Freedom and fall and more PICTURES

One of the blogs I really like is Mugwump Chronicles. She posted about kids and horses the other day. I don't have kids, and wasn't lucky enough to have a horse when I was a kid, so I don't have much to say about the main point of the post. But I have been thinking about this quote for a couple days:

The biggest gift I wanted my daughter to get from horses is the sense of power and control they give. Young girls don't feel in control of their lives much.

I know what she's saying, and I don't entirely disagree, but the thing that I love about horses is the sense of freedom. Really, the thrill of getting a horse to do what I say isn't the exciting part. It's the sense of riding away from everything, being free as a bird or a spirit of the wind or a woodland elf or something.

ANYWAY. Pictures! Of horses, and Mississippi on the cusp of November. It was downright cold earlier this week - we had FROST on the morning of my birthday - but it's warmed back up nicely. It was 72 at 4 pm when I went out.

I like this weird washed-out picture of Champ. I was sitting in my truck (wearing a red shirt, you can see it in his eyeball and reflected off his cheek) and he was sure I had more treats somewhere.



Champ got bored and Dixie came up. Champ stalked off and Dixie cautiously came up to beg.



This is her "good" eye. I really think she looks crazier from her off side, with all the white, so I call her near side her good normal sensible side.



Here's the "crazy" side. She always looks like she's about to jump out of her skin. I love her dark eyeliner and frosted eyelashes, and her half medicine hat, and the way you can see she's a bay roan paint. But mainly I love her brown eye. I don't know if I've told yall this, but blue-eyed horses FREAK ME OUT. I would not have bought her if she had a blue eye cause they just give me the willies. It's bizarre, I know!



Here's some pictures of green trees for Sara. :) The reddish ones are sweetgums, they're the only local trees that turn red. Most of the rest you see are just scrubby baby elms, which are worthless trees because that Dutch Elm Disease will kill them about the time they get tree-sized.



This is a sycamore, I'm pretty sure. They turn a pretty yellow in the fall. Look at how the plague of locusts, err, horses destroyed the grass!



But the barn owners bring hay now. There's two hay rings, so they drop off two or three rolls every ...? couple of days? Week? They drop hay about like I would - wait til the horses eat almost all the hay, then wait one more day because there's always some scraps left, then deliver some more. We get a hay surcharge on our bills based on the number of rolls that month and the number of horses each person owns.



I didn't take boring body shots, but all three horses are looking great. Champ isn't ribby, Dixie looks fine, and Silky is pleasantly plump. Silky sounded really snotty today, though, which makes me a little worried.

And I dewormed everybody with ivermectin. I know, I used ivermectin last time, but I sure do have a lot of it and I'm hoping I timed it right to nuke the botfly larvae.