November photos

I haven't done much with Mag this month besides walking him, with and without the donkey. Hoofcare and grooming are keeping scratches and thrush at bay so far. His tail is whiter than ever cuz I'm using a new brand of German Spray & Wash.That's right, laundry soap. (Only on the lower half of the tail, of course.) People ask me how I keep his tail so white and honestly I think it's a matter of OCD rather than the actual soap you use. Just wash it like a crazy person, every week.  Honestly though, Quic Silver is the go-to if you live in America. Then there's Dr Bronners Castille Soap. Then there's Spray & Wash for the really bad parts. I've got a half brown, half  yellow horse right now, with a gleaming silver tail that defies reality.

Not having anyone to ride with sucks. Even though you know how not-fun my last riding partner was. I miss the type of riding partner who can not only engage in conversation, and enjoy silence, but also warn of tricky spots and therefore we take care of each other. That's what I'm used to from America.

My good riding instructor told me to buy a trailer and towing vehicle so we could continue lessons. 

If I had an income, I'd be good with that. I had a really good job interview last month as a medic, but the company is based in Austria and for some reason they don't want American citizens (though I have a visa to work in Europe).  I'm confused about this and must research it. I haven't had a good job interview in a field I want in ...ever.

My good riding instructor also told me to join a local riding facebook group, and look for someone to ride with. So far that has not been fruitful.

I actually have a trailer and truck (!) picked out, and my husband is willing, but I cannot ask for so much when I'm not bringing in income.

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Today on our local village facebook page I saw some great photos of our village in 1930 and 1950. It's fascinating to me to see our street unpaved, and all buildings in their original form. 

I found the swimming pool we go to every Summer, looking like this:

The comments under this image reflected how I felt about seeing that flag where we swim today. "You cannot chose which generation you are born into." BTW this is the pool I lead Mag and Bellis by often, it's adjacent to the wooded creek trail that starts near our house. Mag and Bellis know this swimming pool almost as well as we do. My husband gets a yearly pass every year simply to support its existence, because so many pools don't have funding and disappear. Doggie people - every Autumn they turn it into a dog pool and have doggie games before Winter. Oh, and there're surfing events with ramps like for skateboarding. So, it was pretty odd for me today to see the image of that flag where I go so often, but then, its image is stamped on our hourse paperwork as well. I suppose before it meant something bad to my neighbors, it was just there.

This is our village's downtown, with church. This is the street I drive down every time I go to my doctor, grocery, drug store, bakery, etc. See how the street gets narrow in the middle? That is the same today, it's just been  paved, with signs telling drivers to "take turns." I love the wisp of smoke coming out of that one house, and how the dark grey slate looks the same today, but with nothing modern, kind of creepy. Those old houses are still here, but more modern ones popped up in between. I absolutely love how our town still kind of looks like this, including my own house from 1890. Our roof has the same cobbles (?) as the one on the right foreground and the same little pop up window.

 

This is a sign in our woods that took me around 8 years to notice that the text was in English. That it's an American sign, obviously imported. I had just dismissed it all those years until one day, "Holy crap that's not German."

Ex-pat life, *lol*

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Mag is so rambuncious from the chilly weather today I couldn't enter the pasture, cuz he was kicking his heels over his back and prancing and tossing his head side to side, blowing and snorting. There was nothing there except the chill, and the arrival of breakfast.  To be honest, it happened twice today, and I just took my time waiting until he stopped snorting at the breeze. During the wait for his tail to come back from over his back like a squirrel, I explained to him about the time I ducked under an electric wire and ended up getting my head stitched up cuz my horse thought I was a mountain lion. My story went on long enough I was able to finally duck under with the hay net.

I don't know why I cannot embed videos anymore with blogger but here is a video that shows what he did, but today, he did it twice, and so much so, I needed to stay in a safety zone behind the fence:

Please click, and tell me how to please embed properly in the future of blogger?

 

Mag jumping around

He was born for the show ring, not this lackluster life. A blogger named Aurora mentioned her filly genetically programmed the same way. I hope to tell her the same thing happens to me, Mag snorts at me when I have taken a shower, cuz I smell weird. And he snorts at his food bucket, cuz there's either food in it....or not. *lol* Snorty McSnorterson, as I call him, will live his entire life this way, I imagine. I'm teaching him emotional control as we walk in traffic (a necessity) and he complies.

Speaking of squirrels, I wanted to show you guys what German squirrels look like. Definitely not the American grey, nor the Canadian black. 

They're not the brave University of Washington squirrels that will ambush you and climp up your back if you appear to be eating a snack on your way to your next class: ) But they were getting pretty pushy with me so I had to move my bird feeder.