The New Normal

Did I mention I got a second horse? I guess technically it's a third horse because the boarder has been here so long I consider her to be one of mine, but regardless there are now three horses in the pasture.

Except for this weekend, when there were three horses in my back yard.

Rain has been lacking as of late, so I opened the pasture gates and let the horses graze in the back yard while I was digging in the garden. The grass is always greener over the septic field, right?

The new horse has forced a change with the morning routine. Before if I had horses to feed in the morning I would bring them in, dump the feed, and head back into the house for breakfast/shower/etc. But the new horse is a cribber, meaning as soon as he is done eating he bites down on the top of the stall door and gulps air. He's done it for well over 15 years so I'm not about to try and stop him but he is starting to mangle the metal trim on the stall door (trim which is in place so horses don't chew down the wooden stall doors to begin with).

So the new morning routine goes something like this: let the dog out, feed the barn cats, dump feed in two of the three stalls, bring in the two horses getting feed, spend the next ten minutes watering the garden or filling bird feeders, and kick the horses back out as soon as I hear the cribber start his characteristic "grunt" as he appeases his addiction. I've set up several spots in the pasture where he can do his routine with minimal damage to the fence and barn.

The accommodations I make for my animals...