The trail puts me in my place

I admit I was pretty cocky about the trail I discovered, "The Lytha Trail." S1 said she'd never even attempt such a trail, and Ani did the one time, never again, to my dismay, too technical. S2 was the only person who did it with me but not the entire thing, so who knows.

Today I finally got a chance to show Seli my trail. I knew she'd never been on it - no one had. I boasted to her that most people are too chicken to ride it, but I'm sure her elderly Haflinger can manage it.

Well, when we arrived at it she jumped off her horse, "That's too steep to ride." OK, I've done it once before, but today was especially muddy so I played it safe and got off too. She laughed, "This is a real butt exercise trail!" Then we slid down the steep hill and carefully led our horses over the two big fallen trees, which are on a slope so they're tricky even though not too large.

I told her, "After the next obstacle we're good, the trail gets easier."

Wrong. There was a massive oak tree lying across the trail, going all the way up the hillside. I said, "Well this is new." Not even considering the fact it was about to get much worse.

I just started heading up the hillside, on foot, and started sliding. It was a layer of oak leaves with black goo underneath. Every step I took, I slid back. Mag tried and managed a little better, almost fell down, and started sliding sideways like a car in ice, and I had nowhere to go. I was trapped between Mag and the tree trunk. Seli watched from a safe distance, and at one point shouted, "You should take off his EasyBoots, he can't get traction." I said, "I can't take them off this very moment, unfortunately."

I don't know how I managed it but I finally got to the root ball and then we started heading down. Mag went skiing down the hillside, all 4 hooves useless in the muck. The funny part was he didn't seem concerned about it. "This is my life in traction-free Germany."

Seli followed and Momo had less trouble because of his huge bare feet. I watched them climb up the "excavation zone" that Mag and I created. When I told J the story later he said, "Did the trail look like our pasture, where the tractor got stuck?" "YES!" There were no hoofprints, there was a non-stop gash in the hillside, both sides of the tree.

After we were done with that, I realized my beloved trail is no fun at all at the moment. And since it's not an official trail, no one will clean up that tree - like no one had cleaned up the other ones we navigated. Disappointing. I told her, "I think we should take the street home, because I honestly don't want to go through that twice today."

We earned our reward when we got back on official trail and I showed her the most beautiful part, where you have the sense you're deep in the mountains. She admitted she'd never been there either.

Her dog was having a great time, kind of spazzing out even, and then Mag was no more fun to ride. He decided that he wanted to race the dog, and when the dog was in front, Mag would start to fight and get "jumpy" and toss his head, and lose his footing in the mud, but he didn't care, he wanted to catch the dog. I tried to stick him behind Momo but Mag didn't care, he was totally fixated on the dog. If the dog was behind us, no problem. And yes the dog did spook him today by popping up suddenly out of the bushes.

I apologized to Seli that the day didn't go as planned, and she said no problem, "We still have all our parts": ) She also said, "It would be fine in dryer weather. I said, "That never happens here. It's always wet here." She sighed agreement.

When we walked back along the street, she had no leash so she clipped the end of her rein to her dog's collar, and led her horse by the other end. Um......not a best practice, in my opinion, tying a horse to a dog! But Momo is old reliable. I did offer her my lead line - I always bring a lead line (even though my reins clip off) because I prefer it to leading with reins. But she was fine.

Speaking of reliable old Momo, we encountered this elderly couple and the man said, "A kaltblut!" (cold blood, draft) to Seli about her horse. She corrected him, "HAFLINGER!" As they passed, the man reached out and .....get this...

SLAPPED MOMO ON THE RUMP!

Holy crap! That, no! You don't...what! Momo has only one eye, but even so, he was fine. Good heavens if he'd done that to Mag!??!  In the very least Mag would have been offended, "Not proper trail etiquette!"

The wife reached out her hands to Mag and said, "An Arabian!" I said, "Yes" and I stopped him to let her pet him. I pointed out the clumps of mud in his mane, hanging like ornaments on a Christmas tree, saying, "He decorated himself." He's had so much mud in his mane lately I've decided to just ignore it. Except for last week when I bucket-washed his mane like a crazy person. He had a shimmery clean mane for a New York minute.

Anyway, today is All Saints Day, the Catholic day of the dead. And it was sunny. So everyone was in the woods. It was non-stop mountain bikers, hikers, families with dogs and strollers. And to access my special trail, we had to be on another very narrow trail with every other user on earth. That meant me stretching my arms across Mag's body so that people could slip by without fear of being kicked, with mere inches "safety."

Most people were kind today, actually, no one was grouchy about us taking up the entire trail with our huge animals. I thanked every one of them. The mountain bikers thanked us. It was harmony.

We mounted up again at the street and I rode with her all the way back to her barn, which is 10 minutes from here (SO NICE after meeting Ani yesterday and needing a half hour to get to the half way point).

At her barn, Katharina was there, the one who tried to give me lessons with Mag last Summer (and failed), when Mag showed her what he thought of that, kicking her arena walls and rearing up on his hind legs defiantly. She may have been surprised to see me out riding my horse for the first time.

Well, with friends like Momo, I'm good: )

One more thing - yesterday we were passing the house full of Syrian refugees, and they waved at me through the small window. I pointed to the big window, knowing they could open it up wide. This time all the children were there. Joseph, Talia, and two toddlers and one infant. I finally got to introduce myself to Joseph and Talia, whose mother had told me about last time I was there.

They opened the "blast shield windows" (seriously, America, you have to get blast shield windows!) and then opened the window and suddenly 5 little kids were putting their hands on Mag's face at once (the infant's mother put his hand on Mag's face). And since we were outside, it was a perfectly safe situation for so many kids meeting a horse at once. He seemed interested in them, and patiently stood there, looking into their home. The mothers' German is not so good, but Joseph had the best German in the family and we could talk. Little Talia was afraid to touch Mag's face and when she finally did, Mag moved a little and she flinched, and her arm shot upward fast and she hit her hand on the blast shield. Oops, that hurts!

Joseph started talking about his new baby brother who is too little to sit up, but can wave hello and goodbye. The way he spoke about him, it was like the brother was his favorite thing. It was touching, stirring memories of my own of having a baby sister.

Joseph was the only one who could say my name, and he called Mag "Mike" which is fine, close enough (the German g is a k).

I wonder where the fathers are, but maybe someday I'll find out.

What I found out today, I need to learn when a trail has beaten me, and let go of pride, and just quit.