Playing with Plastic

Wish I'd had the camera with me when I went out to feed this morning.  The horses were up on the other side of the creekbed grazing.  When they heard me open the granary door Sunny, Rufus and Thunder bailed over the lip and up this side and loped up to the fence to whinny at me.  Amyra doesn't do the downhill plunge.  I could see her trotting along creek bank heading to the north where there's a more gradual drop.  No excited crashing and smashing, just steady progress... until her head popped up over the edge into the orchard pasture, and then she took off like her tail was on fire.  Glad she has good brakes, 'cause she left skid marks stopping.

My sister and my going on 4-year-old niece are coming for a visit next month.  I'm very excited!  On the phone the other day she asked if I had any toys here.  Horses, cats, lots of space to run around, trees to climb... no toys.  I'd accumulated a big tub of them before last summer's visit, but with our impending move I packed them all up and took them to MI with me so she'd have them to play with at my folks' place.

No toys.  Hmmm.  I think I have a box of plastic horses of all sizes in the attic somewhere.  Not sure whether she'd be as enthralled as I was though.  Unfortunately, most of the larger ones are in less than pristine condition. (In fact, I'm pretty sure there's also a separate box of legs and ears floating around up there.  Couldn't quite bear to part with them, even in pitch-it mode while we packed.)  But surely a few of them survived me mostly intact.  I'll have to see what I can find. 

As for me, I've been playing with flat plastic today.  Fly Predators, anybody try those?  I'm going to see if they really will help cut down on some of the heel/face flies. Yes, the flies have started here.  It seems early but then it's been sort of warm the last couple days, although the nights are still cool enough to keep them down.  April is vaccination month around here, and the horses are due to be wormed, as well.   I added on a tub of joint/hoof supplement; Sunny's noticeably stiffer than the other three, and Amyra's two white hooves seem too prone to chipping, so dosing at least those two with some additional biotin/glucosamine can't hurt....  Valley Vet and SLT should love me this month!

Sunny, bringing up the rear, as usual

It was a chilly walk up the road this morning, even with the wind behind us.   The ponies were disposed to walk very slowly, and even meeting a truck didn't hurry them.  We've been practicing our "getting off the road and standing still" routine periodically.  Depending on which direction the vehicle's approaching from, we hit the ditch either in a shift sideways (on-coming) or by swinging to face it (rear).  This morning's encounter was coming toward us, and politely slowed way down until we were all eased off the road.  Which took longer than it should have, thank you, Sunny!  He was in foot-dragging mode for some reason.  But everybody listened to "whoa" and waited for the click that meant their feet had stayed still and they got a treat for standing nicely.  No worries about the truck, it was just a truck, after all - lol!