They're upgrading the Internet again out here in the country and there are those huge rolls (spindles) of hollow flexible cable here and there, and torn up sidewalk where they're installing them.
Thank God I was just leading Mag because when he saw a small spindle, he fruck out. He whirled and I almost lost him for a moment. He faced it and stood with his front legs splayed, straight out in front of him at an angle, for a quick retreat. Mag has a very high fear threshold, and I haven't seen him react like this in a long time. (Hey, he was acting like a "typical" young Arabian!)
I was late but knew we'd spend some time here. Mag's fear was so great I did not ask him for anything, I just relaxed my posture (after the adrenaline cleared) and used soft eyes to look around us. He snorted the 10-mile snort and danced away again, then turned stiff legged to face it again.
It was on the other side of a two-lane street, and it wasn't large. It did have a blue tarp around it though, which was whipping in the wind. But tarps don't worry Mag. I knew it was the shape of this thing. It was wooden, on its side, and about 4 feet high, lying in a mown corn field.
Finally we inched our way across the street and I kept staring at the sidewalk wondering when Ani would appear to make this task easier for us. He was acting more reasonable, but not calm, but we had to go. I told him we are leaving this thing in a slow, calm fashion, we are not escaping danger. (Because leaving in a hurry cuz I'm late would seem to Mag like we're leaving fast cuz the danger is real.)
He half listened, because a few minutes later some joggers approached from behind and he flipped out, whirling around me, tail over his back, sure that the thing had come to life and started eating humans and these two had escaped.
My second adrenaline rush just annoyed me and then there was Ani, and Mag saw them and I could see the calm wash over him. My most calming friend!
I asked Ani to go back and help us out with it, and she agreed.
But first we had to pass the mother of all Internet spindles, which, incidentally, Mag did not give a rip about.
This one was metal, about 15 feet tall, on its side lying in a trailerbed, and full of black cables, four of which came out of it and lay on the sidewalk, for us to step over.
This huge thing was no big deal to Mag. What was the difference?
I purposefully stepped on the cables on the sidewalk and they shifted and made noise. Mag was so unconcerned he stepped on one too, not bothering to pick up his hooves. How is this not scary?
I pondered it and I think it has to do with the position the two objects were in.
One was upright, as tall as a bus, and one was horizontal, as tall as a black bear.
Vehicles and (vertical) buildings are not scary, I suppose, because they do not resemble natural predators. But lay something out flat......
Princess Buttercup had one nemesis - fallen trees (logs). She never stopped being nervous of them, despite thousands of encounters. Why is a standing tree, or snag, even better, not scary? Because it's not "crouching" like a mountain lion does?
I think a Porta Potty, standing there in the woods, might scare a lot of horses, but I think if it were to fall down on its side, it would be much more dangerous. I'm guessing more horses would be afraid of a fallen one than a standing one. Thoughts?
I don't want to talk about wind/movement because that's just obvious, there are so many reasons wind and movement scare horses. But shapes/positions?
Colors? The metal one was silver and black. The wood was wood and blue (tarp).
I hope you can picture this - the metal one was directly in the middle of the sidewalk, we had to step around it. The wood one was on the other side of the street in the field. Was setting a factor?
I talked to J about it as we maintained a geocache tonight, and he pretended to spook when the trail suddenly ended and our car was right there, a shining red thing in the green and brown and gold all around us. He threw his arms out in front of him like Mag's forelegs today. *giggle* I tried to do a 10-mile snort but I can't. He tried too. : )
I am happy to say Mag and I had a fun day together, a typical 3 hour outing and because of the wind and intermittent rain, there were no cyclists in the woods to sneak up on us, only a few dog walkers. I saw a bunch of mushrooms today and was on the lookout for the scary mushroom people, but saw none.
Ani is such a great listener, I told her the story of my passing my test, and she seemed to enjoy it, cuz she remembered chapter 1 from last week.
I had dreaded mounting Mag after him acting like such a, well, prey animal, on our way, but I finally got on and he was easy. Except I think his scare this morning made him more grouchy toward Mira cuz I actually saw him pin his ears at her! I kept a careful hand on the rein so he couldn't bite her today.
At one point I had to duck under beech tree branches and Mag interpreted that as me wanting to give him a treat. What? He threw on the brakes and looked at me, "Cookie?" I was fully in the tree at that point, stuck. Mag, you can't just trap me here! Get going! How funny. He got some treats when we were done, and Mira too.
Ani is so happy with her mare lately, cuz she has good hoof boots and suddenly she can cover our rocky trails more easily. I love to hear Ani praising her mare. She says, "I love her so much" pretty much every ride. I know the feeling. I'm so happy for her. She truly is enjoying every moment of her old mare's life.
