Bad ride, then better

I finally rode out on trails for the first time in 6 weeks. I rode with Seli and her elderly Haflinger Momo, and her dog Lupo, who continues to make things interesting for us, unfortunately.




This is Seli and Momo on our best adventure yet in November, in case you missed it.

Leading Mag to her barn Mag had a meltdown when the shepherd was moving his herd of sheep to a new field on the other side of the valley. Sure, they were loud, the mothers baa-ing to keep track of their babies, the babies cavorting off full speed also baa-ing. I was disgusted with Mag by the time I got there, because every little thing was getting to him.

I stayed on the ground a while and when I eventually got on, Mag was doing that thing where he frantically tosses his head and bites the reins. His back was coiled up for launch and I had a hard time keeping loose in the saddle.

The dog would run off and pop back into view, spooking Mag every time. Every single time. Often I'd see the dog before Mag would but he'd still startle. Mag will pay attention to the dog and nothing else, not the footing, not me, just the dog, and we slide around quite a bit in the mud when he does this. It's no fun at all.

When we departed the woods to take our street, I led him a ways again, then used my rock garden wall to climb back on him, and Mag had no trouble leaving home a second time today, to escort Seli home. That was nice. He was much more settled on the way back to her barn, but he paused dramatically at the creek crossing, which caused me to yell at him, "You saw it already today! An HOUR AGO!!" Momo was way out front when Mag finally decided he could cross over the culvert.

Heading back by those sheep again, Mag was much better. Then my phone rang and it was J so I answered, and I think I hit speakerphone cuz the thing was making all sorts of squawking noises and it sounded like a party (it's a musical production sleepover for the teachers tonight). Riding while talking on the phone, I realized that was a first for Mag and Mag didn't seem to like all that noise, so I asked if I could call him back. Seli laughed when I said it was the first time Mag's had a telephone ring on him.

Her dog took off again, spooked Mag again on return, but he wasn't acting like he would explode any second, so I was pleased by the end of our ride.

Back at her barn she showed me a flyer for a TTEAM clinic in a couple weeks. I've been asking her to let me know when *any* horse clinic occurs at her barn, because I would love for Mag to have his first clinic experience. If you remember, I took Mara to a TTEAM clinic there, and she required a lot of extra help from the clinician to simply carry me around their arena. I'm not too interested in yet another T-touch lesson, but hey, maybe they can help Mag get in touch with his kicky hind legs! And Mag needs exposure to new situations, and he needs to learn to share small arenas with strange horses.

I rode him yesterday with Ani in her tiny sand pen and he had his ears pinned almost constantly, he was so annoyed at Mira working so close to him.  The weather was also making him crazy - Ani's plastic rain cape was flapping in the wind, reaching out for him as we passed by. And the electric fence tape was snapping in the wind terribly - I thought it would hit him for sure so I didn't ride on the "rail" much.

At one point I asked Mag to make a right turn, and he completely refused. I couldn't figure out why until I realized he didn't want to turn his face to the gusting wind! I've never had a horse behave this way before - I know they don't like to face the wind, but Mag acts as if it's impossible to do.

So, two not-so-great rides in two days. I think of my friends TP and S1 who tell me they are not able to do anything except lunge their horses lately, S1 told me she will wait til April to ride again. I can't just let months go by without riding, even though the weather is making it not much fun.


The day before I rode with Ani, I washed his mane. With a cleverly invented helper - I don't like getting his entire chest/shoulders wet in Winter, so I wrapped three large towels around his breastcollar, and it worked, the towels kept him dry. I had four buckets of warm water and managed to get his mane clean with them. He kind of enjoys the warm water massage.



The "after" photo. One filthy horse with a clean neck and mane *lol*



A clean mane! Guess how long that lasted? (Nice face, Bellis.)



This is the next day, even though he had his huge neck cover on, he managed to get chunks in his mane.



I didn't even try to get this off. For the first time in my life, I said screw it and put a bridle on a muddy horse head, two days in a row. That first day some of his head shaking was due to mud, probably. I said, "Selber Schuld, Mag." (Your fault.)



The sky was black when I took these photos. The camera made it oddly blue.





Did you know, my donkey stays clean for the most part?







Mag demonstrating his lack of respect for electric wire. He's got it in his mouth. I haven't had it on all Winter, because without grazing strips (restricted areas), they don't need it on.



He can get mud under his blanket in locations such as: shoulder, withers, chest, stifle, and his entire belly and girth area. I just took a hose to him the next day because it was black, wet mud. Except for his head of course, I cannot spray cold water on a horse's face in Winter.

After getting back from my ride today, it started snowing. More to come. I almost wish it would just freeze solid. Walking across my pasture is like walking on a sopping sponge. It makes sucking noises, it's weird - you just stand there, and the water re-percolates or something and you hear it all around you. I never heard the surface water re-distribute anywhere else.