Nothing but relationship building

No drama, no upsets, no riding (sad to say) but hours of relationship building left me feeling blissed out today.

Claudia cancelled on me yesterday for our first trail ride, so I stayed home. Today no one was there, of course, so I just played with Mag.

I decided to set up an obstacle course in the indoor arena for him and see if I could get him to play. Swimming pool, big plastic ball, cavaletti, plastic tarps, random blankets and towels....and as he moved through them, I'd jump around and change the positions of things to make it more interesting. And two cats were playing king of the mountain with the hay bales and it was not nice playing, it was battle. Exciting!

It was great, just playing with him as the rain drummed on the roof, with a lone sparrow singing loudly inside the arena. I wonder what birds make of arenas.

Mag rolled and rolled, his usual, and then animated himself when he heard things going on outside. I somehow cannot get him interested in that big plastic ball. Ball rolls under him, ball bounces off his back, he just stand there. Gotta get the Leitstute to show him again how to play ball.

Earlier, Jana (from J's school) showed up, and I eagerly asked her if she was going to ride today, or work in the arena today, but no. *sigh* Then I thought, what the heck is she doing here, I know it's a school day cuz I just dropped off J at her school. "What are you doing here?" She replied, "I'm working on an internship." I think that's the word. She plans to be a vet someday, and is apparently working at HER OWN BARN for school credit. How perfect! 

She said, "I thought it would be Herr W (my husband) who would come oversee my work today, but unfortunately it's Frau Bergmann." I was stunned. My husband COULD HAVE shown up as part of his job, at the barn!? How cool would that be!

Gabi had her washing the hooves of Mr Jones, and I asked, "Does Frau Bergmann know horses?" She said, "Unfortunately no, and she didn't really want to come here today."

Gabi said, "Is your husband her teacher?" I said, "Next year, for math, but they know each other."

When I picked up J, I told him and he said, "I would have if I'd known! In fact, I would have given her a test on safety practices around horses!" Awww, my man knows enough about horses to actually evaluate safety for interns: ): )

Gabi saw me spraying Mag's hooves and said, "What is that?" I told her how I mix a disinfectant spray with water 50/50. It's one of those hygiene sprays for your house, that kills bacteria and fungus, and I told her it's only 1.75E per bottle, cheaper than any hoof preparation I know of, and I use it as a preventative, not a treatment. It occurred to me that people use mouth wash on hooves, and mouth wash has the same active ingredient as foot-fungus spray for humans, so why not buy the household disinfectant and dilute it? OK, perhaps cuz I've never met anyone who has, and I've never read about anyone doing this, but ethanol is ethanol, right? It's not bleach. I add a few drops of peppermint oil for further antiseptic properties. As Ramey says, "Would you gargle with it?" Hm....well, quickly, yes.

Then Gabi saw me pouring water from the electric kettle into my little mineral oil/water squirter. I had filled up a bucket halfway with warm water to put the squirter in, but then put a little hot water in the squirter itself. She was curious.

"It's a private thing" I said, not sure how to tell her.

Then I admitted it's for Mag's sheath - that for the last few weeks has become grosser and grosser because he only shows it to me at the arena when I have no sheath cleaner.  Today I decided to take the cleaner to the arena and deal with it. If Mag is going to be showing it off all the time, he can at least be clean.

I did that in-hand exercise that somehow always produces the 5th leg and went to work with the warm fluid, and apparently it felt good because for the first time in my life, my gelding did not retract and hide from the cleaning. OK then. I was able to get it really, really clean because of this. Apparently warmth in Winter helps.

Then we hung out in the doorway, looking out at the rain, and then I took him for a walk and the neighbor Ingrid and her dog Sally talked to us on the trail, her dog Sally barking incredibly loudly the entire time. Mag kept straining toward the dog with his sweetest expression (and I really don't know how he feels about dogs). Finally I told Ingrid "I'm deaf now" and we moved on. I think her ears must be broken because that was so loud! Oh, I wanted to mention, she is the only older person, the only person at all, who I've said "Let's use the informal language with each other" - !!! It felt so odd for an older person to be so formal with me. Normally it's Germans who tell me this.

Hope to see more people at the barn tomorrow, but if not, I've asked Gabi to take me out for a ride on one of her "role model" horses (no idea which one). She agreed, just "Not in THIS weather."

Sprinkling rain. I LOVE it. Keep coming down, don't stop.




Summer coat - I miss it. Hey, though, no more rope halter for us, no longer part of our wardrobe.