Overheard

"Hey, my grain smells funny this morning... does anyone else's grain smell funny?"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Funny how?"
"It smells like... like coffee."
"What color is it?"
"MINE doesn't taste like coffee! I want coffee grain!"
"It's brown."
"Coffee's brown."
"Really? Well, my grain is always brown."
"Light brown? Tan? Mine's tan with little green bits..."
"No, dark brown."
"Today, or everyday? Is it just coffee?
"NO! It's dark brown everyday, but just today it smells like coffee."
"None of us have dark brown grain. Yours is just weird. No wonder it smells like coffee."
"I'll eat it, I like coffee... can you fling some this way?"
"Is it gross?"
"I'm eating it! I'll eat it myself! It's fine, it just smelled a little like coffee. I was just asking if anyone else's ... jeesh. Never mind."


See what happens when you do not thoroughly wash the coffee container before using it for feed set-ups? This sort of thing happens everyday, in barns all across America...

Famine

Could some one please air-drop me some food? Please? Food has become so scarce, I've scarcely had the energy to write anything!

Mother has been messing with my food supply. She thinks I am "hefty", and tells me it would be easier on my leg if I had less weight on it. Well, d'uh, that's why I rest it more, silly Mother.

If I sound a little cranky, it's because my leg is bothering me just a smidge. Mother has been trying to get me to switch to another type of food, one she says I can have more of than my current grain without the worry of too many calories. Without the worry of too much taste, if you ask me.

So, I just don't eat it.

Which means I haven't really been eating my supplements. Maybe those help my leg, after all... hmmm... Mother will give in soon, though, and give me my real grain again. I'll just keep holding out...

In addition to the crappy grain, with supplements I don't really like anyway,  Mother has been messing with my hay supply. She's been giving me the first cutting stuff more, and sometimes doesn't even give me any of the good green stuff. Or, she puts the good stuff in a hay net with really small holes. It took me a while to figure that out. I thought it was some sort of cruel torture, but if I wriggle my lips and YANK I can get the hay out. It's a lot of work, though. There's good hay in the field all day, so I make sure to eat lots and lots of that.

I have been having fun, otherwise. The sun's been shining, Mother ground drove me today. There was some snide comment about not being sure if she could get the belly band all the way around me. When we started out, past the front of the barn and the manure pit, there was a snow melt stream in the parking lot that usually isn't there... I really didn't want to cross it. Mother didn't let me turn away, so finally I braved the stream. It was really shallow, after all. No sooner did I cross it than I noticed the FIRE! I saw a little, smoldering fire, and leapt to the side, away from it. Mother snorted at me and said, "You sidepassed toward it not wanting to cross a little water, and NOW you see it?!?" Then she laughed at me.

Sometimes, she's not very understanding.

The rest of the ground driving was less eventful, and I passed the fire and flood just fine on the way home. Everything seems easier on the way home.

Other news... hmm. She washed and re-braided my tail yesterday. The water was a little chilly, but she does a good job of not getting the water on my body, just on my tail, so I didn't really mind. I like when she fusses on me, so if I have to put up with some of the weirder things from time to time, that's OK. She did deworm me today. Blech. She likes that I never try to spit it out. I usually don't even make faces. She gave me a candy cane a few minutes later. It wasn't long enough later. It's a sad thing when even a candy cane tastes blech-y.

Oh, and of course I got my cookies tonight, even though I didn't eat my supper. So I guess it is unfair of  me to say there's a famine... But is all the grain and alfalfa hay I can eat really too much to ask?

It's not my fault

It's not my fault that I am pleasingly plump, a well rounded individual. Mother has tried to reduce my grain, although if she takes out too much, I refuse to eat my suppies. She has cut back on my good hay, and I have mostly just first cutting stuff to keep me through the night, but that's OK, because there is good hay out in the field all day long. I eat, eat, eat... nap on the hay, wake up, eat, eat, ooh, water trough, eat eat...

And I run around a lot in the field, at least when the snow is on the ground. She doesn't exercise me really anymore, because of my joint, so it's not MY fault.

Mother was poking me along the side tonight. She says she can't feel any ribs... well, that's all muscle!

I do look handsome, but Mother says I would feel better if I lost a few pounds or 70. Only if I can lose weight while still eating all I want. But she deworms me regularly, and the vet did my tooth a weekend or two ago, so...

I'll just keep eating. She'll get over it.

And surely three Mrs. Pastures cookies a night isn't enough to tip the scale...

Sorry

 

Raising Cain

aka Romeo

Mother has been too busy to provide my Wi-Fi... she's helping a cousin get ready for the big party at Equine Affair I went to last year... She tells me he is just temporary, in fact he is looking for his own riding home, but that doesn't make me any happier now.

 

The interloper. I mean, the cousin.

He belongs to Margaret and he may even get to do some really big horse thing going on in Kentucky in the fall... So Mother has been a little absent. But she promises me she'll get my connection back up and running well all the time soon!!

Margaret also owns a few more cousins. One of them, Moonshine (who left North Dakota long before me, but I got to visit with him at EA last year)  has been to all sorts of important things letting people know about us and our cousins still in North Dakota. He goes to Beyerfest, and shows and demos and even book signings!  He lived for two years at the Kentucky Horse Park representing us. Look:

 

Blue Moon Rising

aka Moonshine 

Until Mother figures out my Wi-Fi, you can look at my cousins (who haven't found their permanent people yet) at their home in North Dakota at The Nokota Horse Conservancy.

