Rose Explores

Today, when I opened the gate for George to come out onto the lawn, Rose was at the ready. She'd been watching and waiting for the Open Sesame and had positioned herself to follow George out. A first! She set off happily to see what she could see.

Here is Bridget's opinion of George and Rose going off without her.

George enjoyed a roll on the lawn. He wouldn't stop eating though, and in between gyrations, he continued snatching mouthfuls of grass from a reclining position.

I had big plans for cleaning house and putting away laundry today, but somehow it was so much more enticing to spend time with Rose and George wandering around the yard. When I put my daughter on the bus this morning, it was 40F, but by noontime it was perfect weather for lounging in the shade.

When I caught George and returned him to the field, Rose thought about it and decided, well, maybe she wouldn't go with him. I let her stay out, in the interests of Building Independence.

To my surprise, she attached herself to me and followed me across the yard away from the other horses. She checked in with me a couple of times, touching my arm ever so softly with her nose.

Frequently she looked back to make sure she knew where the others were. When she finally got homesick and headed back, she found George looking over the fence. Poor George - starved for affection. With the fence safely intervening, Rose permitted a little mutual grooming.

Look - you can make out Rose's ribs in this photo. She has such a huge chest that her ribs are visible even when she's quite well covered, which she is at the moment.

When Rose made it clear that she wanted to go back to the field, she was, however, unwilling to let me put her halter on. She doesn't think too much of halters. However, I was determined that if I put the halter on, and then took her to the field where she wanted to go and then took it off again, that would constitute a Good Halter Experience, and so I persevered. I don't believe in pussy-footing around or being sneaky, so I just kept going up to her and saying, "Here's the halter, let's put it on." Took a lot of tries, but she finally agreed.

Rose is what, I believe, Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling calls "The Sceptic." But today, when she was striding around the yard on her own, I thought her face looked rather different - stronger, more authoritative, more outgoing. She's an interesting character, our Rose.

Fun Among the Flakes

Sorry, I had to continue the alliteration.

Snow day - no school! First order of business for freed student: make a snowman.

Then we went for a walk and encountered some neighbors.

The horses were energized by the snow, swiping at each other and moving restlessly. Bridget and Rose enjoyed rolling.

Shaking off the snow

Bridget came over to play with me. Here is she is distracted by something in the distance after taking off my glove.

She insistently handed me her forelegs. Several times, she turned around and backed into me - not asking to be scratched, but telling me to pick up her back legs. Now, Bridget has a way of backing up to Rose and then cheekily firing off a couple of play kicks. So when she backs up to me in a playful mood, it makes me a little anxious. I know her intent is not to kick, as she raises her hindleg forward and holds it underneath her. But there is so much energy in this which I can't interpret, that I often ask her to move away. It's not clear that she actually likes having her hind leg picked up. Nevertheless, it seems that this is what she is asking me to do.

As I've said before, I wish I could run with her. But I can never feel the energy just right. In body surfing, if you're a fraction too late or too early, you don't catch the wave, and your ride peters out immediately. I feel that with Bridget I'm never quite just catching the moment. Plus, I don't think she's really into the idea either.

I took George out to graze yesterday. He's been very distant lately. I think he's rather bored. You can see in the photos of Rose and Bridget rolling that he is looking on in a benevolent, but slightly remote, way.

I think they could all use a change of scenery and that perhaps Bridget is grasping at straws to entertain herself. She is an optimist and likes to make the best of things. Whereas I fear George has gotten a little discouraged and feels neglected and doesn't quite know what to do about it.  Hmm. I don't know.

Later on, it snowed a lot more.

The horses became quite frenetic. I put hay out in a sheltered corner on the other side of the barn. They came over to look but refused to stay there. Maybe there were strange windy noises in that spot. They calmed down for dinnertime. Now it's dark, so who knows what they're up to.

I think it's fair to say that we're officially snowed in at this point. Tomorrow no doubt we'll be ploughed out. Hay is scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, but I don't think the truck will be able to get up to the barn. Oh dear. I may have to go and buy a few bales at a time until this clears up.

Never mind! Hoping for another snow day tomorrow!