Three horse day!

Here the little deer face, Foggy, is grazing after a great ride. If you click the photo above you can watch a video of some of our time in the woods.

Three rides on three horses yesterday. It doesn't get any better. Sovey went first in just his halter. Then, the big boy Pie, and last but not least, Foggy. All bareback and all perfect. Hot and sleepy. In fact, I almost fell asleep on Sovey's back! Early morning school bus wrecks the good life.

And, I have to report on funny happenings at the water tub yesterday. Like all horses, my three are characters with three distinct personalities and habits. Sovereign's one particular habit has caused me much worry and extra work by insisting that he "swim" in our big water trough. He puts his front foot in the trough and splashes violently, throwing water up under his belly and all over his pasture mates. In the process, he dumps and muddies all the clean water and makes a swamp of the drinking area. I have tried numerous ways to discourage this behavior, but he foils all my attempts. At this point in time, we keep a big tub for him to mess about with and two smaller tubs far away for drinking proper. His feet end up in those two buckets sometimes, but for the most part it seems to be working.

Yesterday afternoon I saw something I never expected to see. I was at the drinking area scrubbing and refilling buckets. The big trough was pristine clean and ready for Sovey's muddy foot. I was busying myself scrubbing the smaller drinking buckets. Sovey went over to the big tub and got a drink out of it. Pie joined him and I thought it would only be a few seconds until Sovey started splashing. But, he just walked away. Pie stood there looking very strange. He looked at Sovey and then down at the tub. Then, unbelievably, Pie put his front foot in and started splashing wildly, just like Sovey does! Pie switched feet and did it again. Sovey and Foggy looked over at Pie and his antics and I swear I saw Sovereign smirk. Ah, Grasshopper, you have learned well.