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I am angry, really angry. This diary entry will be a long and I'll use it as a vent. So maybe it'll be a good idea to fetch something to drink before you start reading this.

Rose pulled our caravan kilometer and kilometer. Mr. Nanuk and I were irritated because our women didn't catch up with us even though they should have been much faster with their Haflingers than us. When we made half of the day's distance we stopped Rose at a ranger station. Not too long and the two women arrived but not riding as we expected them to. Instead they were walking Mermaid and Jack.

Mrs. Nanuk's face showed a mixture of disappointment and relief: "I'll call Mermaid's owner and ask him to pick her up. The other saddle is even worse than her very own one. When I ride her the saddle is sliding back until I can see her shoulders. It's no use all I am causing her is pain." So this is what took the women so long - they walked the whole distance.



Prelude: Calling the owner

When Mrs. Nanuk called the owner, he didn't ask if his horse was alright, he didn't ask why she had to be picked up, he wasn't concerned at all - he just asked: "Do you want another horse?"

But what really drove me angry was that he continued in an arrogant attitude: "How do you expect me to pick her up? I have classes to give, I'll pick her up tonight, just take her along to the next stop for the night."

Now don't get me wrong; if only the owner had asked politely if it would be a problem for us to take Mermaid with us, if only he had given us a hint that he actually cared. But instead he treated us like WE were the ones asking for a favor.

So I called him. I tried to explain in a cool but polite way that we expected him to pick Mermaid up. And he? "Oh, it's nice and well that you try to complain like a big man, but how do you expect me to manage this?" Did he just really try and treat me like one of those 12 year old pony girls who were just drooling to clean out one of the horses' stables. Bad decision. I clearly made my point so in the end he grumbled something like "I'll send somebody, but you'll have to wait."

It was time for lunch anyway and cooking takes some time. We placed Rose on a paddock and tied the Haflingers to the back of the caravan. Soon they were doozing off and we ate.



Act one: Blondie and Curly-Head

While we were waiting dark clouds overcast the sky and first raindrops started to fall. Mrs. Nanuk received a call of a woman asking her, where we would be and later a text message from the same number stating something like: "You have to be patient; we have real jobs to do." Mrs. Nanuk did not tell us others about this - otherwise we might have reacted differently to what came next.

A man wearing a shirt with the owner's stable logo and a woman arrived with a horse trailer. Let's call them Curly-Head and Blondie. My understanding was that Curly-Head must be the owner's handyman and that Blondie must be his girl friend. Mrs. Hugin thought it would be the owner himself and some pony girl, Mr. Nanuk thought that this must be some neighbor of the owner and some bimbo from a local barber shop.

There was more than enough space for minibus and horse trailer and a lot of solid forest ground. But where did Curly-Head park? In the middle of the small road on the only single spot with slippery cobble stone pavement in a manner that no car could pass by. Mrs. Hugin had a bad feeling and asked me to watch for Jack. He was very upset that his new girl-friend was being brought away and whinnied the whole time.

Mrs. Hugin was right, Mermaid was unwilling to set even one hoof on the trailer’s ramp. Curly-Head’s nervous behavior did little to cool her down. He was standing in front of Mermaid, facing her in a way that he had to walk backwards into the trailer, pulling at her reigns. Okay, I don’t want to lecture here but for those who don’t work with horses: This is not just wrong, this is plain stupid. Most horses won’t be so aggressive to walk into a human standing in front of them and even if they did – Curly-Head would have been in a very insecure position as most horses make a very fast movement forward into the trailer and it would have been very difficult for Curly-Head to get out of the way backwards in time.

But Mermaid did not move a single hoof. Curly-Head tried to run with her towards the trailer – she stopped in time. He pushed her around, pushed her backwards with nervous commands – Mermaid got more nervous and was even more reluctant.



Act two: Mrs. Hugin tries to help

Blondie was no help at all. So it was Mrs. Hugin who asked if they could maybe remove the separating bar in the middle of the trailer. Usually you can do this to give the horse a feeling of more space to move while loading it into the trailer. But Curly-Head just said: “No, we have secured it, it’s non removeable.” I didn’t hear that but we’ll get to that point later.

So Mrs. Hugin asked if maybe she should place Jack into the trailer. Some horses get into the trailer more easily if they see a fellow horse inside. Curly-Head agreed... and just stood there blocking half of the ramp. Mrs. Hugin (still believing she was talking to Mermaid’s owner who should at least have some horse sense) asked very politely, if he wouldn’t want to give her some room to work with Jack. He complied by moving one meter and still blocking half of the ramp. I am not sure but somehow I have the feeling that his plan was to move both horses into the trailer at the same time.

Now, Jack was pretty nervous himself now and was unwilling to get into the trailer himself. The presence of Curly-Head made the whole thing even more dangerous so in the end I asked Mrs. Hugin to stop. I took Jack and brought him away to Rose, hoping that her presence would calm him a little bit. But Jack was too wrought up that even super cool Rose started to get nervous. Now keeping a Haflinger pony under control is one thing, but almost a ton of muscles and horse flesh is a complete different story. So I entertained Jack with little walk exercises just to drive his attention away. It did not really work that well and more than one time he tested me if I would be unheedingly enough to let go.

