That’s a huge group! All those are just one barn? Boy, I’ve been on organized club rides that didn’t have that many. I like a small group of friends better.
The buffalo is hilarious. I don’t think my Arab horse would have liked it either. ;~)
Cute that you blew in it’s nose, and that they recognized the gesture. :~) Good tip! :~D
Today we have stalls to do.... we haven’t done them since Wed, with holidays and visitors and not feeling good. I’m sure they’ll be lovely... at least, the pony’s stall, which is the one they use as the toilet.
Night before last though, something really strange happened. ~Something~ was in the woods that had the horse’s attention. They wouldn’t come in to the barn to eat, they’d come in, grab a bite and bolt out again. Bay was making snorting elk sounds and was all ‘on the muscle’ which kept the mares alert too.
The first concern, since this was happening right at dark, was getting their blankets on because it was fixing to be a cooold night. I decided it wasn’t safe to do in the barn, they were way too jittery in there and I didn’t want them bolting with the blanket half done. So we carried the blankets out in the open where they could look and watch for the monster in the woods but stand still and put a line around their neck just in case.
After that, we put hay outside for them to eat and they settled down and ate and spent most of the night outside. Whatever. I didn’t like them having to come in the barn to eat, because I was afraid of them slipping on the mats bolting out through the doorways.
Horses... they can be normal for months and then all of the sudden they throw something else at you... First time though, that I’ve seen Cyn spin and be nervous in the barn since her incident last year, which was in November, by the way, and we still don’t know why she did it that time. This time, though, it was all of them, and it was because of something in the woods. Deer would be the most obvious guess, but deer go through all the time! They don’t freak that much about deer. And they don’t pay coyotes any mind at all. I dunno!
There were 10 or so from my cousin’s barn, but the rest were from somewhere else. Apparently this guy puts on a ride like this several times a year. It was an older fellow and his wife and they seemed like very nice people. It takes a lot of preparation to feed that many people!
The sniffing noses thing seems to work with all horses as a general greeting. I’ve used it quite a bit when meeting strange horses. It seems to relax them. I forgot and did it with a strange dog one time though and liked to have got my face bit off. I didn’t get bit, but I got snapped at so I made a note to self that dogs and horses don’t work the same way. ;o)
Did you hear something in the woods or were they all just looking/reacting in that general direction? The goobers. :-)