It looooks like fun in the snow...

I was in a snit, I admit, because I was still outside, when I know full well my hay and grain are waiting inside. To add insult to injury, Aunt Margie snuck up and took pictures!

 

Really I'm not knock-kneed, just distracted staring at Aunt Margie... Does she have any cookies? 

I really just wanted to come in to eat... How dare I be left out until near the end? Rebelbebel does NOT count as a companion! 

Perhaps if I run around... Mother will come get me!

Photo op?

Mother (apparently) wanted to take some pictures of me.*  I figured she wanted to pet me and scratch my scratchy areas, maybe even take me in for dinner...? 

 

Hello... why do you keep flashing that bright light in my eyes?

  

She seemed irritated at my closeness. She would back away (trying to get a picture, I realize now)... I thought she was finally admitting my dominance, and I put my ears back as I stepped closer...

 

Mother quickly reminded me that she is always leader, * and she made me move along. Jeez, make a few faces, and you get yelled at...

Anyway, she did manage to get a few pictures:

 

This is my old man winter pose...

  

My interpretation of a  winter horse statue...

  

See ya, cookie-less, non-petting, no halter so no dinner, mean lady... 

* Now you know why so many of Bif's pictures are in the crossties! He's either too friendly, or too pushy if you back up just a step or two. In Bif's defense, he doesn't mug you for treats, he's just wanting to be pet. When you start backing up, though, he thinks you're playing or backing down dominance wise and starts to press his advantage... He will try to "drive" you in the field if you don't tell him to knock it off. Six and a half years of being a stallion, I guess.

Big Bowl... of cookies?

Things were funny down at the barn... Lots of the humans were there earlier than usual and just brought in horses willy nilly. They said something about a Super Bowl... I'm not sure if they are all going to a party with a big bowl? If so, I bet it's full of COOKIES!! That's my idea of a party.

Humans are funny. They find the littlest excuse to change our routine. Mother tends to be there kind of late, and she feeds me kind of late. But sometimes, she is there early! Sometimes, some other human brings me in, and they give me my grain, which is nice of them. (They never give me grain in the morning, when all the other horses get theirs, so I am always grateful if someone feeds me.)

We have hay put out in the field for us all day in winter, and it's good hay, so I don't mind if Mother isn't there as early as some others. If it gets really late, sometimes she puts some of MY good alfalfa hay out for me and my late waiting cohorts while she finishes doing my stall and sometimes other stalls, so I don't mind staying out (but I do mind sharing MY hay). She tends to walk by, saying in a very smooth, creepy voice, "Please continue to wait. Your stall is important to us. It's being cleaned in the order received." I really hate that voice. I pin my ears when I hear it. Does that stop her? No!! She thinks it's funny.

Why can't humans do things the same every day? Humans say, "I've gotta go!" and "I'm so busy tonight!", but really, what could be more important than being down here? I'm here all day. I don't have to be in a big hurry to get anywhere (except inside to the grain at night). What's the rush?

Mother says things about "work", and blames it for being late sometimes. I don't really understand that either. She says she gets money if she goes to work, but I have seen money, and it smells gross and doesn't seem edible, even though it's green, so I don't see why she wants it. Now, if she got cookies for work, I'd understand!

Fortunately, I don't have to do anything to get cookies, except stick my nose over the door when Mother says she's got to go, and give her a kiss. Sometimes I am eating a big mouthful of alfalfa, so I will walk up to the door, so she knows I heard her, but I wait with my nose just out of her reach until I finish my mouthful. I wouldn't want to drop my hay, or my cookies!

I just have to hold my head really still so she can kiss me on the top of my nose, and then I get my cookie, and a couple "for the road" tossed into my feeder, then she closes the top door of my stall. Sometimes it is funny to watch her, she reaches to kiss me but I am just out of reach. She says "No kiss, no cookie", and then I take one more step so she can reach me.  Henhenehenehuhn.

Winter Doldrums

So, Mother has been lazy in allowing me access to my Wi-Fi. She seems mostly recovered from her bout with illness, but is still a little loggier than I would like. 

She and the other humans have been whining about the winter weather. I have been kind of enjoying it. Hang out in the snow, eat hay, play with friends, eat hay, nap on hay, eat hay...

Mother had me ground drive a few days ago, before the snow came again. For all of about 6 minutes. It took her longer to hook me up, chat with her friends, then get me out of the barn than we spent driving! I gotta say, life is pretty easy for me. Cookies have been flowing well, so what more can I ask for?

Mother promised me that she'll leave my Wi-Fi accessed down here, so hopefully you'll be hearing more from me... my internet friend Grey was talking about his dental experience of late... he should meet my dentists (I have Uncle Jeff, and the local vet works on me when I can't go up to visit Uncle Jeff) , then he would love vets and dentists like I do! Mother says my connection is short tonight, but I'll tell you more soon about my visits with Uncle Jeff and my trips to different places. For being sheltered, I've lead a pretty exciting life.