A Syrian greeting for Mag

I had another great ride with Ani today, which surprised me after Mag's unpleasant behavior yesterday.

Ani and I usually start our rides by leading our horses a while and talking, and we walked especially slowly today because she was telling me a very serious story and I wanted to be close. Since Mira walks extremely slow, Mag had to just deal with it.

After this ultra slow walk our horses were both half asleep when we finally got on, and our ride was just perfect.

Well, there was one big spook when Mag was nervous about some farm animals and suddenly Mira shook and her saddle made a loud noise. Then he refused to cross one creek, probably because it had a culvert that was also loud.

Other than that we rode along for 2.5 hours totally relaxed and enjoying. We got swarmed by loose dogs three times, I guess Friday mornings aren't as good as Wednesdays.

One of the dog people, after putting her dog on a leash, said, "Nice ladies, good horses!" *grin*

One dog came right up and put its nose on Mira's hind leg (trying to smell her butt) and I was like, no way dude, you are not coming near my horse's rear end. I turned Mag to face the dog and that works, as usual.

One dog drew Mag's curiosity so much he strained toward it and the old man laughed, "Your horse is so curious!" I said, "That he is." I'm glad Mag isn't upset about dogs. The next door neighbor dogs all barked their heads off at him and he just walked up to them straining to touch them.

He also did this to a hiker on the trail and she obviously loves horses cuz she reached out her hands to him.

The Easyboots made it so much nicer for Mag today, compared to our last trail ride. He would start to avoid the rocks, following Mira off trail, and then realize they don't hurt, so he'd just stay on them.

He pawed in the creek, water up to his knees, and kept trying to go upstream for some reason, instead of crossing. "Not the deep end Mag!" Then he pooped in the stream, which I find hilarious because Baasha could never go in water without pooping either. "He's a water pooper!" The Germans don't find it as funny, I've noticed.

We finally parted ways and I continued on foot the last 30 minutes. At the Aldi, I decided to take the Easyboots off cuz it's just pavement from there on. I pulled him over by a house and he stood patiently while I pulled and pulled on them. Easyboots are never easy, they were suctioned on to his hooves after all the water crossings. I'd never removed Easyboots on trail before, I don't think, and didn't know if it would turn out to be a mistake and the horse would move and rip off a gaiter. Thankfully he was in the zone, very calm.

I heard soft music coming from the open window of the house right there and told him not to poop on these people's brick parking area. I would have stood him on the sidewalk but I was using their house as a barrier to keep him still.

Suddenly the window opened wide and three people were smiling hugely at Mag, reaching out to touch him.

The two ladies were well dressed and had newly-shaped eyebrows and makeup. One of them said in exagerrated slowness "How are you" - exactly how they taught us on day one of German class. I said, "Where are you from?" "Syria."

Ah, it's been a while since I've noticed Syrian refugees around town, because they've dispersed over the entire country by now.

They were so nice they wanted to know about Mag and where I'm from and they introduced their brother who was also standing there the entire time, also trying to touch Mag. They brought out a camera and took photos of Mag with his head almost in their window. He licked their windowsill - good that it was tile and not wood, he'd have chewed the wood.

I told them Mag's ancestors came from Syria, it's the mostly undisputed source of all Arabian horses.

They asked me in for coffee but I had a horse with me, how funny.

Finally I broke away from their incredible friendliness and we went on our way. How nice to have more foreigners around. This town is too homogenous.

Our out time today was 3.5 hours as usual. Mag came home famished as always (I've never had a horse act so famished after a simple trail ride, every time!).

To close, here is phrase I saw on someone's house in Wuppertal:

"Wir sind alle, fast ueberall, Auslaender."

"We are all, almost everywhere, foreigners."

***

UPDATE

Directly after posting this blog post, I got an email from the United States, Dept of State, reading:

The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the continued threat of terrorist attacks throughout Europe. 

Recent, widely reported incidents in France, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Finland demonstrate that the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh), al-Qa’ida, and their affiliates have the ability to plan and execute terrorist attacks in Europe.  While local governments continue counterterrorism operations, the Department remains concerned about the potential for future terrorist attacks.  U.S. citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning.  

Extremists continue to focus on tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities as viable targets.  In addition, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, high-profile events, educational institutions, airports, and other soft targets remain priority locations for possible attacks. 

***

I get these from time to time, this time because of the bomb disarming in Frankfurt this week, and it always makes me wonder how little attention I should draw to myself.

I no longer raise the US flag on Memorial day in my yard. I'd like to, but.....