Sounds of life

The week and life amid the minis moved on. The weather is beginning to warm up and so are the short horses. Thus, all the hair they have been putting on since October is getting itchy. It's a bit soon to shear them so, for now, they are left to scrub themselves against the tree, the fencing, the ground or even another horse.

"Hey, I have an itch. I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine." (one says with an innocently genial expression)
"You have a deal!" (Says the other horse)
"Whadja stop for??"
"Mma mmouf (ptooey) imf mphhull (ffthackptooey) mof haair!"
"snicker"

The little birdies are all busy singing to beat the band and hauling several pounds of horse hair out of the stalls. Horse hair which will color the nests all across the neighborhood. Next big wind storm and my neighbors will have bits of my horses laying in lumps on their porches. If it rains with that wind storm it'll look like some giant bird hocked up a cat in their yards. I know where I hope some of those sodden masses of horse hair land, but I shan't go there.

There is another sign that spring approacheth. We have "weanlings" screaming all through the night and day. The first day, of course, was the worst. We couldn't hear ourselves think around here. William covered his ears with his headphones and listened to loud metal all day. We couldn't even talk to each other in the barn that morning for all the indignant, pissy screaming.

We put Weena and Godric in one paddock and Lucy, Blaze and Honey in another. Lucy went out first and rampaged up and down the fence trying to see her baby who was shrieking as loudly as my ATV just out of sight. We turned Blaze in with her to distract her. THAT worked. Lucy is The Boss. Blaze used to be the boss of her herd in Texas. Blaze thought this arrangement hadn't changed. Blaze was wrong.

Blaze came bursting out of her stall and headed straight for Lucy who said "Oh I don't THINK so." Blaze soon had a bruised butt and tried to leave but Lucy wanted to drill her point home. "Oh no uh uh, you brought it on, you aren't leaving until I make you leave" and proceeded to chase poor tubby Blaze around the paddock about 45 times. It was very unfair. Blaze is much smaller than Lucy and had to gallop those rounds of the paddock while Lucy simply trotted easily taking the inside loop.

Before Blaze had a heart attack, we turned Honey out to distract Lucy (read as: we threw Honey under the bus). Lucy came at Honey who already knows the drill. Honey trotted off to the far end of the paddock the second Lucy took a step in her direction. Honey's no dummy. She gets along with everyone simply because she doesn't care if she's the bottom horse on the totem pole. I think she actually prefers that status. It's less work.

One pile of hay is as good as another to Honey, so if someone wants her pile, she just wanders over to the next one, no big deal. Being The Boss is a lot of work. You have to fight all new horses and hope you walk away with fewer bruises than they do. You have to constantly remind the other horses that you're the boss. You also have to watch out for the other horses and warn them if strange dogs, horses, or coyotes come into the yard. Honey would just prefer to nibble, scratch and snooze her way through the day. This attitude saves Honey a lot of trouble. No one challenges her because she's already at the bottom and likes it. The other horses find that a bit disconcerting.

"Well, sheesh. That was easy. You're supposed to fight me."
"Nah. It's okay. You be the boss. I'm cool with that. Here... I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine..."