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So.
I delay going to the barn where I board my horse until after dinner because today it is 96F and 99% humidity. I get there about 7:30 and it is noticeably cooler! The place is more crowded than I've seen it in a long time because everyone else had the same idea.
A few people are riding, some are hosing their horses down. But almost everybody has turned their horses out into grass paddocks (There had been no grass turnout earlier because it rained last night and horse hooves+wet pasture = destroyed pasture, but the day's heat has dried everything and we may now put the horses on grass).
And everybody is sitting in the faintly cool breeze, enjoying wine and cheese and crackers, and watching their horses munch grass.
This sounds like a great idea. Especially the wine and cheese part. So i go get Idjit.
The only open paddock shares a fence line with four others. All four are filled with mares who are quietly eating grass.
I turn my old, arthritic gelding out. He spies the mares. He takes off. Tail up, nostrils flared, bucking and kicking and generally strutting his stuff for the womenz.
They all LIKE Idjits stuff. They stop eating and start sashaying up and down the fence line. THANK GAWD for electric fences.
However, the gates are not electrified. Much smooching and nibbling and squealing and jostling for position occurs over the gates. And of course Idjit must pay attention to the mares behind all four widely separated gates.
SO off he races from one gate to another. And when Idjit runs, they ALLL run.
It was a miracle none of the younger mares jumped the gate so they could take Idjit for a ride.
They were SO beautiful, running against the sunset.
But pretty soon, we realized that we had a dozen overheated, excited horse to bring in and cool down before they could be put in their stalls.
Just getting them out of the paddocks was an adventure. Think half ton pogo sticks, bouncing all over creation.
As soon as i got Idjit out of sight of the mares, he reminded me that he had not eaten a single mouthful of grass, and that he was about to faint from hunger, so I had the easy cool down - we walked out back and grazed the edge of the back road.
But some of the mares were still all googledy eyed when I left.
Who'd a thunk the old gelding still had it in him?
I delay going to the barn where I board my horse until after dinner because today it is 96F and 99% humidity. I get there about 7:30 and it is noticeably cooler! The place is more crowded than I've seen it in a long time because everyone else had the same idea.
A few people are riding, some are hosing their horses down. But almost everybody has turned their horses out into grass paddocks (There had been no grass turnout earlier because it rained last night and horse hooves+wet pasture = destroyed pasture, but the day's heat has dried everything and we may now put the horses on grass).
And everybody is sitting in the faintly cool breeze, enjoying wine and cheese and crackers, and watching their horses munch grass.
This sounds like a great idea. Especially the wine and cheese part. So i go get Idjit.
The only open paddock shares a fence line with four others. All four are filled with mares who are quietly eating grass.
I turn my old, arthritic gelding out. He spies the mares. He takes off. Tail up, nostrils flared, bucking and kicking and generally strutting his stuff for the womenz.
They all LIKE Idjits stuff. They stop eating and start sashaying up and down the fence line. THANK GAWD for electric fences.
However, the gates are not electrified. Much smooching and nibbling and squealing and jostling for position occurs over the gates. And of course Idjit must pay attention to the mares behind all four widely separated gates.
SO off he races from one gate to another. And when Idjit runs, they ALLL run.
It was a miracle none of the younger mares jumped the gate so they could take Idjit for a ride.
They were SO beautiful, running against the sunset.
But pretty soon, we realized that we had a dozen overheated, excited horse to bring in and cool down before they could be put in their stalls.
Just getting them out of the paddocks was an adventure. Think half ton pogo sticks, bouncing all over creation.
As soon as i got Idjit out of sight of the mares, he reminded me that he had not eaten a single mouthful of grass, and that he was about to faint from hunger, so I had the easy cool down - we walked out back and grazed the edge of the back road.
But some of the mares were still all googledy eyed when I left.
Who'd a thunk the old gelding still had it in him?
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