I caught the tail-end of his enthusiastic reaction on video to a coach going by. Those coach people don't seem to be social distancing at all, I have seen so many go by with 3 or 4 people! Horses pulling carriages (in training competitively) are common on our street. But they didn't seem to stop their business lately, SMH. (Video at the end of this post.)
Mag was the same today on our Wednesday outing with Ani. Using any excuse to flip his tail over his back, snort, prance and forgetting how to breathe, snorting on every exhale. It was super annoying because I know he cannot actually be afraid of joggers coming up behind him on our street, but today he lost his mind. I even tried to explain to the elderly jogger, "My horse is afraid of you." And he made some comment about us taking up the entire freaking street. Yah, we did that, with all the frolicking. *sigh*
Pink is his color. It's from a Mandelbaum outside our bedroom window. Almond tree?
(These photos are from last week, a more peaceful time.)
Sadly, today, I had saddled him. I haven't ridden since January and I was looking forward to getting up on him, testing him out. But he pissed me off often enough on our way to the trailhead I just had to laugh off that idea.
This would be when horse people might lunge, or challenge a fractious horse physically, before attempting to mount. Being forced to bring him out directly into traffic everytime I want to do anything with him SUCKS.
And I must remind myself, it's just the horse's fabulous mood. A showring would be the place for his antics. Not the street, where nearly every car slowed down almost to a stop to pass. I have this theory that our neighbors and all the Amazon/DHL/GLS/Hermes delivery people are fore-warned about Mag and give him the right of way on our streets. I appreciate this so much!
Today on our walk, a delivery van driver was blocking the street with scarce room for a horse to pass, and as I led Mag by, the guy was trying to shut the back door of the van and he very very slowly lowered it, in order to not spook the horse. Mag was nervously gawking but OK. Then the man gently shut the van door and Mag wheeled out of that tight spot in a spiral formation. I smiled and nodded at the guy for taking such effort to not seed that reaction. Funnily, and unexpectedly, he smiled and said, "NO CARROTS FOR YOU!" *lol* It was a fruit/vegetable delivery van, afterall. Which I didn't know until today, that they exist here.
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There is a 100 Hektare wildfire raging 1 hour away from us. I'm a little concerned cuz there's no way I'll be able to get Bellis onto a horse trailer. As we made our way through the woods today, it was as dry as a Washington State summer. Lately it has turned from the Evergreen State to the Everyellow State that my man has monikerd. He wants us to change our car license plates to The EverYellow State, from June to October.
In the woods today I was contemplating how a single tossed cigarette stub could doom us all, when J said a single horse's metal shoe would do the same. Good grief, he's right.
I finished "Baasha and Mag."
***
I baked horse cookies again yesterday and I must say, they taste awesome. My husband was cuddling with Mag today over the gate and asked me why he kept sticking his tongue out. I said, "The cookies are sticky and I can pick them out of my teeth with my fingers but Bellis and Mag try to use thier tongues."
Seeing my man cuddling Mag over the gate melts my heart. Mag's got a bloody nose after 3 tick removals today. At least he's getting good about letting me wrap my arm around his face and tweezer the ticks off. (They're too small to use a tick remover.) In contrast with this pregnant tick photo below, with a whole clove for size reference:
She had apparently dropped off our cat (who doesn't let us touch her much) and was crawling on a chair in our living room. Bigger than a coffee bean, about to burst forth her 1500 young. J did away with her carefully.
I have found 4 ticks on me this year so far, always as I wake up in the morning. Shame on me for not inspecting myself before bedtime. J helped me remove them but those spots still hurt. Lyme disease is serious, but not as serious in NRW, Germany. Correct me if I'm wrong but Borreliose does not begin until the tick has been feeding on you for 24 hours. As long as I catch them the next day, I should survive without contracting the disease.
I was laughing at a news show yesterday that said, "The way to protect yourself from ticks is to cover yourself (in clothing)." Oh yah, that might give the tick nymphs 5 more minutes challenge, but honestly, very tick is born knowing how to burrow into any break in your clothing, which eventually ends at your waistband. I'm not even sure, at this point, if a bee-keeper's outfit would keep a tick out. They are born with the knowledge of seeking out cracks in clothing. The only defense we have is to examine ourselves every single day for ticks. I wear shorts out onto the pasture, into our woods, cuz I know ticks don't care, shorts vs. pants. After being sucked on by ticks every Spring and Summer and Fall of my life in Germany, I wonder if they will actually be the death of me, rather than Cancer which should be more likely.
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Germany is the 2nd most safe place to live right now, after Israel. Ironic, huh, cuz I wanted to go to Israel so badly in March but was immediately denied access. I'm still annoyed that Ani doesn't get the need to protect ourselves and others. She texted me yesterday, "YOU are the one who won't let me visit you!" *sigh* I did not even reply, cuz it didn't work in the past, the concept of compliance.
