The Dark Horse
I was in bed drifting off just about to enter my Bardo of dreams. Suddenly I can hear what I thought was the ticking of my wife’s alarm clock. I can hear it tick when everything is silent, but it is barely audible. This ticking seemed somewhat louder than normal. Then the ticking seemed to break rhythm of normal ticking. It would start, stop and start again. In my pre-dream state I wondered why that would be happening. When I realized I bolted out of bed and headed outside with a flash light.
I spotted one horse in her proper place and then I saw the other one eating grass on the outside of the pasture. He wandered down to the road and headed back into the property.
Horses can be contained with a psychological barrier such as a string. They don’t like pressure on their bodies and the pressure from a tight string will keep them from leaving, but sometimes they want to wander and they can break their psychological bonds and walk right through it. I try not to use the electric fence 24/7 because the charger throws off static and I try to respect local folks who listen to AM radio. It is annoying to try to listen to short wave radio at night with the constant pulse of an electric shooting static like a metronome.
Horses seem to know when a fence is turned on but they won’t test it very often. Cows on the other hand will test a fence every day and take every opportunity when they are turned off.
So today I will need to weed whack the fence line and charge it up again. No good can come when a black horse wanders a black street in the night.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
6 Comments:
It makes me wonder how they stand us riding them if they don't like pressure. Do they "go" to get us where we want to be so they can get us down of their back? So many questions.
That's funny. That is exactly how I GOT my black horse...woke up one morning, thought there was a shadow on my chestnut thoroughbred, but when I got my boots and robe on (and a cup of coffee in my hand) to check things out, I realized that I now had 6 horses instead of 5. I thought maybe it was a neighbors or someone couldn't afford to care for it and just dumped it in the field. When I found the owner (a neighbor 2 miles away) and my daughters found out that the 2 yr old black thoroughbred was for sale..I was told that it was FATE that she ended up in our field and we just HAD to buy her and love her and keep her forever. So we did. I'm a sucker for a horse...and a dog, bird, cat, pig, cow...you see where this is going :)
Lori, we desensitize them to it, just like as a parent you tolerate a lot more than non parents would if you suddenly placed children in their homes.
Ginger, 6 horses? Are they pasture pets or do you ride?
I have a non horse friend who ended up with 3 horses in his pasture after a storm. He closed the gate that had stood open for 3 years to keep them off the road then went and got a box of cheerios to feed them, the only thing he could think of. He looked for almost a year for the owner, never found them.
It took two years before he finally sat on one. By then they were total pets he curried and loved up constantly. The only reason he finally agreed to ride was the vet told him they were getting too fat and needed more exercise.
He never agreed to a bridle, he thought bits were cruel, or a real saddle so he rode with just a hackamore and a pad saddle. Since he had 200 acres he didn't think it was odd to take all the horses on his daily rides, even if the other two were just following along behind.
I'm down to 4. I ride when I can and teach riding lessons to kids. The rest of the time the horses have the task of keeping the pasture grass down and the 22 acres of trails passable. My husband has even admitted that having them is worth all they cost in hay. That's a big statement from a guy who grew up w/o ever having a pet and living on a sailboat.
CCF, oddly hackamores can be harsher than bits. I often just ride with a halter, but one needs a horse that will yield in order to get away with that.
Ginger, We have pasture envy. I will be adding another acre into their rotation next year making six small pastures they rotate through. But we never have to worry about spring foundering.
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