Putting on a show

Well, it's official--DRITS has set in for all of us. And I mean all of us. Lynn is having withdrawals from her daily feeding of the horses--she rarely gets to see them at all. Shirley does a great job of taking care of them; she counts noses daily, makes sure the water is full, rounds them up for their shots, and brings them enough hay to keep them warm. She does it all. But the boys don't get any extra attention. No petting or sweet nothings whispered in their ears. No carrots or apples. I try to help her feed a couple times during the work week, but it doesn't always work out. Weekends, too--I usually come up to see my boy at least one day.

The weather has been crazy. Lots of wind, six inches of rain in one day, and cold nights. Shirley has had to look for them more than once. Sometimes she finds them all huddled up together under the trees. Sometimes after a couple of rounds driving on the trail, they come wandering toward the feeders from wherever they were.

On Tuesday, I called Shirley and said, "Wait for me! I'm coming." When I got to Lynn's, I expected to see Shirley waiting for me on the four-wheeler. Nope. So I walked over the trail to her house: my pink-polka-dotted boots galumping along. The horses were near their feeders in the woods. I had at least three of them giving me the eye, probably with these various thoughts, "It's about time! Where's the chow wagon?", "OMG! I think a monster is coming! I should probably act like a fool and run around and stir everyone up!", and "Is that my mom? I miss my mom. Does it have ear flaps on?" I'll let you guess which ones I'm talking about.

Anyway, I tore Shirley away from Matt Dillon and we went up to feed. As we were driving along the trail, I could see an orange horse bucking and crow-hopping and rearing to beat the band and it didn't look like Indy who screws his head around when he acts crazy. "Oh no," I thought, "which one is carrying on like that?" Shirley had warned me that Jupiter had started getting in the habit of bucking and getting too close to the four-wheeler. The carrying on continued through the trees as we approached. However, these were not little bucks and hops and rears--no, they were big ones. Big ones with long strides in between, racing around the outside of the feeders and the four-wheeler. A smaller orange horse ran alongside, encouraging him, no doubt. Yep, it was Zigman.

He carried on and put on quite the show. Wow. He is fast and can get way up there! Hind feet flying, crow-hopping three feet off the ground, and rearing like "Hi Ho Silver and away!" Then he came running up toward me as I unloaded the hay. Sheesh, he's big. Once I spoke to him and sent away from me a bit, he realized I was not the one he was looking for. Star and Brady both had their ears back reminding the youngsters running in circles that it was eating time and all that foolishness needed to be done somewhere else. Indy was eating as fast he could next to Brady, but the other two were needing some attention. Jupes is spoiled to me always bringing him a treat, so once he realized it was me, he was right there--nosing in my pockets. But like I said, Shirley is all business. I had to run down and empty out the trailer of hay in the last feeder. So I petted Zigs on the side real quick and kissed Jupe on the nose and away we went.

So, we are all missing our riding time and even just being together. We've been invited to ride with Suzy over Thanksgiving--cross your fingers and let's pray for continued healing and sunshine.