Back to the Barn

Back to the barn today after an absence of four days (too busy/too sick/out of town/out of town).

I went out to fetch George in from the pasture ....

I like to walk along the path made by the horses.








I worked on his feet, practicing my "hoof mapping" by drawing on his soles with a Sharpie marker.  He's not a big fan of having his feet held up, but since he and I have been becoming more intimate, we're more trusting of each other. When the time came to look at his back feet, which in the past he has been very protective of, I stood by his head and pointed to his back leg and explained that I was going to ask him to pick up that foot.  I slid down his side and touched the leg.  He picked it up immediately.  I could tell he felt a little insecure, but we found a position, where his foot wasn't very far from the ground, that he found comfortable. Fortunately the back feet didn't really need any work, so we quit while we were ahead.

I had a nice visit in the field with Chloe and Bridget.  We so often spend our time going out for a grazing walk, which is serious business, that it was nice to just hang out in the pasture.  I'm thinking I might have to insist that Bridget be nicer to Chloe when we're all together.  She usually shoves her out of the way and tries to get between us.  I suppose I could shoo her away when she does that and allow her to come back as long as she lets Chloe be part of the social circle too.

Bridget and I kind of roughhoused a bit today, if you could call it that, if that's what we were doing .... I think that's kind of what we were doing.  Anyway we were bumping into each other and getting tangled up and pushing each other.  It was quite fun.  She reached around toward me a couple of times with her mouth open the way horses do when they playbite. Sometimes she reaches out to me with a foreleg - don't know what that means.  Maybe she's seen Chloe do it.  When she does, I pick it up and congratulate her.  I figure that if it's a "naughty" gesture, that'll make her think of it differently.  However, I'm sure it's a perfectly lovely gesture.