Teece likes Mag

Remember I blogged about that dude on the beautiful grey Arabian who just casually strolled by the odd sight of a donkey and Mag tied to trees?

As I was making my way back from "walkies" with Ani today, this guy in blaze orange with a Dachshund was coming toward us. Mag's mind was, again, blown, "Someone ELSE uses this trail? In this reality?" *sigh* Get over it, it's a human and a dog so short he cannot reach my knee (it's difficult for me to be scared of dogs as tall as my cat).

I said hello as we passed and he stopped and asked, "May I ask, where you're from?"

Being an American I get this a lot but who was this guy and why would he put the question like that?

I said, sort of humorously, "You mean TODAY or OVERALL?" I actually have an awesome sense of humor outside of Europe.

He wanted to know where Mag lives, it turns out. A nice way to start a friendship, that is how I met S1 - "Where do you keep your horse!?!??!"

I said, "You're the man with the Arabian, who passed us totally nonchalantly that day (since I don't know that word in German I just said 'cool')!"

I asked him all about his horse, which he explained he bought as a foal and trained himself. Now the horse is 5. I tapped Mag on the forehead, "THAT HORSE WAS FIVE! You're EIGHT!"

He complimented Mag, "He seems pretty well behaved." Mag reached over and licked his hand, and would have kept licking if I'd let him.

I was fascinated cuz Arabians are rare in Germany, and in this entire city, there are perhaps 5 of them. I wanted to know all about his horse.

He boards at Roelscheid, which makes us neighbors, as he put it. Oh yes, I'd noticed an Arab there. I said, "Must be nice, having both a round pen and a COVERED ARENA!" He agreed.

He said his gelding is from Muenster. I pointed to Mag, "Poland."

He said, "I know, I can tell."

WTH. "You can TELL? You cannot even see his back-brands, cuz of his blanket!"

"Yah he looks like a Polish Arabian. And, to be honest, a friend of mine has a Polish Arabian that looks exactly like him."

OK then. Cuz recognizing strains of Arabians is not easy. Then again if I met another Arab with absurdly small ears, big bones and a kinked tail..

He finally told me his  name, Teece. It's a last name, I told him, but he said it's his first. Huh.

When I told him mine, he said, "Well that's difficult." : )

Funnily we spoke to each other in the formal language despite the fact we gave our first names. That's my foreign awkwardness.

He said, "Oh, I know, you live in the hole on the way to Aldi!" Yah, the hole.

I said very formally what a pleasure it was to meet him, and that I hope to see him again, and his horse.

It is such a great thing for me to meet another horse person. It happens rarely. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the horsey community here, but it's hard cuz I don't board.

Hope to see him again. And someday ride with him, but....5 year old Arabian? It might work.......




Mag looks awful this Winter. I can see all his ribs, his spine, hips and withers are sticking up, and I have no solution. I actually did not saddle him up today, due to his shaky appearance (and the windstorm).



My husband bought me 6 large stall mats for my grooming area, so I an work on clean feet, and it is such a luxury! I have been complaining to him ever since 2016 in Wuppertal, boarding Mag, that their concrete grooming areas permit a super clean area to work. Now I've got it! If only the rain wasn't pouring on his back as I groom and tack......



I probably need a couple more mats but this is nice! I can't wait to trim hooves here. The geotiles  below and around this area are hard plastic and cannot be swept/hosed completely clean. This is an environmental thing in Germany, parallel to the fact that no one has a paved/asphalt driveway, we all have bricks. Cuz THE WATER MUST FLOW BACK TO THE EARTH. It would cost us a fortune (in taxes) to have a paved driveway rather than these bricks that are currently covered in moss.

The Water Must Flow.





I must admit, I am not satisfied with Seli's work on Mag's hooves. Never have been, but I lost my good trimmer. I don't know who to contact around here for good trims. So I'll trim them myself a little, and hope to find someone I respect. Seli is such a nice person, and I hope so much she lets me  ride Momo again before he dies. Then again, forcing hooves into a more "textbook" shape isn't the best thing either.


Today. 11:30 in the AM. Ani and the mare Rudi met us at the bench.  In this wind storm I would have been astonished if Rudi's owner had allowed Ani to put a saddle on her mare's wet back (forbidden).  Rudi seems to be going gradually out of heat, so all my warnings to Mag today, "Stay back!" were not urgent.



I stopped to get a pic of what Ride A Good Horse says is Eshe, Ash, Mountain Ash berry?



Innocent, "I did not know you wanted photos of plants, I thought I was being welcomed to a salad bar!"



The two trees. One has since fallen, length-wise! We'd ridden here weeks before, waiting for that half-tree to fall. And every time I said, "Widow-maker."













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