Boys will be boys--and more school

Today started out a typical way for me--we had a nice brunch at a friend's restaurant, and I made sure to make a fool of myself on the way out. I got through the whole meal, and after I paid, I knocked over the specials board. Leave it to me--it made a huge clatter and evidently, I said "oh shit". Imagine that. So Billy, the owner tells me--"hey, this is a f%$&n family restaurant". Which of course made me laugh even harder, so anyone who missed it that I had knocked everything over knew then.


Oy. Next step was to get some odds and ends done at the farm. While Barry was teaching Mojo how to get in the BIG trailer, instead of the three horse which is much lower to the ground than the Mack Daddy trailer, I watched the 3 year old geldings play. Note: It was doing some sort of weird precipitation thing out there that I will not call snow, because that is blasphemous, but there was a certain dampness that could not be ignored. Especially by me, in tshirt and Crocs like every other day.

This is my precious Radar aggravating Boogie--Radar is almost always the instigator of Playtime. Biting, nipping, rearing and kicking and striking are how colts play, and how they provoke each other to play back--no damage is done in these episodes, but it is a miracle sometimes, as they can get really rough with each other.

Young horses like this, especially geldings, play hard but have short memories--they are kind of like a pack of first graders. They can have it out in a game, and be cuddled up together the next minute. I do not know if that is because of short attention span, or just an unwillingness to hold a grudge.

However, there is always one in the pack who is more sensitive, and here it is Boogie--he is more timid, and gets his feelings hurt---I know he would rather be pounded on than ignored, so I know he enjoyed this. It cracks me up to realize how much I liked watching him get in the fray with the others

Boogie was quick to jump in and play hard with Radar. I have not seen that a lot as he is normally standing off the side like a wall flower, hoping to get picked.
He played awhile but he was also quick to call it off--after he got his licks in, of course. Lest you feel sorry for Radar in that he got popped early on, don't--he starts it and Boogie was not his first victim of the day. Most of the time, they do not even make contact when playing like this.
And see, they made up. Ignore that doofy line of fence--we were moving horses all over and did not put it back correctly until we were done.


This is what first got my attention---Radar and Hawk, who are two peas in a pod and best friends, were circling each other. I know were that leads, so I just kept clicking away.


Round and round they went for a while, like boxers waiting for the other to take the first poke.


I do not know if Hawk did not really want to play, or what his deal was, but he threw a kick in early.
Which did not even slow Radar down--he upped the ante by popping up on him and the game was on.
They crack me up how they carry on.
After this, I started wondering about Radar's sexual orientation, so I will stop this line of photos right here. Note how Hawk's ears are forward like he is fine with this behavior. He is an odd one as well.
Poor Target tried to get in the game and BAM--see what he got for his trouble? Poor fool. I think he feels left out sometimes too, since Hawk and Radar are attached at the hip. He did not play much in this game today, but instead stood around and posed for me. Everyone knows someone like that, don't they? He is the one that would rather look pretty than get dirty in the game.


Much more went on after the games were over. Hawk was on the schedule to be one with the trailer this week. He was going to get the 24/7 trailer experience this week, as he knows full well how to get in the trailer, but may not choose to do so on any given day. And when Hawk decides he is not going to do something, he is NOT going to do it.

But as you see, he ruined my plan by getting in and out of the trailer four or five times so easily that it seemed kind of silly. I wondered in the back of my mind whether something had scared him on a trip and lead him to his refusals to load--but evidently not. He did so well loading and unloading repeatedly, he got to go back to the pasture.As I said, Mojo learned how to get in the big trailer. He was so cute. It really is a much bigger step than he is used to. No problem though---look at his big effort trying to get out. Isn't that funny?
He had some other milestones today--he HATES having his mane brushed and I had not messed with his tail much. Today he got a good grooming, and his tail braided just because I could not think of anything more we could be doing with him, and he leaves on Friday. He also got his vaccines and more loading practice. He did so well, he too was chucked back out in the pasture.
Next, we did baby booster shots and gave them all a hit of ivermectin---and I noticed that Tango's hind fetlocks are goofy looking. They are much bigger than anyone else's. There is no heat, she is not off. It does not feel squishy like it is swollen, but it is also not just hair making them look puffy. They feel like normal joints, but are clearly larger than everyone else's.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what in the world might be going on there?


All in all, a productive day. Trailers are all moved around so that the transport company can get in and out at the farm on Friday. That means that there are SIX trailers of some sort in my yard at my house--two horse trailers, the boat on its trailer, the red flatbed trailer, the small trailer for the lawnmower, etc, and Barry's work trailer. We look like hillbilly heaven.