Mag's first time out in real rain

I live in umbrella land now, after coming from one of the rainiest places on Earth, but never needing one.

I just told J this week that in Seattle we have 200 words for rain and he doesn't believe me. Every time I think of a new one I tell him. Just now I remembered drizzle.

It wasn't drizzling today, it was FLORIDA.

And it was Mag's first time out with me in it. I almost ROTFL'd at his reaction.



(This is his "do you have something nice for me/what is that thing (camera)?" face.)

I was leading him down the sidewalk when it switched from normal rain to Holy Crap rain, and Mag slammed on the brakes, "NO!" His face tucked down to his knees, he turned his body 90 degrees, butt to the storm. He was so pitiful I cracked up, "Are you a sad Mag?"

I honestly don't know if he'd ever been out "working" in such weather in his life, so it was funny to see his reaction of "NO!" I LOLd and tugged him around, let's go, we gotta meet S1!

Through the waterfall I saw a chestnut horse in the distance, and a rider on its back in a full-length, chestnut colored rain jacket. They were elegant, but leaving - not waiting a moment for us.

I found S1 and her Arabian at the Bayer convention center, she'd actually taken her horse right up to the building to stand under the covered entryway.

I was in good spirits, but not looking forward to putting my butt on a soaked suede saddle. She was not in good spirits. I yelled out, "We're probably not allowed to stand here with horses!"

She said, "I'm not riding in this!"

Oh, ok...

"My horse is miserable, I'm soaked through...." I interrupted, "Your jacket doesn't work?" "No, I'm so cold!"

I did what I do best, I conceded to her and said, "OK, but I'll walk you halfway home, if you are really going home right now." I wanted to do SOMETHING today, and I was already soaked through (my jacket is so no-longer waterproof!).

When she saw I was willing to walk her halfway home, over busy streets, she must have felt bad, cuz she said, "You would ride in this?"

I said, "It cannot get any worse, and I'm already soaked through."

Logic.

It would have been ridiculous to have come so far in the downpour to meet, only to turn around and go home and have no ride at all! But I understand other people do not like wet weather like I do.

I prefer rain to heat and humidity and horseflies.

However I must be honest, I cancelled my riding lesson this week because of the weather. It was a storm on the North Sea that raged down toward us, with high winds and rain, and branches in the street as we drove. We'd planned a very specific lesson to teach Mag how to get used to fabrics (rain coats) and this just didn't sound fun in a wind/rain storm, so I cancelled. I must be getting old...or no, wait, it's cuz I live in a place where you can wait a day, and the sun will come out again.

S1 grumbled, "OK, I'll ride with you, but I'm not happy about it, and I won't do it again in this weather."

She seemed pretty traumatized, and couldn't see the humor in Mag's reaction of "NO!" when I told her.

Let me just interject right now that I'm finally warm and dry and sitting on my couch in warm dry jammies and it feels soooooo good: ) But nothing feels better than a hot shower after 8 hours riding in freezing rain, I remember that. So this was nothing, well, except for the strong feelings of Bintu, Mag, and S1.

We had a nice ride but my experiment to ride without Easyboots showed they are, in fact required on rocky trails. Sorry Mag! The rest of the time he was fine.

We came to one huge puddle and Mag drank and drank. And drank and drank. And S1 finally commented, "My goodness he's gonna drink the thing dry!"

Mag loves his water: )

As the rain came down on us, gently by now, I knew my donkey was happy to be locked in a stall. She's made of sugar, afterall.

Then S1 wanted to trot, and graciously said I could go first, to make it less stressful for Mag. She's right about that, except that after trotting a while, Mag suddenly bucked! WTH! I one-reined stopped him and said, "What was that, did he kick your horse!?" "No, he just bucked a little." I whacked Mag on the neck, "Don't do that!" and wondered if she'd let her horse get too close, or if Mag was just protecting his space, in case her horse was going to get too close. I don't know, but it's something to work on. I think I'll ask her to ride behind me more often. We followed most of the day cuz Mag likes to hang in the safe zone behind Bintu. Or Mag's feet hurt. Or Mag is lazy. Not sure.

So S1 said she'd go first and she was really polite about it, she said, "Please let me know if I should slow down." I only did once, when Mag was scrambling over rocky, muddy ground, his head way up in the air to balance. But as soon as Bintu got a rhythmic trot back, Mag was able to follow with less stress. I even played around, for the first time, with asking him to put his head lower, cuz straight up is no good. He had no idea what I was asking, of course not.

