Mag on #4's Facebook page

It's always a delightful surprise to find my horse on Facebook.

On a hunch I searched for my new trainer's Facebook page. She has such a common name it took me forever to find her. And when I did, she was talking about Mag! I included Facebook's translation which is not so good, but you get the drift.


     

There were 4 comments under this Facebook entry - half from S1 and half from #4.

S1's was the first: "The beautiful Mag." 4 replied, "You should join us on a trail ride with my mare and Bintu!" S1 agreed.

OK then. I'm so not ready for that, but I told S1 today and I'll tell 4 next week, "Let's just get me started again?" Funny to hear people discussing my horse online without me.

***

Today was Ani's turn to ride again and the first thing she did was lower the stirrups and voila, suddenly she could ride with her lower leg hanging in the air, not touching him! I was so happy and she was too.

I brought the donkey along, even though Ani laughed, "If she's slow again, are you gonna tie her up and leave her again?" I said, "It won't happen - I've taught her how to march forward lately!" Indeed, Bellis kept leaving Mag behind, she was marching so well! So she learned the word "Ho" today for the dozens of times we had to wait for them. She said, "You have quite the racing donkey there!"

Mag exhibited odd new behavior today. When we got to the first intersection, he just stopped. No idea why, but it seems he was saying he wasn't in the mood today. And since he's always in the mood, it must have been Ani. She's not as fearless as she claims.

I said, "Mag come on! Come with us! OK bye bye Mag!" (English) and Ani's worried voice rang out, "Can you please come back?" OH! Finally she gets to see what it's like to be left on the trail in a stressful situation. And Mag wasn't stressed, he was just standing there like planted to the earth.

2 other times today Mag froze up. Those 2, he was in the lead and just lost all motion, waiting for me and Bellis to take the lead again. This is very strange for Mag - that was Mara's go-to evasion. There was no threat, just his simple, "I don wanna."

3 mountain bikers raced toward us and slammed on their brakes and asked me, "Is it OK if we pass? Should we get off our bikes and walk?" Such politeness! I said, "Thank you so much and it's fine, if you ride slowly and talk to us, that helps." The last one, a lady, hung back, clearly scared. Mag is known in these parts as a bike-kicker. I said, "It's fine" and she said, "They aren't comfortable with bikes?" Ani hadn't really moved Mag out of the way as much as she could, and Mag's eyes were big, but I was right there talking to the bikers proving to him it's fine.

One other issue today was the fact that she couldn't keep Mag in the middle of the trail/road when he wanted to munch the bushes. I get the snacking on single track, but on the roads, it's not hard to steer him. As with the other horses she rode, and her own, she is at the mercy of where the horse wants to go. *sigh* Her own horse wasn't interested in eating, she just wanted off the gravel, so she'd carry Ani on the edges, where Ani's face was constanly smacked by branches. I always wondered, "Why doesn't she steer the mare to the middle of the road?" Could it be that she really doesn't ...steer? Remember the time she almost ran me over as I stood in the center of the arena? And that crappy trainer said, "The rider has the right-of-way!" WTH.

At the halfway point I had to sit down and drink some water. It's the hottest day of the year. I told her to go ahead and get her water bottle from the saddle bags and have a drink, and she said she didn't want to give Mag a reason to get scared. OK then. I remembered she took off her loin pouch (what are those waist-bags called?) this morning to not alarm Mag.

And how dare I judge someone who's been tossed more than once from his back for the simple error of wearing a rain coat? She must be afraid! It's her experience that gave me this fear. But Mag won't lie - she's got anxiety she's not admitting. And this is wonderful because it shows Mag's superpower - carrying people who are scared, into the woods.

The horseflies were biting him in group attacks, and getting out of the woods was really unpleasant. She eventually jumped off, and Mag did a full-body shake. She said, "Did you see that? He waited for me to get off before shaking, just like last week! He's done it TWICE now, he waits til I dismount!"

Clearly she remembers the day he threw her - he'd given a shake and she rustled too much for him to handle. He didn't stop galloping long after she was on the ground.

She kept talking about it and I said, "Wouldn't that be nice, if he only shook after we dismount, me too? If only we could tell him that, if only he understood." She said, "He understands!": )

Reasons I may never let Ani ride without me:

1. Balking on trail is the safest quirk a horse can have. It's not in his nature so I'll be aware of it every single time. It's proof he does not trust her.

2. Taking over steering is something he learned from her riding. Obviously a horse who wants to snack on trail is going to walk its rider right through the overhanging branches to do so, when the rider allows it.

3. Mag's anxiety last week about a worrisome situation, her reaction, "Can we get out of here?"

She thanked Mag and me profusely, saying how much fun she has riding him. Fun? I hope so.

***

We gave the mailman a good laugh, more than once. He came barreling toward us, delivering mail to the last house, the one on a narrow dirt road. We had nowhere to go and for a moment I thought for sure we'd be flattened by his van. At the last second he screeched to a stop. But the fun wasn't over. His route had him following us down the street, and I couldn't get the donkey out of his way and was slapping her butt and pulling with all my strength on the halter because the donkey wanted to be with Mag, and I needed her to step off the street. Anyway the mailman rolled down his window and laughed something incomprehensible at me, I think it was, "You and a stubborn donkey!" Glad to amuse him!