the trailer to see what was going on. Ugh. I "ah-ah-ah'd" him with vibrations on the rope to say that is not what I wanted, ideally he stays in the trailer until I ask him to leave, and he was together enough to come back into the trailer.



See this Irish trailer (Rice Beaufort) has legs in the back so you can load unhitched. For size, that is my 2 gallon bucket on the wheel well. Although this thing is sturdy, it is not sized like American trailers.



All breast bars removed! The only way to do trailer training. Those nylon web butt "bars" worry me a little.



You can see the front door here, that furry thing.



Mag has tried, twice, to follow me out of the other side, when I practice stepping out the back, by coming into the front area and pivoting. No, no, no, you won't fit. Good grief, I wish so much for the design of my first trailer, it had hinged breast bars you could open like little doors, and quickly if you needed to.




"Don't leave me!" I talk constantly, I'm right here, Mag, good boy, I'm going nowhere.




I like how Mia found her best friend Mag and is keeping an eye on him as I turned him loose to play on the frozen solid sand. He did enjoy himself, but he wasn't in a frolicking mood. What he needs is what we have here - 5 acres for him to tear up. But he must wait a few months.




I had to take this photo cuz this pretty chestnut school mare, Miss Marple, stood right on a silage bag to eat. And the lady there who has been doing Willy's job is like "Get off, I need that to carry away some rotten silage!" She's the mother of a girl, another Jana, at J's school, who he will teach math to next year. I love how small the world is in Wuppertal. The streak in the middle of the photo is condensation from my camera being in my vest pocket, I guess I was sweating. For the first time I see that some horses are wearing coolers, I had just seen Gabi returning from a trail ride.

Back to trailer training -- then someone would walk by and some horse would make noise and Mag just couldn't relax in there, and neither could I. Just the other day I had sat down in the trailer, completely at ease with him. Not today. I started singing New Year's Day by U2 and that helped a little. I unloaded and reloaded him a few times as usual, and started to edge my way out of the trailer, because the next step is for him to be OK with me not with him in there. Today that was rough, so I only did it 3 times. I got a photo of Mag checking for my whereabouts. It's interesting but obvious that he wants me in there with him because he knows from experience when the person leaves, bad things happen.

Looking at that brand new trailer next to ours, I was soooooooooo tempted to try to at least put Mag's front hooves on the lowered ramp. But I have no idea who owns it and that would be very wrong. I was so tempted to find out who owns it and ask if we can try to load, because I'm pretty sure Mag is going to react badly to a different trailer than the one we've been using. But of course  I can't ask a total stranger for trailer loading help.

Then I lunged Mag a bit and did ground work but he was so good I just basically let him walk over poles until someone joined us, a lady with a lame horse who needs to be lunged gently daily. I was thrilled to have someone with us especially since Mag would give her a dirty look when she trotted or cantered by. Mag needs to get used to other horses working near him.

For his birthday he got an apple from our tree, one of the last that the birds haven't eaten. I know that's pathetic but the stores are closed today and I didn't plan.

But Tanja's youngest son and husband both sang "Heppy Birsday to you" to Mag. SO NICE! I told her to sms me when she'll be there next so we can play with our two horses together, a fun day, a walk, ground work, free lunging, etc. I hope we can hook up. She's so nice and Mag and Mia are  good friends.





One last photo, I couldn't resist - someone is making tea for her horse. I looked at the tea tag and saw, "Anti-cough tea" - OK. I must respect those around me who will try anything to help their horses.

Hope to see progress again soon, but if not, well, we'll keep on working on minutia.