Even better than The Day
Aug. 22nd, 2005 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
murakoziA while back I wrote about The Day, which is the first day the horses get turned out in the grass pasture each year. Each spring, the horses know it's coming and eagerly anticipate seeing that gate opened every time they're turned out in the dirt pasture.
There's another day that's even more of an event for them: vacation day. Every year, at about this time, the school horse vacation starts. Don hitches up the big 7 horse trailer and ferries loads of horses up to his home near Damascus. The horses spend the next 2 to 3 weeks turned out just herding around, eating, and pooping. The things horses do best.
Yesterday was vacation day this year. Most of the school horses have been here long enough to know what it means when they see the big trailer. They get excited and talkative each time it returns, hoping they get loaded up for each trip. It's funny how differently they behave when it's the big trailer they're being loaded onto. With a regular 2 horse trailer, they usually need coaxing and convincing to get them to load. When it's the 7 horse trailer, it's hard to keep them from zipping right up and leaping in. The ones loaded first get fidgety and impatient, wanting the trailer to get underway right away so they can go gorge themselves on grass. This year was the first vacation trip for Angel and Duncan and they were a bit suspicious of the big trailer. The excitement of their comrades who were loaded first made it easy to get them to load, though.
Some of the school horses stayed behind, yesterday. Hobbes, Wizard and Toby are still very green and with the school not operating for a couple weeks, they can get some extra training and work in. Dan also needs a lot of work. After being on the sick list for so long with his leg injury, he's un-learned a lot. JB and another horse are also staying behind to get a bit of training.
'Another horse' refers to a new arrival. A chestnut gelding named Rockin Robin, referred to as Rock. Don was originally calling him Robin, but that seemed to make everyone assume he was a mare. Added to that, there used to be an instructor at the barn named Robin, so folks wondered if the horse was named after her. So he's referred to as Rock, which might cause some confusion when people inevitably start referring to him as Rocky, which is the name of another former school horse.
Anyhoo, Rock was having a stressy day. I felt sorry for him, because this week his whole world had pretty much come crashing down around him. First he leaves his home and herdbuddies and finds himself in a strange barn surrounded by new horses, all of whom are going to make him run the new-horse-gauntlet. A few days later, all the horses are getting all excited and talkative about something and he has no clue what. Then the ones in the stalls near him start being led away and the others get even more vocal. Poor Rock was upset and whinnying a lot. Fortunately, we moved him and JB over to the empty stalls on the boarder side of the barn, where things were quieter and Rock could relax.
JB absolutely loved being in the biggest box stall in the barn. He's a small fella and that stall looked huge with him in there. You could see only his head from the eyes up when he looked out the front of the stall at any passers-by. He seemed to hit it off with his new temporary neighbor, Silver. Rock seemed relaxed in his temporary stall, even though his neighbors weren't quite so friendly toward the new guy in the stall between 'em.
So the next couple Sundays at the barn will be kind of light. Mostly just keeping an eye on things and feeding the boarded horses. It's great to know the lesson horses are taking it easy, but the barn seems kind of sad without them there. It's just too empty without 'em.
There's been talk that Bebe will be retired this year and will stay up at Don's when the others come back. I have mixed feelings about that. I'm fond of Bebe and would be overjoyed if he were retired, even though I'd miss him. The downside to it is that Don really can't legally keep more than a certain number of horses on his land year round. (technically, the annual vacation time is against the zoning rules. A pissy neighbor could put an end to that) If Bebe stays, someone else would have to go. Usually, that can be avoided by finding somewhere else for a retired horse to go. Not always an easy task, since there aren't tons of places willing to take on an aging horse with the proviso that he/she never be ridden again.
There's another possibility, though it'd be a sad one. One of the retirees already up there, a pony named Cricket, has had some leg trouble for years and it's been getting worse. He's on a daily Bute dose now and continues to get worse. While he could probably keep on living a long time, it would be cruel to have him in constant pain like that. Cricket may have to be put down. That would of course open up a spot for Bebe up there, but still, it's obviously not something anyone wants to have to do.
