One Mother Open Sled

There are some things a horse does not wish to see in his pasture. 

This was one of those things.

Mother and Aunt Margie came by today, and Mother was followed by an absolutely terrifying bizarre object, laden with... stuff. I was exceedingly wary, yet Mother did not seem to notice this horrible thing was following her. Belle actually walked up and sniffed it, but I was having none of it. I stayed well away at all times.

Mother and the thing went into the barnyard area.

Before long, she re-emerged, and she and the thing came into the small pasture again. Belle eagerly met her. I hung back until I realized... hay?

The thing is apparently a hay transporter? At first I let Belle get a mouthful and share it with me; eventually, I braved closer and ate from the garish hay transporter myself.

I realized, too, that it wasn't just eeriely following Mother, but was being pulled by her via the attached rope.

Ummm.... still creepy.

Mother took me in the barn hall to tack me up with my ground driving gear. We stared puttering about the multipurpose:

After awhile, Aunt Margie came out pulling the garish hay transporter, which she and Mother kept calling a sled. At first I was a bit creeped, but as it seemed to stick close to Aunt Margie and not prone to wandering off on its own, I decided it was probably ok. I'll just keep an eye on it.

Belle says it's not that scary, and she was hoping more hay would be forthcoming. That's because she got to stand and sleep in the sun while the thing followed me around. The worst part was, Mother and Aunt Margie kept laughing at me. Not nice.

Why would Mother want to follow me around with that thing, anyway?

Bah, Haybug!

Mother is crazy.

She should have been feeding me a special holiday dinner, like last year. But after a hasty dinner of normal rations, she put me in the cross ties and brought the contraption around from the barn porch. She reminded me that the holiday is not just about cookies and how much grain I get... perhaps not, but I don't think it's supposed to be about work, either! She picked my feet, brushed me off, and put my pad and surcingle on. The whole time she was making our dinners and getting my various accouterments ready, she was singing about a "one horse open sleigh" and some sort of bells.

I have to admit, this was making me a little nervous. Sleigh? I'm "one horse"... what's a sleigh? Mother just hooked up my normal pole contraption, though, and we journeyed out of the warmth and light of the barn and into the snowy dark pasture.

I've never before gone for a night drive in the snow, but it wasn't too bad because all the snow made it pretty bright out. I have no idea what got into her. I should have been eating my hay, like all the others were, not out dragging the contraption to nowhere.

Mother did give me a lot of cookies before we drove and after, and there were cookies in my dinner, and of course my goodbye kiss cookies (Hilton Herballs... yumm!!).

And finally, I was put back out to eat hay with my mare, Belle. But then Mother came out with the flashy picture taker... if you're coming out and disturbing my already late dinner, you better have cookies, lady!

We have a perfectly good run-in shed... we could have had our hay in there, instead of dining al fresco.

You know, though, I have a full belly and more hay for later and friends and a warm place to get out of wind and weather and good healthcare and Mother came to visit, even if it was a little strange to work in the dark, and I really should just stop complaining, I guess.

Merry Christmas!