One thing the horses all do is hang out in the woods. With one exception all of the pastures have a large wooded area (one pasture has to make do with a treeline) and the woods are a frequent hangout spot. The woods are dotted with horses in all seasons and are usually their preferred choice of shelter over the run-ins.
We have nicknames for the various pasture groups, everyone knows the Big Boys for example. We have another group that Jason and I fondly refer to as "the dysfunctionals" at feeding time. They have earned this nickname due to the fact that they often adopt a spirit of non-cooperation at dinner time. They are great in the mornings and usually greet us at the gate, but they always head to the woods in the afternoon. If they are in the woods at dinner time you know you are sunk. Getting them out of there can be next to impossible sometimes. Their wooded area is also quite large so they are usually scattered about in there and you have to traipse all around in the woods and try to shoo them all out.
I have decided they do this for their own entertainment. I'm pretty sure they have some kind of point system worked out:
Human was trying to come shoo me out of the woods and she walked through a giant cobweb. 100 points!!
Human was trying to come shoo me out of the woods and tripped over a vine. 75 points, 150 if she face plants!!
Human was trying to come shoo me out of the woods and started screaming because she thought she saw a snake (to the horses' delight I tend to think every stick I see on the ground is a snake). 200 points!!
I could go on and on with various ways the horses would be keeping score of my reactions as I traipse through the woods. I'm sure they have strategies like going for the big points word in Scrabble, so the horse who can make we walk through a cobweb, face plant, AND make me think I saw a snake would probably score enough points to win that day's round of laugh at the human. The fact that I subject myself to all of this for the sake of feeding them seems to be lost on the horses.
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Gus and George
speaking of woods we have Stormy and Clayton demonstrating the fine art of chilling out in the woods
Calimba and MyLight
Murphy and Sam grooming, Lighty grazing
Fuzzy and Renny
Winston and Titan
Another spectacular sunrise over the farm featuring orange and purple
a couple of minutes later
Chili, Sebastian and Sam in horse heaven
Leo and Chance
some of the Big Boys on the move; Tony, Trigger, Apollo, Hemi and Moe
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4 comments:
I entertained myself by imagining this post was written by Jason ~ the screaming over stick snakes elicited much giggling.
Wow, what a sunrise! I can only imagine how beautiful that is in person. I think it's great your horses have access to some woods. It's kind of neat to hear how much they like it in there, since I don't know any horses that have anything other than pasture and shelter.
great post! i wonder how hard the horses are on the trees, but then obviously the trees are there for the horses' pleasure. i loved your sunrise photos too, we have nothing close to that here, cuz we live in a valley.
tonight i thought of you because somehow, despite the fact that i feed at the same time (approx) everyday, my equines were at the furthest possible point from the barn when i went looking for them to lure them in to eat. why should i have to do this? don't they know time? i honestly don't get it.
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