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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Horse Cereal


It was nine degrees in Arlington this morning. My fingers threatened to fall off. I don't know what I was thinking - feeding horses without gloves? It was too early to think.

The horses were already awake, of course. For those of you who don't know horses sleep three hours out of twenty-four. Its not consecutive sleep either. They take several naps standing up and laying down. When standing their legs will "lock" and there's a professional term for the event, but the idea is that they rest on three legs, recline the fourth, and snooze without fear of toppling over. My horse will lay down and snore like a bear. He wakes himself up by accidently snorting a clump of dirt. Its quite funny. FYI: Bunnies snore too, and both species dream vividly.

This morning was so cold that the water trough froze four or five inches. Tim used a post hole point to create an opening six inches in diameter - just large enough for Zeb's snout. Zeb promptly clamped down on a mouthfull of grass-hay and dropped it in said hole. Tim and I were bewildered. We watched as Zeb swirled the hay in the water with his nose and then ate the sloppy hay like cereal.

In five years of raising horses I've never seen that before. Then again, Zeb is the only horse who will fetch a hose for me and drop it in the bucket I indicate so.... I guess that makes him "special".

I'm just visiting,
Lacey
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