He seemed confused though, and uncomfortable. I purposefully took the "wrong" diagonal most of the time, and wondered if the rump rug was bothering him.

Finally we came upon a group of, what I called "Very brave hikers" and they said they were jealous that we didn't have to have our feet in the deep mud. : )

Both horses had been soaked but by the end, they were drying out, looking beautiful again. Mag's mane was pure white (I'd washed it like a crazy person this week, cuz it was starting to turn yellow, ew!)

We said our goodbyes and I jumped off and took the bit out, and led Mag home.

At the brand new wool/knitting shop/cafe, stood a couple, looking at the new signs. I'm curious about it too. It was a tack shop until this month. They smiled at me and we kept going, but then they continued walking after us on Hohestrasse.

Mag kept looking behind him, "What do they want?"

He hates being followed, hates it forever. I was glad for a chance to practice it. But then we were suddenly at TP's place, the fancy arena, and her awesome husband, Charly, was leading his beloved TB mare to the pasture directly at the street. Mag flipped out.

It was too much, this couple behind him, and Charly and Silver there, Mag started long snorting, you know, the long drawn out low snorts? With his neck arched as much as possible, his tail over his back, and his legs prancing in slow motion.

Charly stopped his mare. I kept turning to face Mag, "What the heck, just walk."

He would not.

Eventually the couple caught up to us and I had to take Mag into the street for their safety.

The lady was beaming, "I have a horse too!"

I said, "Being followed is his least favorite thing."

She said, "OH, I thought it was the other horse (Silver)!" I said, "Yah, that too!"

As soon as the couple was in front of Mag, he calmed down. I realize I need to get him out there more often when hikers/bikers are steadily behind him, since he hates it so much.

I realized Charly was hanging onto Silver's halter the entire time, not willing to let her go racing toward the street when my horse was flipping out like that, he could easily hear the long, long snorting going on, and see Mag's body doubled up on itself, like a pretzel, as he pranced by. So Charly held his TB mare until we were totally out of sight. Whew.

Not that Mag requires that normally, I have no idea what got into him. (I just now sent TP an sms saying thankyou to Charly for that.)

I demanded, after all that, that Mag stay politely behind me on a long, loose lead line. He was wanting to press forward and pass me. But he got it, and we had a relaxing walk home.

By the time we were home, Mag was dry, but my saddle, tack, and my clothes were totally saturated.

Nice to be Mag.

Apparently the rump rug did its job, and he didn't protest too much.

I spent some time sitting with him on a hay bale as he ate tonight, enjoying the munching, in my pajamas.

I remember those years of driving home from the barn soaking wet, and appreciate I don't have that anymore. I can even chose to change clothes before I untack, if I wish. But that would be rude.

S1 said "This is the last time I ride in the rain" reminiscent of  when she said, "This is the last Arabian horse I ever own!"

She also criticized Ani, yet again, "I cannot abide that she rides that poor old mare, have you seen how she walks?"

"Yes, she has a compensating way of moving, although she is sound, but she only walks, so I think that's good for an older horse." (Also Ani weighs less than her saddle, so the poor old mare isn't lugging around someone like me!)

I appreciate that S1 cares about Mira, but I cannot believe Mira doesn't enjoy our weekly walkabouts. I daresay the mare smiles as we're going along. And Ani sure does. I dread the day when she will eventually stop riding.

So cozy warm. And it's that time of year when cinnamon candles are for sale again. Yes! Isn't this the best time of year?





What could this be? It's the puddle of water in my no-good rain jacket's hood! At least that seems to be waterproof *lol*



At 13C, there were flies out, biting him, how awful. How cold does it have to be to get rid of insects altogether? This photo shows my rump rug, which kept his butt dry today, and hopefully didn't upset him too much. He kept swishing his tail against it (flies) and it was very loud, but he didn't flip out. Only the one buck....It seems to fit perfectly, but even though it's lined, I wish it were heavier. Cuz if I want my horse's butt warm, I want it REALLY warm.



"Woe is me, no cookies at all anymore since arriving home." Note the hay sticking from his mouth. Poor thing, only hay to eat before I can untack and turn him out.





Good heavens. What the heck. I have some inside my shoe too, what is that!? Thankfully they are not prickly, they are easily removed. But how did that happen? This is NOT Arizona.



Poor me, eating hay next to the apple orchard.



Remember that company that made rump rugs out of winter blankets? Those were solid, truly warm things! Ugly, yes. Come on, someone develop a hybrid.

Thanks for reading our adventure today: Mag's first time working in rain.

It was mostly funny: )