Horses

I had a dream last night that all of my horses got out of the pasture and I was trying to catch them. One of them even went into the lake and was swimming out towards the middle and I kept yelling for him to come back but he just kept going. Now what would make me dream that? Hummmm....a psychiatrist could probably have a field day with that. Let's see, it was my old horse (age 25) and maybe I am worried that he is old and going to die and I can't do anything about it. Does that make any sense? Probably not but it's the best I can come up with as I am not a psychiatrist just an overly protective Mom to my five guys.

Buddy (Downeast Moonbug) is a 25 year old appaloosa gelding that we have had for 13 years. My husband bought him for me for Christmas that year as we had been without a horse for a number of years and I was getting the itch to get one. We call him our gentle giant as he is a big guy about 1300 lbs. but he is as gentle as a lamb. He was used for dressage and jumping before we got him but quickly settled in as a trail horse. He is personality plus and is so good with the kids, they can crawl all over him and he doesn't blink an eye.

Our next addition was Lil' Bud (Tricolor Franchise). He is a 16 year old Morgan gelding and the prettiest one in my herd. He was in a riding stable and the owner had lost interest in him so he was very lonely. We leased him for a year and then the owner went through a divorce and put him up for sale and we bought him. He LOVES attention. I think it is because he was ignored for so long and is so grateful to be getting lots of love and attention. He is the barnyard bad boy though and rules the pasture with an iron tooth! Don't get in front of him when it's time to come in or you'll feel that tooth on your rump!

Skipper, our 7 year old Welsh pony came to us next. The grand kids had come along so we wanted a nice quiet pony for them to ride. We put an ad in the paper stating what we were looking for and got a call one evening about 7 o'clock. I questioned the man about him and it all sounded good until I asked if we could come see him that night and was there good lighting in the barn???? He said, and I am not kidding, "no lights in the barn but we can bring him into the KITCHEN if you want!" Now we just couldn't let that pass, we HAD to go see this situation!

We drove way out in the back woods of Maine and came to this house that looked like it needed to be torn down and sure enough that was the house. They brought out this sad looking little palomino pony that was under weight by about 75 pounds and my heart just broke in two. He obviously had been mistreated and wasn't the cute little round fuzzy pony that we had envisioned. We went home that night and couldn't sleep, got up in the morning and went out and got him!!!! He certainly wasn't ready for grandchildren or anything at that point but we knew he needed us and that's all that mattered. He now is beautiful, round and happy. He is not the easiest pony to deal with as he still has lingering issues from his abuse but we love him and he will always be with us. He is learning to trust us more all of the time with all of the gentle loving care that we give him and there is not a hint of that sad look any more.

Will write about #4 and #5 next post.