Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tragic theft at my house

Sometime early this afternoon, my horse's brain was stolen. My husband thinks it was aliens, but I suspect government scientists. :(

This morning one of the moving companies came by to estimate the house. After he left, I had two hours to kill before the next person came, so I caught my very mannerly mare, tied her up with a hay bag, and groomed her for over an hour. I went at her with the trusty Slick 'n Easy, which always sounds like a club song to me, but anyway, I got all the loose hair off, eventually. Here's some purty conformation shots. Dixie was perfectly behaved - she wiggled at the beginning and I whopped her on the shoulder and after that she just sighed deeply and let me go over her about ten times.

I jacked with the levels on this one because I was shooting into the sun, but I'm looking at the horse more than the prettiness of the picture.
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I checked her feet - the fronts are totally clear of thrush, but now there's a bit in the back feet, so I treated them. I trimmed a bit off one of her heels, but there wasn't much to do. Dixie was an angel for the hoof work.

Then I turned her loose in the back yard to feast on the lush spring grass.
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If you click to embiggen you will, in fact, see green stuff on the ground.
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Dixie wandered around and looked at things. After she ate all the grass, I fed her some carrots, then I let her loose beside the barn. Eventually, the second moving company rep showed up and I put her back in her paddock.

THAT'S THE LAST TIME I SAW HER BRAIN.

The moving lady did her thing, I ate some lunch, and I went out to catch my horse again for a ride. She was all snorty and fidgety but I paid her no nevermind and mounted up to do the double hill ride. We headed out.



Dixie spooked at the dogs she's seen on every ride we've ever done. She looked real hard at a car at a cross street. She tried to bolt sideways at a canter at a crossroads in the trail. We popped over a tiny hill and she slammed on the brakes to stare in utter horror at a mylar balloon caught in a sagebrush by the trail. She couldn't walk past it on the trail and had to sidepass 10' off into the thornbushes to get by it. Then a plastic bag in a bush, then another plastic bag, then the mini horses, then the dogs ARRRRRGH. Eventually we started up the hill proper and she didn't get better but I did make her work too hard to fret over malignant bushes.

We went down the back of the hill and out into the valley, a bit further than we usually go, but I wanted to go out for an hour. The return trip was slightly better - she was rateable - but the damn mylar balloons tried to kill her again. When we got home I tied her up by the fence where she eats dinner, every single night since we moved here, and went in the house to get a drink of water. When I came back out she was standing at the end of her lead as far as she could get from her bucket.

I walked out. Dixie rolled her eyes at me and snorted. I looked at what she was looking at. I'd left her beet pulp bucket, the very same white bucket that always has food in it, the one she's always trying to get her nose in to see what good stuff is in there, yes, that bucket was laying on the ground under the feed bucket on the fence. I resisted the urge to hit my head on the fence and instead moved the deadly white bucket in the barn. She still stood at the end of her lead and snorted. I had to scoop out a bit of her delicious ration balancer beet pulp mush and hand-feed it to her to prove that there wasn't a demon hiding in her feed bucket.

Horses! :flings hands in the air: So did aliens steal her brain? Has she been taking lessons from Bill and Juanita's mustangs? Is this my punishment for not riding for a whole week?














23 comments:

  1. Simple. You removed some of her hair. In the process, you removed some of her brain cells, rather like Sampson. Instead of strength, it was intelligence. It doesn't help that she KNOWS moving people have been about. That shakes up her world a bit too. After all, she's probably worried you're going to send her to a slaughter plant rather than take her to SF to be pampered at some swanky barn!

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  2. Mare + spring. This is my *favorite* time of year (not) for that very reason...I spend half the time wondering why my 19-year-old has suddenly regressed to behaving worse than when she was a green 3-year-old.

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  3. Blogger is being a whore, so I'm not sure if you got my original comment or not... Ah hem, but what I said was:

    Do you happen to live near Area 52?? :-O

    The pictures of Dixie are beautiful!

    Lilly had a melt down today too... there are some building materials in the corner of the driveway, covered by a tarp. You'd think they were the most terrifying things ever! How horses ever survived in the wild is beyond me.

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  4. At least her brain is not alone: Major must be with her! I tried for a short walking ride to see how he was feeling, yahoo! There is all sorts of weird stuff in Nevada, just chalk it up to that...

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  5. I had to check your mileage and good for you for hanging in there. Days like that, I just want to turn around and go home! She sure looks pretty though! LOL

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  6. It's so sad how some gals loose all confidence in themselves when they are unsure of their haircuts.

    Let her know she is still lovely, and there are no llamas within spitting distance of you.

    Bill

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  7. Maybe the brain fairy stole from the left coast and gave to the right?!

    My horse on gave only one slight hairy eyeball to the child madly racing back and forth next door on his miniature tractor. The tractor that doesn't have the pleasurable and attractive hum of our large orange tractor (Val's boyfriend) but instead emits a high pitched squealy whine, and behaves unpredictably.

    I'm betting the polarity will reverse soon. ;)

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  8. WOW! Mine had a melt down today too. He never does anything remotely stupid. Today, my leg was going to eat him and was all kinds of reasons to take off or fart while jumping away from my offensive leg. I had to try hard to find something he would do well just so I could get off him and start over tomorrow.

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  9. Ashley beat me to it. I bet Dixie's in heat, or about to be.

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  10. Aliens, certainly.

    Or llamas, you know how horrible those are!

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  11. Yup, mares in Springtime.... that's why GELDING was top of my list of requirements when I bought Flurry!

    I wish he'd hurry up and lose his hair - Dixie looks great, Flurry still looks like a polar bear

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  12. Clearly, she felt that she was so pretty and gussied up that she absolutely HAD to snort and look her best, as well as doing her most convincing "I am a gorgeous, highstrung supermodel" act. I'm sure a good roll in the dirt will have things right again.

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  13. Is this my punishment for not riding for a whole week?

    Yes. Yes indeed-e.

    signed (she who was hanging off mare's neck by the mane hair on Monday)

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  14. That was hilarious. You know, they all do that from time to time. My son's horse is as bombproof as they come and one day my kid walked down to the barn carrying a plastic shield and sword and Henry freaked out. Ran around his corral like he thought we were going to eat him. No amount of sweet talking could convince him otherwise. Yep, his brain was completely AWOL. So you're not alone.

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  15. I do believe Friday is a full moon. Dixie is just a few days early - or rehearsing for the big day.

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  16. Twas neither aliens nor the government. I think she and Gabe EXCHANGED BRAINS!!! Because he was absolutely wonderful on our ride Sunday, and it sounds like Dixie behaved on your ride like Gabe typically does on ours!

    BTW, I think we'll be keeping her brain. Enjoy Gabe's! Muhahahaha!!!!

    Oh, and I had to laugh at your "lush green grass." Hehehehe!!!!

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  17. I think it must have been aliens - because they have taken my horse's brain as well... ;-)

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  18. Idle time makes for an idle brain! :-)

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  19. I don't know where her brain is, but her body looks great! Her weight looks ideal.

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  20. ARGH! Some days are just bad days. Best to just put the horse in the barn and drive to town and get a good coffee.
    - The Equestrian Vagabond

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  21. Offer a reward. Maybe it'll turn up.

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