I always enjoy watching the horses. I can pass a lot of time simply watching them graze, nap, groom each other and play. Last week I had as much fun watching them play as I think I’ve ever had.
We have a pond on the property and in my last post I showed some of the many new arrivals we’ve been sharing the pond with. We usually don’t allow the horses access to the pond and keep the gates around it closed. We opened the gates a couple of weeks ago to let the big boys eat the tall grass down around the pond and give us one less area to mow. The boys were thrilled to help us out with the grass.
I had never seen any of them make the slightest move towards actually going into the water though. Then one day last week as I was enjoying my favorite past time of horse watching the boys gave me a real treat. They played in the water and they had a GREAT time. I watched Apollo, Ivan, Elfin and Levendi slapping the water with their front legs and playing water wars with each other. Then at the end Elfin, Levendi and Ivan rolled in the water. Elfin even sat up and did his dogwalk in the water to roll on his other side.
I had so much fun watching them have so much fun, and as an added bonus I was recording it . . . or at least I thought I was. I could have cried when I realized I had NOT hit the record button!! I rectified this and did record some footage of them in the water but I missed the best part with the water wars and then the rolling. However you can see Elfin and Levendi roll AGAIN on the edge of the pond. You can also see Homer playing in the water a bit and at the end of this short video Leo finally gets brave enough to go out in the water.
The big boys playing in the pond
Apollo splashing in the water
Dustin posing by the pond
Ivan saying hello to the camera
Leo says “wait for me guys!”
Leo still on the run
Trigger, Chance and Leo running around the pond
Tony galloping through the field
Trigger is thrilled to have friends and is so much quieter and easier to work with. Here he goes for a romp with Chance, Dustin and Tony
Trigger meeting Clay over the fence; he will socialize and participate in mutual grooming with any horse that will let him. Thankfully for him that is almost all of the horses!
Trigger meeting Silky (aka Slinky) over the fence
Happy grazers
I took this the day before Jason mowed this pasture. All you could see of Cuffie from a distance was this but now you can see all of him!
Pop Quiz: Which gray horse is this?
Elfin rolled in his stall while waiting for the farrier
Amy gave Elfin a bath which is not his favorite thing. He was very good though.
More happy grazers
Traveller, Sparky, Bonnie, Lexi, Bridget