Ugh! Where are all my horse people when I need you?! On the way to pick up something from town, I saw a horse and a mule in my neighbors field that were not supposed to be there. I stopped the truck and went to see if they would come to me (I didnt want them to get hit by a car). They came toward me some, but would not come all the way. They did not flick their ears or widen their eyes or lay their ears back....they seemed relatively unconcerned. My first thought of Oh, I will just call them. I am sure they will come right over, and I will grab the halter of the mule and lead them to my house for Ash to deal with while I get my envelopes didnt work. So I started walking toward my neighbors house. The mule and horse were ahead of me on the road, but kept an eye on where I was and when I turned off into the driveway, they turned into the yard too. I talked to my neighbor and they had been there all day. The owner of the horse had tried to catch them, but they would not come so he just left! The mule belongs to someone else, apparently. There is, from what I am told, no grass in the pen that the horse lives in. There used to be more horses there. The mules owner rents space, I guess. I had dreams of perhaps of getting to keep them as they seemed sweet and needing a good home. They were not acting skittish of me at all. In fact, they seemed to like me being a certain distance away and would turn around and come towards me (just a little) when I turned and walked somewhere else. But they would not come up to me for me to grab the halter. (Now, the astute reader would say Ok, so what was your plan if you caught them. You were in one of your summer dresses right? Do you have a fence? A barn? You dont do you. Do you even know anything about equines? Did you even have a rope? and I would say Oh look! A squirrel! and walk speedily away). My neighbor had tried to catch them too, but they would not have it. I offered that maybe they like girls and it was worth a try. He said that maybe I am the Horse Whisperer. I admitted that I actually I am afraid of horses, which made him widen his eyes and guffaw. He then later went to talk to Peekie in the truck and was still getting a chuckle at me trying to catch horses. I am not actually AFRAID of horses. I just dont trust them not to get spooky. I actually was hoping to catch the mule because the horse was following the mule and I figured that the mule might be mean but would be less randomly spooky. I offered them a carrot that my neighbor had--no dice. I remember watching a show on RFD-TV about how to communicate with horses, but could not remember if they liked it better if you quartered away from them or if you were bold and walked up to them. I realize now that I have gaps in education. I live in horse and cow country. I need to know how to deal with both in case, you know, a horse or a cow end up in my yard. Somehow. ;D Anyway, long story short, they never came to me, I ended up having to run to town and when I told TWS the story, he shook his head but promised to keep an eye out for my new friends. Anyone have a corral I could borrow? And maybe a barn? And horse whisperer tips? Thanks. :D
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:13:05 +0000