Thursday, February 14, 2019

A respite from the white

An unexpected twist in the weather had me stripped to my tshirt today on my outing with Mag and Ani. Since she's not allowed to ride in frost or rain, she was thrilled to finally be on mafia mare's back again.

I climbed on Mag and realized Rudi was letting him get a lot closer to her than normal, no death threats today.

The temperature reached 13C today, which felt like Summer after last week. Both horses were in a daze. I was amused at how slow both horses took the trail, were they stoned from warmth?

I took this time to tell Ani the story of my failed medic test, in great detail. As I told the story I felt the awfulness resurface, which I avoid thinking about during the day but dream about at night.

Mag acted spooky, which is not his style. He normally spooks zero times. Today he spooked/gawked 4 times.

We had another encounter with  Nadine and her Pintabian and her feral dog. I was on the ground and the dog took planned turns encircling me, Mag, and Rudi, trying to approach but I kept facing her, backed up against a tree. Inconsiderate Nadine did NOTHING the whole time, as she used the bench I had been sitting at to mount. How can dog owners be both stupid AND blind to what is going on? Denial that their dog is out of control? Cuz that dog was "hunting" us - circling each one of us repeatedly. I was apalled. Ani asked me what was wrong and I said, "Can you believe that behavior!?" Nadine was horrible to me with Mara in 2013; wish I didn't have to share the neighborhood with this woman, based on her past behavior.

It didn't spoil our day, we had a longer ride than normal.

On the way home I ran into Norbert, our good neighbor. He stretched out his arms in the sunshine, "Great weather huh?"I said, "Yah, but I'm not ready for Summer yet!"

We talked for a long while cuz he's my gardening guru and I need his help, I'm trying to do it right this time with my greenhouse and afraid I'll fail again. He gave me advice and Mag was very frustrated that we had to stop so close to home. Mag chewed on Norbert's garbage can, tried to chew on Norbert's jacket, tried to push me around.....it was annoying but not outright rude.

Back home, I pondered how I'll soon be mowing lawns again, and I was grouchy about the blinding sunshine.

As I tidied up my tack room and paddock, doing all the tasks I'd neglected this Winter, Mag fell asleep right there. The sun on his back felt too good, and his belly was too full of mash. Adorable. I cannot hate a day of Spring when it makes his lip fall open in total stillness and peace.











I like it when I capture a photo of my animals with the exact same expression.

It will freeze again tonight so I used my garden rake to get the mud from his back before I threw the blanket on again. But it was  nice seeing Ani, Norbert, and my animals relish a bit of warmth.

I'd just hoped for one 24 hour period of a clean horse.

You cannot deny them if their top joy in life is becoming filthy. You can only dream of another place,  heaven, perhaps, where your white horses stay white.




2 comments:

AareneX said...

I'm dying to hear what the gardening guru recommends!

BTW a dog that circles-circles-circles isn't hunting, it's herding. Trying to keep the group all within the circle. Most of my shelties, although they don't know anything about real herding, have "circling" hardwired into them. Roo makes endless circles around the dining room table if I forget to put her in a sit/stay, even though the dining room table is unlikely to break away from the flock and jump off a cliff. Instinct doesn't have to make sense.

TeresaA said...

Aarene makes a good point.
I wonder if Mag was reacting to your emotions about the test? He’s very sensitive.

But a day of sunshine is meant to be enjoyed. I’m glad you were able to.