balu

Today I met a horse named Balu. Great guy’s friends, Alex and Jorg, who I met on the weekend, have this horse, along with an Australian Ridgeback, named Nero. This morning, I went with Alex to the stable on Laurenziberg (so beautiful) to meet Balu. She wants someone to help work and ride him, and since I currently have all the time in the world, I said that I would be interested. I am missing animal contact –sadly, great guy does not fill that need. He almost bought me a puppy for Christmas, but since we had only been in the same country for 4 weeks at that time, we thought that a puppy might be going a bit fast. So, for the time being I will hang out with Balu and Nero.

First of all, Laurenziberg, is a tiny, tiny village with maybe 20 houses. It sits atop one of the highest hills in the area, overlooking fields, vineyards, and towns as far as the eye can see. It is incredibly peaceful there. The riding stable, where about 30 horses are boarded, and where the owner breeds thoroughbreds, is large, old, rustic, compound of wooden stables, an outdoor riding arena, breeding stalls, fields and fields of paddocks, and awesome horse smells. Horses are everywhere, and yet, it is a very calm, serene place. I think it must lie with the owners. Calm people, create calm animals.

Balu is a 9 year old, golden Hafflinger, with a long, shaggy, blonde mane. He is very cute and very stubborn. I kind of fall in love with cute, stubborn animals…hmmm, come to think of it, maybe men of that nature too. Interesting. I will not continue with any further comparisons between the two, so please put that out of your mind.

After brushing the mud and gunk out of Balu’s hair, we took him into the riding arena and walked around with him a bit; putting him through exercises like, stopping instantly, backing up, and walking sideways (just to be clear, I’ve never asked great guy do that).

From atop the horse you could look over the arena walls (well, I could) and see the endless, green, rolling hills. Sorry Canadians, but it is totally green here, even though it is a chilly -1. Balu and I spent some time getting to know each other. I made him run around in circles and turn in all the directions he doesn’t really like to go-just so he knows that I’m the boss in this relationship. You know those stubborn horses, they think with someone new they can do whatever they want. Well, I showed him…but, I was really nice about it, of course.

The morning was beautiful with Alex, horse and dog, and maybe tomorrow we will do it again.

I think that my German life will include a horse named Balu.