The Bite

Today Melanie was bit by a horse for the very first time in her life! After 33 years of working with horses. She pulled up her sleeve a minute after it happened and there was already a gigantic, mouth-shaped bruise on her arm.  I feel honored to have been there for this special moment and also felt very glad it did not happen to me. Melanie went to grab one of the hay nets and Maggie, the horse, didn’t like that for some reason. Chomp. Things are a little crazy on the farm right now.  Maggie is a new boarder and has only been here since I have, so she is still on her own and slowly being integrated into the group.  Then there are five more new horses who are being boarded here.  They were all raised together and have lived in the same place for all 19 years of their lives. Until yesterday.  Needless to say, coming here was very confusing for them. So all of the confusion may have led to “the bite”.

In other news, I think I have found a favorite horse.  As I was shoveling and hauling poop around yesterday morning, I stopped to pet a brown horse with a white stripe down her nose.  She’s quite big.  I scratched her for a while and then went on my way to dump the poop out.  About ten minutes later, back and shoveling, I saw her head pop around the corner and watch me.  Cute, I thought, kept shoveling.  Next thing I know, I see some horse legs standing to the side of me and when I turn to see which one it is, she puts her head down and rests her whole forehead against my stomach.  I have no idea what this means in horse language, but I felt like I was in a Disney movie breakthrough moment.  I also have no idea what her name is.  I think it’s Emi or something, which would make sense because why would I ever love an animal that ISN’T named after my best best friend?

In other, other news, I finally got to leave the house last night.  It was amazing, refreshing, wonderful.  We went to the grocery store.  Going to the grocery store isn’t as simple as it seems here.  First, you have to drive 15 minutes or so to get cat and dog food from a friend of Melanie’s, then you go to the Bioladen to get fresh fruit and vegetables, then you go to the butcher for meat, the bakery for bread, and the actual grocery store, Norma, for the other remaining items.  I saw Pumpkin Seed Oil and got so excited.  Oh how I have missed it. The yogurt too.  It was a beautiful thing, grocery shopping. 

To answer questions: No, there is no car here for my use, especially because I can’t drive a stick.  The village of Kescheid is 3 km away, so I suppose if I had time and energy, I could go for a run and have a look around.  I’m sure I will do that at some point soon, but…it is a village still.  There are only a few shops/buildings in the actual center of Kescheid.  Yes, and pictures/videos.  Those will also come in time.  I am planning a whole tour of the house and stalls and land.  It snowed all day today, so that will make for some cool pictures tomorrow. 

Interestingly enough, Guido, Melanie’s co-habitator/manfriend/whatever you want to call him, was the very first WWOOFer here just three years ago. Two years later, he moved in! He is very nice and will come out and check on me during the day time to make sure “alles gut”.  He’s definitely more shy and quiet than Melanie, who is very extroverted and likes to laugh.  It’s a good mix. Frederick likes to watch TV and that’s all I know about him because all he does is sit and watch TV when he’s not at school.  To each their own.

As for my German, I think it’s getting slightly better all the time, but it is still difficult not to be able to participate in conversations the way I would like to.  Today, for instance, we were having a discussion over breakfast about dogs.  I get all fired up about dogs.  Well, Melanie was telling me about different rules and regulations in Germany for owning a dog and about how they test “aggressive” breeds to make sure they won’t bite kids or anything, which in itself was kindling.  Then she went on to tell me that in the Netherlands, dogs like Pit Bulls or Boxers or Rottweilers aren’t even allowed, and apparently at some point, someone brought their Boxer on vacation with them to the Netherlands and it was taken away from them and put down immediately.  AGH! I had no German words to be able to say what I wanted to say, all I could do was make noises of disbelief. This was frustrating. Oh well, maybe in six months I will come back and finish all of the conversations we started.

 

And now, as a special treat, here is a short video of the horses getting to know each other today.  Aaron and Nuts vs. Sky. Notice all their names are English...interesting.