Not so great lesson

It's been 2 weeks since I've done anything with Mag so I was curious how he'd react. My plan was simple. I wanted Kati to help me teach Bellis to pony off Mag properly.

How stupid am I!?

Mag is the one who should be ponied! I guess I didn't think it through.

Kati said it's difficult so she never does it. I said, "I've done it for years, all day long, switching saddles horse to horse, I LOVE ponying." Especially cuz none of my animals got left behind, for example, when Baasha was mostly retired I could bring him along.

Today is the first day of fall, weather wise, and I had to blanket Mag over his saddle because the rain and wind were bad. (Again, how stupid....)

(It was 89F Tuesday, today it's 59!)

The problem is, Bellis is a donkey. She's pushy, strong and doesn't react to light halter pressure. That makes ponying her a challenge, even from Mara's back. I was being torn in two.

However Kati said her Shetland is worse.

Only a few times did Bellis keep walking when I stopped, and end up wrapping around Mag's front end and getting stuck there.

Amazingly Mag was OK with that happening, he'd just grab her leadrope in his mouth, or bit her on the nose, or nibble her ear, but out of playfulness, not annoyance at her body being slammed up against his chest.

We dealt with traffic OK but I realized without Kati I'd have been out of my depth trying to manage them both if, for instance, two cars came at once.

Almost to the woods, Mag lost his mind a little and started half-jigging, tossing his head, and acting like we needed to escape whatever it was. Kati quickly took the donkey and I whirled Mag around to put him behind her, where he has no choice but to walk slowly. Kati even spread her arms out, "No passing me!"

She sure is a great help.

She helped me encourage Bellis to take a step back, by me giving gentle tugs on the halter, whenever she ended up out front. Mag was pretty sure HE was supposed to back up, cuz he knows the word, but he figured it out eventually. I'm sure it wasn't so fun for Kati that I kept getting frustrated.

In the woods finally I took the rope and we started doing figure 8s around the trees in the Schutzhund parking lot. I realized right then I'd never really steered Mag with only one hand. Stupid me. And half the time the donkey was pulling me off balance because she doesn't react when I say, "Walk on" (how could she?) and when I say, "And ho." She just keeps going.

So Mag was in this confusing situation with me getting pulled around, trying to steer and trying to not hit the trees with my head on sharp turns, off balance.

At one point he flashed back to 2016 and started to rear up a little, in frustration. I whacked him in the neck and yelled at him, "None of that, don't you ever!" And immediately Kati was standing at his head talking to him, "It's all good."

I was pissed because the donkey is a calming presence, Kati is a calming presence, but he would just lose it from time to time and start that sliding sideways thing. One time he slid sideways into a weeping willow of some sort and I got all mixed in with the branches. He knew I was distracted by the donkey so he took advantage of me. At that moment the donkey took advantage and started heading off doing what she wanted. I yelled out in English, "They're both taking advantage of me!" (No idea if Kati understands any English.)

Kati said, "Well, he sure is pretty when he's bad."

I replied, "Aren't they all? Take a picture next time!"

But of course if he's being bad, she's not usually thinking about photos.

Later she did get a photo and I was so grouchy she said, "Try to smile!"

Hopefully she'll share the photo with me and I'll post it here.

Mag was spooking at this pile of wood in an area adjacent to the lot, where he'd never been, and again Kati took the lead, and then she "disappeared" and left me alone to continue circling with Mag and Bellis. I couldn't find her and she said, "Look how well you're doing!"

I said, "Oh really? Well then I'm done with this!" and threw the donkey's rope onto the donkey's back.

On the way home I kept calm by chatting about my recent family's visit to our farm, and when a bus stopped to unload a bunch of kids (it's the 2nd day of school here), the bus driver waved at us to go in front of him.

Just in front of him a neighbor, behind his hedge, was loading firewood into a metal trailer and that was exciting for Mag. Normally nothing rattles him. I was between a city bus and a scary thing, that was no fun.

Then the school kids ended up behind us, trailing us on my street, and Mag hates being followed, he kept turning and turning. So I finally got off.

My goodness what a no good time!

She said, "Bellis is really good at it, but it is a lot for Mag to handle."

Of course. I didn't really think about that.

She said, "This weather would upset a 30 year old horse today. Mag's holding it together pretty well considering.

Oh well. I told her, "I guess it's a waste of your time and money if my horse is always good when you're here!" Trying to find the positive...

Tomorrow I'll have another ride with Ani with my NEW SADDLE PAD! Woo! Another Engel wool pad, this time in dark grey. I have three of these now, I must be a saddle pad addict. At 117Euro each, custom made for me, I cannot resist.

I imagine I'll be on the ground a lot tomorrow, leading. But I'm sure Mira will settle Mag down as well as me: )