In the meantime Curley-Head ran tried something new. Mrs. Hugin had made clear that she didn’t like the idea of chasing Mermaid with a broom and beatings of a crop up the ramp too much. So he tied two long longes to the left and right side of the trailer and crossed them behind Mermaid. The idea isn’t that bad you give a clear corridor to the trailer and define a border to the rear of the horse.

But Blondie did not fully understand what was going on. She pulled at her longe violently as if she would be able to push the horse into the trailer. To make things worse Mermaid made a sudden movement to the left and Mrs. Hugin had to yell at Blondie to let go of the longe. Otherwise Mermaid would have stumbled and would have pulled Blondie along.



Act three: Three days of trust is not enough to compensate years of bad treatment

Curley-Head came up with a new brilliant idea. All four of us should push Mermaid and he would set her hooves forward one by one. By now Mrs. Nanuk (who really had grown fond of Mermaid) had smoked at least a dozen cigarettes. After all the whole drama had taken an hour up to now and she was torn between feeling sorry for Mermaid and furious about the incompetence of Curly-Head. Mrs. Nanuk barked sharply at Curley-Head that she would not lay a hand at Mermaid under these circumstances.

We had to do something differently. I asked Mrs. Hugin to keep an eye on Jack for me. I did this not because I felt uncomfortable nor did I believe that I was in any way more experienced in loading horses than she is. But I could read in her face that it would not be long and she would eat Curley-Head’s face.

Mrs. Nanuk sent Blondie and Curley-Head away out of sight and tried it her way. She talked silently and soothing to Mermaid, lured her with a carrot and showed something the two wannabe horse loaders lacked so much: patience. It had started to rain heavily. How suiting for the whole situation. And soon the two of us were soaking wet.

I tried to help and naturally my first move was to but the separating bar in the middle of the trailer to the side. Woupsi – turned out it wasn’t fixed in place at all. But all patience, all soothing talking was just enough to calm Mermaid down. For the first time she was willing to set hooves onto the ramp but not any further.

Blondie and Curley Head were entertaining themselves in the mean time. Standing under some branches protected from the rain he had moved behind her placing his hands into her pants. Ever now and than we could hear them giggling.

I tried it myself (knowing too well that Mermaid did not know me at all and chances were little that she’d follow me), with little success. But at least we had made more progress than the Blondie and Curley-Head earlier.


Act four: wrong, wrong, wrong

Curley-Head wanted to give the longe-trick another time and asked Mr. Nanuk to push Mermaid’s butt. Now this was my time to bark at Curley-Head that it would be irresponsible to ask someone who is not experienced with horses at all to stand behind a horse, even if it was as passive as Mermaid. But Mr. Nanuk was much too wrought up himself to listen to reason. If this would be what it took to end the situation he was willing to do it.

And so we tried again. Mr. Nanuk pushed, Blondie and me held the longes and Curley-Head tried to set each hoof forward. And indeed, it worked... not. Every time Curley Head went around the horse to set the hooves on the other side Mermaid set her hooves on the first side back again. It was Blondie who made me break the situation. Again she was pulling much too strong, her longe sliding down Mermaid’s butt cutting into her rear legs, almost making her stumble. I yelled at her and we stopped this attempt.

I needed a break. My clothes were soaking wet and I was frustrated about the incompetence of Curley-Head and Blondie and I was furies about the owner who had send them.



Act five: Progress – too late

I walked back to Mrs. Hugin who had made a new friend: One of the Rangers had arrived and it turned out that he was the keeper and trainer of two draft horses which were used to haul logs from the forest. From his looks you might mistaken him for a simple minded man. But instead he was a very calm and friendly man.

Having been too focused on Mermaid I hadn’t noticed him earlier. But while Mrs. Nanuk and I had worked with Mermaid he had talked to Curley-Head: “If they hadn’t acted so arrogant towards me I would have offered them to put the horse on the pasture land behind the ranger station for a night so that it might cool down. But if they talk to me like that?” He shrugged.

It felt so good to have someone from outside who felt the way we did. The Ranger agreed to help us (not them) and we gave Jack a second try. And it didn’t take Mrs. Hugin and the Ranger long and Jack was standing in the trailer. Maybe this would help Mermaid to walk into the trailer too?

But the whole drama had taken more than two hours now. And Mermaid had shut down completely. Curley-Head could not even move her close to the ramp. Mermaid did not even react to the bucket with oats in front of her nose. It was horrible to see a horse who gave herself up like that. She was just standing there, only a shell, nothing reached her anymore.



Act six: In the end

I had enough of this. It was getting late and we still had half of today’s distance to take. I talked to the others and we quickly agreed to take Mermaid with us even if it meant that one of us had to walk her another ten kilometers. Maybe she would open up after another night with Jack and Rose.

Curley-Head was visibly relieved and promised to pick her up the next morning at our next station. Of course he did not keep his promise. No sign of him or the horse’s owner on the next morning. We had to call him and again I had to use a lot of pressure to force him to come and pick Mermaid up.

They came with three men, Curley-Head, the owner and another strong fat guy. This time they parked their trailer out of sight. And after half an hour they were gone without a goodbye.

Poor Mermaid. I really hope she’ll have a good future life. Maybe an hour or two of school riding with lightweight kids. Anything, just not this trouble.