J taught school today, two entire classes, via web conference, the third time. Germany is in the process of re-opening and rightly slowly. He spent two hours on the conference with the Abitur kids (graduating class) trying to help them pass the exam despite everything.
I forgot he was on the conference and called him after doing a check on my geocache Lytha's Home. GONE! Mag, so long without being tied to trees, was very upset to be abandoned while I checked it. Mag, that is your best talent, being tied, WTH.
I'm sad about the cache going missing cuz I first logged it with my heart horse Baasha, and logged his name in it too, 11 years ago.
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Today, while watching Dr House, which you can kind of hear:
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Here is today's breakast video which isn't very interesting except you hear my "food whistle" and you hear Mag cough on arrival. He'll always have that cough, there is nothing we can do.
Pray for rain, cuz it's not just about our trees and bushes dying, it's a risk for us. Natrual disasters are not a thing in Germany......
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6 comments:
Social distancing: I thought Germans were the ones who "get it." No? Despite what you see on the news, people here really are *mostly* in favor of sheltering as opposed to dying. But there's not much excitement in reporting people staying home and making bread and planting spinach, so it's the nutjobs who get covered by the press. Sigh.
Online: I'm working from home also. In some ways (those "meetings that should have been an email") it's better. But I miss my coworkers and my library patrons. Jim has hung a hummingbird feeder and a sunflower seed feeder outside my office windows, so I have plenty to look at while I'm "paying attention." My window looks out at the forsythia bush (tiny bird hangout) and the orchard (crows and jays). It's definitely prettier here than in the workroom of a public library!
Cough: Fee does that cough, three times per ride. Once at the beginning, about 5 minutes in. Doesn't matter if we're walking, trotting, doesn't matter who rides her. Then after about 30 minutes, then once more on the way back to the trailer. Every ride, just like clockwork. She's been doing it for 14 years now, it's nothing to worry about.
Dryness: it's been unusually sunny here in the Evergreen State recently, but today it's raining, a real, proper get-the-dog-wet rain. Good, we needed it. I actually watered the garden a few days ago! And everything that isn't yellow (pollen) is green.
Aarene, I remember you telling me about Fiddle's morning cough, so I've never given it too much concern, aber it does hurt me to hear it when he's frolicking.
I'm glad Jim helped enhance your office! Hoe lovely. There are no hummingbirds in Germany but there is a GINORMOUS MOTH called a hummingbird moth that mimics the hummingbird behavior (hovering over a flower, sipping from a long proboscis. NASTY moth!)
We need a get dog wet rain. I've never heaard of a forest fire in Germany until this week, and it's only an hour away! Today I couldn't focus my eyes, for the first time in my life, as I walked around, there is so much pollen (unless I'm actually going blind, Lord forbid). Our kitchen table was covered in a fine yellow dust, so I'm hopiing it's just the Birch/Hazelnut trees. My car is ridiculously yellow, after frequent hopeless washings. That you had to water your garden is something! Do your horse troughs/ponds turn totally yellow?
Germans mostly get the social distancing thing, it's just amazing to me that my friend Ani does NOT. She keeps sending me accusatory texts, blaming me for our lack of Star Trek as if it was my decision. It's sad cuz she seems to think I do not believe in God's protection, as a Christian. I don't know what to say to that.
Jayne also coughs, has since I got him nine years ago. It's worse in spring and sometimes a week in fall, so I think maybe allergic airways play into it. Never at the VERY start of riding or working, but always about 5 min in. Sometimes one cough, sometime several, but usually that's all for the entire ride unless it's that one week in Spring or Fall. Then it might be once every hour or so. I think it bothers me more than him, but I worry it might turn into something worse with chronic lung damage when he is older or if for some reason he had to be in a dusty barn (or other situations that we know are bad for the airways and bother horses with heaves).
CSL, as you, I try not to worry. The vet gives me ACC to treat symptoms. Mag sounds exaclty like your horse. We have a sale bill that says if he has COPD we can get our money back. He was sold to us very sick, with Bronchitis, in need of Antibiotics, where the dealer said, "Most of my sale horess cough, it's nothing." *SIGH*
That Jayne is worse in Spring means allergies. Interesting that he takes a while to start coughing on a ride! Does he do that "chewing-cough"? Mag coughs up phlegm and then cnews on it, ugh, poor baby.
Love Mag's "strut"! So cool that you have carriage horses going by & no one minds! Ticks - did not know they were thick there. I dread the beginning of the "bug" season! We're dry too, too dry... Weatherman keeps mentioning "pop-up" thunderstorms, but none do.
Mag reminds me so much of Irish. He struts around when horses go down the road. It's like he can't cope with the excitement. :)
Irish also has had a cough his whole life. It's never interfered with his work or impacted his health.
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