After finishing the mowing, I went to work on the garden next to the chicken coop. I watched the horses who had come up toward the house, because they saw me there and thought they might be getting an extra feeding. So they came up to make sure they didn’t miss the exact moment I headed toward the feed shed. For the record, their horsey wrist watches are two hours early (It was about 2. I feed them at 4ish.)
But i finished working in the garden, and then spent some time talking to family on the cell phone while sitting outside in the shade. Then, as the horses still thought they were getting fed, I went to the fence and just enjoyed their company. Lots of forelock scritches and rubbing their necks and simply enjoying the sunshine, the companionship of my horses, and the day.
I missed this. I missed this so much you guys. For the last two years I’d been my mom’s caretaker, and then when she passed it was late fall, then winter, and our weather has been crazy. I was busy trying to keep things afloat, dealing with my own grief (Thunder was mom’s horse, and he misses her as much as I do.), and this is the first time I felt free enough to just stand out there for probably half an hour and enjoy their company. I know they enjoyed mine.
In the end, just so no one worries, the horses got fed. And I came inside to continue working on the to do list. But as Winston Churchill said, “there is something about the outside of the horse that’s good for the inside of a man.” Or woman, in this case.
