Thursday, June 16, 2011

Thumbs?

I guess my horse has grown thumbs. Invisible thumbs, because upon inspection I could not find the thumbs. He doesn't even have ergots, so I suppose thumbs would be the next evolutionary stop?

Are you confused? Think maybe I'm drunk-blogging? I suppose I should explain.

Today I got an email, kindly stating "Everything is fine" in the first sentence because I don't know about you, but if someone from the barn calls or emails or texts I panic immediately so I appreciate permission to breathe. This email was from B and she just wanted me to know that she had tied Junior to our tie ring (I use it often while cleaning his stall or just teaching him a little patience - no big deal) while she cleaned his stall, and though she kept an eye on him since he does have a knack for untying himself (which is why I use a trailer tie on a zip tie instead of tying him with release knots) she finished the stall, looked up, and he. was. gone. BUT the lead rope was. still. there. She found him outside eating grass and caught him immediately with no problems. I'm not at all upset over the matter. I can see it happen and I have to laugh at the darn genius-of-a-horse. Totally something only MY horse would do. And I know I didn't take physics, but I canNOT believe he got a clip off of his halter. It's a standard heavy brass snap clip. The only way I can believe he got that open is if he grew thumbs. Have you ever had a horse manage to do that? I meant undo a clip, not grow thumbs. If your horse had thumbs I would have heard about it on the FuglyBlog. I know he's smart and very active with his face but... Really? More likely, the clip wasn't over the whole ring but rather clipped onto the nylon and when he pulled on it it just came off. I've done that before when clipping without looking. I can imagine poor B's face when she looked up and saw a swinging lead rope where a horse was supposed to be. But it's not a huge deal. This was a freak event no harm was done. Thankfully we're 3 for 3 on his escape attempts ending in "I'm fre-ooooh grass nom nom nom oh hai mom whatcha doin?" instead of any sort of running for the hills. Hopefully he doesn't ever escape in the winter! Luckily all the barn doors are shut in the winter. :)

Tomorrow is show-prep day. All of my stuff is sitting at the top of my stairs waiting to go down to the car. It looks a whole lot like THIS except everything is clean and inside of the bags. Tomorrow I get to do the morning barn feeding, have my 3rd lesson with JM, then hopefully the rain holds off enough for me to put the Bug out on the grass for a while while I pack and organize so we can end the day with a bath so I can go home, double check my lists, wash a tail, pack my clothes, and get to bed so I can be up at the butt crack of pre-dawn. I HATE that part of showing horses.

The plan is to get a stall at the show because it might rain and also because I think he'll be calmer in a stall surrounded by horses than he was tied to the trailer alone. And hopefully when he has to he will go ahead and PEE!!!!!

4 comments:

  1. I could tell ya a story about a horse AND a donkey running for the hills, but I'm too ashamed.

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  2. My mom had a mare when I was a kid who escaped on a weekly basis and she did go for a run when she did it. The neighbors ran her back down our road with their car on a regular basis. Good thing we lived on the end of a dead end quiet country road. Sometime she would even take the other two horses with her.

    And yes I am sure she had invisible thumbs we had to keep her in the stall we needed a hammer to undo the latch with and put padlocks on the gates, she could undo everything else and when the gate failed to open at her command and she really desired a jaunt she would simply jump it. When do you give up adding boards to the fence? She even got over a 6footer and it is really hard to add height to a gate without killing it's ability to swing open. Little Miss Tuff Stuff she definitely was.

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  3. Oh and she was a 15hand arab quarter cross. Go figure!

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  4. Wow, either he grew thumbs or has a really talented tongue!! I'm glad he decided grass was better than running away from home... nothing makes my heart skip a beat quite like a loose horse.

    Good luck at the show!!

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