Last night after I had already posted for the day, Laura came running in to tell Pat that Sparky was in the school bus. Pat keeps animal food in the school bus . . . dog food, cat food, horse grain and horse cookies. The entrance doorway had been left partially open, and somehow Sparky climbed up into the school bus. Pat opened the back door and Sparky jumped out. Laura said she had seen the whole thing from the roof, and after Sparky went in, all the other horses had lined up one after the other waiting to go into the bus! Sparky is a little rapscallion!
This morning, after watering the garden, we went back out to the corral for more riding practice. This time, Pat wanted us to experience riding on a mule, which feels different than riding on a horse. She caught Chester, who is John's favorite ride.
Before I go on with the story, let me talk about prejudice. I always consider myself a nearly prejudice free person. I have no problem with race, creed, or color, or sexual orientation or most of the other things you can be prejudiced about. I'm pretty prejudice free. Or . . . I thought I was.
When Laura came she immediately told me that Cracker was her favorite. Cracker is a mule, technically a hinny, but for all practical purposes, we can call him a mule. I didn't even know he was in the running. I pretty much considered the mules persona non-grata. There are horses, and there are donkeys, and there are those other animals that are ever so slightly annoying. I didn't even realize that until Laura's love for Crackers opened my eyes to my bias. So, I've tried to pay them more attention and talk to them now, like I talk to all the others. I feel guilty, too.
Back to Chester, the mule. We groomed him, and I was the first to ride. I got up on him, and he had his ears back the whole time. That means he's mad. First we worked with him for awhile, and every time he put his ears forward he got a cookie. Then, Pat just continued to lead him around, and he kept his ears back pretty much the whole time. Pat wanted me to stand up on him, but with his ears back like that, I just didn't feel safe, so I didn't. Shortly after that, my turn was up, and honestly, I was glad. I'm not going to learn anything if I'm that uncomfortable on an animal, and he was frankly, scary.
Shawn rode for a short while, and Chester kept his ears back. So, Pat had me go catch, Cracker, the other mule and Laura's favorite. I groomed him, brought him in to Pat and took Chester and turned him loose in the main corral. Laura got onto Cracker. He had his ears back, also. It happened fast, but all of a sudden Cracker kind of bucked, and Laura bounced, bounced, bounced off his butt and onto the ground. She landed on her back. All of us ran over. She said she couldn't breathe. I gave her reiki and told her to try to relax. Her boyfriend, Shawn, was at her head comforting her, and Pat was on the other side of her talking to her. It was a scary few minutes, and then Laura smiles and says, "Cracker is still my favorite!" What heart that kid has! Can you imagine?! Wow! I was so impressed!
Shawn then walked Laura upstairs to their room so that she could lay down for a little while. Pat got up onto Cracker, bareback but sitting in a side-saddle way, and walked around for a little while so that Cracker wouldn't think he could get away with that. I sent him reiki to try to calm him down. Then Pat turned him loose, and I walked upstairs to give Laura reiki.
After awhile, everyone walked downstairs, and Pat put some ice on Laura's back. Then they all packed up and went to Navajo City to the little restaurant there. Shawn and Laura will work there today and tomorrow. Pat asked Laura if she would rather stay here, but Laura was gung ho to go to the restaurant and work there.
After they left, I watered the green house, and after awhile, fed the horses (and mules!). Somehow, I managed to get hay down my pants. It itched, and didn't feel very good. I have no idea how I managed that one.
The picture is of Chester and Cracker playing through the bars of a stall. They were both free to leave those stalls, this was just something they chose to do. Look at their ears.
No comments:
Post a Comment