These Crazy Animals - Part One, Horses

     This afternoon, we had a very nice visit with my neighbor, Jinny, and her family -  which inspired me to write another blog.  Jinny came with a visitor from out of town; "I brought my sister over to see your animals - I hope you don't mind!"  So they followed me around the farm as I took care of some chores and introduced them to the menagerie.  

     I apologized for the condition of our tack room before reaching it.  Last night Rebecca forgot to dead bolt the door, and Sinatra, one of our horses, knows how to open doorknobs. This morning while having a cup of coffee on the porch with my husband, we heard a clanging noise.  Sinatra had opened the door, helped himself to the chicken feed, and was trying to open the can containing the horse chow.  There were remnants of a pile still on the floor and the feed cans were noticeably dented in.  Horses are a lot bigger when they are inside.

Rebecca mucking out the tack room the first time this happened.
We bought a dead bolt soon after.

     After visiting the chickens, we sat and watched the kids in the pool while drinking a couple glasses of wine (it is national wine day in case you don't know) and fresh cold mojitos.  The back porch overlooks the pool, but also the horse pasture and the chicken yard, which is just an awesome view.

Early morning view from my porch.
There are horses in my backyard!

     As we watched, Sinatra backed up to a small 15' tree and rubbed his butt vigorously.   

     I said, "I think might push that tree over," and, sure enough, he backed even more pushing against the tree.  The tree bent incredibly under his weight, then bent even more until it was at a 90 degree angle.  Then he backed completely over it, dragging the tree between his back legs, backing more and more until the tree was finally released from between his front legs giving him the ultimate tummy scratch.  The tree popped up, and that is when I noticed that all the trees in our pasture have a very similar tilt.

    We all stared, no one saying a word, until Jinny's sister spoke up: "You should write a blog about these crazy animals.  I would follow it!"

Sinatra, our Appaloosa mix, and Rebecca