The horses, Ginger and Wally, have been getting hay daily for a couple of weeks now. The quality of the pasture is mostly devoid of nutrients even though they still spend time grazing. This is the first autumn with Wally and it is an adventure to discover his "table manners".
While watching me walk up the path to the barn both horses behave as if they are retarded in the old fashioned, politically incorrect sense of that word. One or the other will call to me. Ginger paces the fence with her head turned so both eyes are directly facing the fence. Wally stands in one place and tosses his head about in a bizarre imitation of sparring giraffes. What is wrong with those two nitwits? They belong on the short bus! (The short trailer?)
You would think they are starving, but that is not so. Wally lost some of his big belly due to the earlier illness, but Ginger is still fat - too fat according to the farrier and my neighbor who owns five horses. I do not recall my father's horses, or grandpa's horses behaving like idiots at feeding time but maybe they were not waiting on such delicious hay. Maybe the brome hay baled just down the road is so delectable that it makes my two horses loco.
As soon as I throw the hay over the fence for Ginger (of course her majesty the Queen is served first), Wally's antics kick into high gear. When he gets his serving, his entire body relaxes and if he could speak, he would be crooning, "Oh hay, oh delicious hay, oh delectable hay."
One amazing thing - Ginger and Annie had to be fed at least 75 feet apart or Ginger would run back and forth trying to eat from both servings. I discovered 75 feet was far enough away that it made her antics impractical and Annie could usually eat in peace. Wally can eat his hay just a few feet from Ginger. Wally does not know how good he has it in the Kingdom of Ginger.
Silly horses!
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