Today is St Martins Tag but the kiddies weren't allowed to go door-to-door singing with their lanterns this year. There was some "middle of the street" singing going on that freaked Mag out more than Silvester (New Years) fireworks. I had bought a bunch of candy because there's nothing worse than kids singing and having nothing to give them. Oh well.
Around noon I was raking leaves in the backyard and I heard my name being called by a woman's voice. I shrugged it off cuz no one calls me by my first name, and if they do, they use the long version. I assumed I was dreaming and kept raking. Then I heard it again and walked up to the barn. My good neighbor Petra was standing at our gate petting Mag. Wow, first time she's called me that.
After so many months we finally caught up. I stayed a good 2 meters away from her and Mag kept switching between asking her for attention and asking me. She must not have touched a horse for a while cuz she exclaimed, "How soft you are!!"
She told me that the virus restrictions changed St Martins Tag last night and the kids of Herr Hase couldn't ring any doorbells. At the mention of his name I told her how he'd ran over our cat in July, and how he drove us to the vet and stayed with us until it was over. Petra had a terrier named Leopold when we first moved here and when he died, they said they'd never have another dog. I told her it's the same for us.
As we talked about many subjects, Mag finally came over to me and put his forehead against my knees and just stood like that. It's the sweetest gesture he has. I wonder if it lulls him, me having conversation with good neighbors.
Later I put all the candy into a sack including a note to Herr Hase and his family, and walked it up the hill to his house, where I left it.
On the way up I noticed something odd in our garden area by the street. It was a clump of grass. Just grass but it didn't fit. I wondered but then let it go.
A couple hours later I was watching TV and the old man, Hartmut, walked right into my driveway, right up to our barn and gave Mag an enormous clump of grass to eat. !!!
We'd told him before to please respect our property line, but with his stroke he has memory issues. I watched him carefully feed Mag the grass, making sure the donkey didn't get any (!!). Then he hurried away.
I remember as a kid I'd rip up grass til I had blisters to feed any horse I saw. I can't be annoyed at him. My goodness he must have picked it all himself! It would be way simpler to just snag a carrot from the nursing home.
On his way back home he stood at the street waving at Mag like he always does. Waving at him as if he's departing by ship, every day he does this.
I haven't been riding but I'm in touch with my good trainer and asked her today to please come back.
10 comments:
Fall season can have its highs and lows. More rain, cold and muddy horses makes for less than motivated riders. And then every once in a while the skies clear up and you want to enjoy the outdoors. Now with Covid, everybody and their dog are out on the trails at the slightest hint of sunshine. It makes for lots of stop-and-go plus educating the unaware.
Cold november rains and blustering winds are weather conditions that often keep me safe at home. Soon we shall have snow and ice.
I think that, even if my memory completely abandons ship someday, I will still remember that horses need to be fed grass pulled up and and handed over the fence by total strangers. Like you, I could never walk past a horse field without doing this.
Hallowe'en made me very sad this year. We never get trick or treaters at home (except the one year I told the next door kids to come over in costume and gave them full size Snickers--they are all grown up now!), but I was driving home from a trailhead and saw a little girl dressed in a Day of the Dead dress and makeup collecting candy from a laundry line. I cried.
Thanksgiving 2020 may be equally lonely. But today I submitted a vacation request for the Cross-State ride. Just in case...
Yay for lessons!
ND, I learned from your blog that even in Canada, there are high-traffic multi-use trails, which blows the mind.
Aarene, How on earth would trick*treators come to your farm? There's no sidewalk! Ok we don't have one either but you live on a 50MPH highway, if I remember correctly.
The day of the dead is late November here, when I'm officially allowed, after, to put up lights. But according to our neighborhood facebook site, and looking out my window, people are going nuts and putting up lights NOW! I don't even have to ask J. Of course not.
I love that you did Tevis in 2 months. I remember your 9 mile trail, so I can see how much fun it would be. Also, that Dory knows my beloved trainer Debi amazes me. You and I, connected through Arabian competitive horse shows?
I'm not gonna dis anybody who thinks the world needs more light now. Put 'em up, I say. Google thinks that Germany's Day of the Dead was November 2!!! Is Google **wrong*?!?!?!
Aarene, Day of the Dead (Totensonntag) is the Sunday before first Advent. This year it's 22 Nov. I don't know why if you google it 2 Nov comes up!
UPDATE: My trainer wrote me back that she doesn't want to come out here to help me. She says I need to get a horse trailer so I can come to her, or find a friend locally to ride with. She's a great person, I really like her, but I suspected she felt bad for taking my money for doing "so little." She would ride Mag and then at some point I'd get on, and it was really helpful for me internally, but she said that accompanying me like that for $ was "nonsense/rubbish." I feel really disappointed and hopeless but understand, asking a trainer to come out into the woods for a lesson is a lot to expect.
....bahhhhh. so, can you get a trailer? It would solve a lot of problems!
Even in Germany, a Prius cannot pull a horse trailer (I know!)
But a CRV can! Get yerself a steady "old lady" Honda (my mechanic calls my car "a sweet old lady") and off you go.
The older gentleman giving grass to Mag is so sweet. Can you write back to the trainer and say that you were getting a lot out of it even if it’s not traditional?
Aarene, a CRV can, you're right, but I've learned my lesson about "barely able to" vehicles like my first truck, a Chevy 1500 Cheyenne. That thing could pull anything in Germany, but had a lot of trouble slowing down my heavy steel trailer, and coming down the mountains, you know the smell of burning brakes? Ugh. My dream truck is a Toyota Hilux, a tiny truck, but able to pull and stop.
Teresa, I'm glad you think so too. I did tell the trainer this, but she is a very traditional trainer focused on dressage. I've had other trainers who were fine going into the woods but I could sense from her that she wasn't thrilled about it. The fact that she enjoyed riding Mag so much also made it hard for her to take my money, something she admitted to. I told her how happy I'd be if she came back, any time, but she turned me down and said after Corona we should go out to dinner sometime. *sigh*
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