For now, though, it's vacation time for the horses and they've more than earned it.
There's another day that's even more of an event for them: vacation day. Every year, at about this time, the school horse vacation starts. Don hitches up the big 7 horse trailer and ferries loads of horses up to his home near Damascus. The horses spend the next 2 to 3 weeks turned out just herding around, eating, and pooping. The things horses do best.
Yesterday was vacation day this year. Most of the school horses have been here long enough to know what it means when they see the big trailer. They get excited and talkative each time it returns, hoping they get loaded up for each trip. It's funny how differently they behave when it's the big trailer they're being loaded onto. With a regular 2 horse trailer, they usually need coaxing and convincing to get them to load. When it's the 7 horse trailer, it's hard to keep them from zipping right up and leaping in. The ones loaded first get fidgety and impatient, wanting the trailer to get underway right away so they can go gorge themselves on grass. This year was the first vacation trip for Angel and Duncan and they were a bit suspicious of the big trailer. The excitement of their comrades who were loaded first made it easy to get them to load, though.
Some of the school horses stayed behind, yesterday. Hobbes, Wizard and Toby are still very green and with the school not operating for a couple weeks, they can get some extra training and work in. Dan also needs a lot of work. After being on the sick list for so long with his leg injury, he's un-learned a lot. JB and another horse are also staying behind to get a bit of training.
'Another horse' refers to a new arrival. A chestnut gelding named Rockin Robin, referred to as Rock. Don was originally calling him Robin, but that seemed to make everyone assume he was a mare. Added to that, there used to be an instructor at the barn named Robin, so folks wondered if the horse was named after her. So he's referred to as Rock, which might cause some confusion when people inevitably start referring to him as Rocky, which is the name of another former school horse.
Anyhoo, Rock was having a stressy day. I felt sorry for him, because this week his whole world had pretty much come crashing down around him. First he leaves his home and herdbuddies and finds himself in a strange barn surrounded by new horses, all of whom are going to make him run the new-horse-gauntlet. A few days later, all the horses are getting all excited and talkative about something and he has no clue what. Then the ones in the stalls near him start being led away and the others get even more vocal. Poor Rock was upset and whinnying a lot. Fortunately, we moved him and JB over to the empty stalls on the boarder side of the barn, where things were quieter and Rock could relax.
JB absolutely loved being in the biggest box stall in the barn. He's a small fella and that stall looked huge with him in there. You could see only his head from the eyes up when he looked out the front of the stall at any passers-by. He seemed to hit it off with his new temporary neighbor, Silver. Rock seemed relaxed in his temporary stall, even though his neighbors weren't quite so friendly toward the new guy in the stall between 'em.
So the next couple Sundays at the barn will be kind of light. Mostly just keeping an eye on things and feeding the boarded horses. It's great to know the lesson horses are taking it easy, but the barn seems kind of sad without them there. It's just too empty without 'em.
There's been talk that Bebe will be retired this year and will stay up at Don's when the others come back. I have mixed feelings about that. I'm fond of Bebe and would be overjoyed if he were retired, even though I'd miss him. The downside to it is that Don really can't legally keep more than a certain number of horses on his land year round. (technically, the annual vacation time is against the zoning rules. A pissy neighbor could put an end to that) If Bebe stays, someone else would have to go. Usually, that can be avoided by finding somewhere else for a retired horse to go. Not always an easy task, since there aren't tons of places willing to take on an aging horse with the proviso that he/she never be ridden again.
There's another possibility, though it'd be a sad one. One of the retirees already up there, a pony named Cricket, has had some leg trouble for years and it's been getting worse. He's on a daily Bute dose now and continues to get worse. While he could probably keep on living a long time, it would be cruel to have him in constant pain like that. Cricket may have to be put down. That would of course open up a spot for Bebe up there, but still, it's obviously not something anyone wants to have to do.
For now, though, it's vacation time for the horses and they've more than earned it.