On the way home neither spindle was an issue. Oh come on, Mag, if I'd known, I'd have ridden you home!
The gold and red leaves, mixed with green, are so amazing. Germany resembles America's east coast this time of year. It's also the only time you see squirrels, and they're red, with long ear-hair sticking up. They're in my yard every day taking walnuts. We have enough to share.
Walking home by the newly mown corn fields, we came upon several piles of silo, spilled from the trucks. Piles of shredded corn plant+corn! I gave Mag a handful every time we passed one. There were many, I live in corn land. There were a couple complete corn cobs lying in the street, and I pointed to them for Mag, "Go ahead, try it." and he nibbled some corn off of them, dropping them from his mouth, uncertain.
My good neighbor came to the street to talk and Mag did everything in his vocabulary to get me to move on and go home, yawning, pawing, figeting...he even dropped and started nibbling on my jacket, arching his neck and talking to me like a stallion again. I tapped his nose, "NOT appropriate." The nice neighbor asked why I don't let him talk and I said, "He's talking to me like a stallion, for some reason." OH, she said, "You're no stallion!" I don't know what his deal is, I've never seen horses get flirty with humans. My neighbor really likes him but is wisely careful around him. She usually brings him carrots, so he kept trying to put his nose on her.
Thursday is my lesson and we're gonna broach one of Mag's fears - towels. Seriously, he hates towels. Fabrics of many kind disturb him. Today, in fact, Ani had an Aussie rain slicker on and the moment she approached Mag took a step back from her, snorting. I laughed, "It's your jacket, he is afraid of rain coats. This is why I can never ride with one!"
When Ani mounted Mira, her jacket got caught up under her - as those things always do - and as she adjusted it, Mag jumped back, "DANGER FABRIC!"
Oh boy. Thursday should be good.
Today is a holiday, in case you were wondering why my husband was home. Today is Germany's reunification day. See, I'm finally learning my holidays! October 31 is more important to me - it's the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation.
I have no photos of late, but these are from October last yea, when my photographer friend was here.
Because these are better than most of my photos, you can click on them to enlarge and it might be worth it: )
LOVE AUTUMN! "Look J, it's Autumning!" I keep saying.
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6 comments:
The thing is, when they spook like that, they are so damn beautiful. I'm glad Ani is so happy with her horse. That's such a special place to be.
The main thing that Fiddle objects to is DIFFERENCE.
Stuff in the street can move around, who cares. But leave a backhoe in the woods (they're logging still) and it's VERY SUSPICIOUS. We trot light-footed through recent clear-cuts, because the furniture (trees) have moved (they are GONE!) and then, yes, piles of logs on the ground are SO WRONG. Can you not smell that these are trees? I suppose the scent changes as fresh-cut logs are probably decaying (relatively) rapidly? Just guessing.
Also, trash cans are agents of Satan. Which totally makes sense: they move around from week-to-week, and they don't smell the same every time, because the trash inside isn't the same every week. But seriously, mare, you are 15 years old and these are the same trash cans as last week....!!
Good luck with your lesson, I can't wait to hear how it goes.
KB, you are so right, you don't often ride with people who announce how much they love their horse. She's 40 years old and this is her first horse. I think the long wait made it this special for her.
Aarene, So Fiddle doesn't like trash cans even though they are somewhat predictable in their locations? You mentioned smell a few times, interestingly. I find it odd that Mag is so cool with garbage day, as you know we are forced to ride through towns and that means countless garbage cans or recycling sacks, and he is the first horse I've known who will ram into the cans clumsily and not notice that they're loud when he hits them. It's almost like he's bumping them on purpose. One day he'll knock one over and THEN we'll have a problem: )
A backhoe in the woods just doesn't belong, she knows it. Perhaps like this spindle thing in the corn field. A spindle on the street/sidewalk is OK, but in a cornfield, no. (SHRUG)
For my lesson tomorrow, I just texted Kati and asked her to bring rain coats! Cuz Mag was afraid of Ani yesterday, cuz she had a rain coat on. And eventually, I'm gonna wanna wear a rain coat on Mag's back. Yikes.
Aarene is right about "difference." Kate will lose it every time I add a new obstacle in the obstacle pasture, because IT WASNT THERE BEFORE!! Even if she was there when we build it.
On lovey horses: we have one mare resident who seems often (always?) in heat. And she responds to anyone paying attention to her! If you talk to her, or worse TOUCH her, she'll get weak-kneed and raise her tail and squirt! It's pretty disgusting! And she's in her twentie, so it's not a crazy teenager thing!
That's awesome that he freaked out and then just calmed right down.
EvenSong, re: the horse who always seems in heat. That was one of the big symptoms of the cysts on Fiddle's ovaries.
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