Rocking Bailey

Our old gelding Bailey gets to wander around on our 10 acres every day. At night I put him into the 2 acre paddock with our Paso Fino, but during the day, the rest of the place is his to munch. Since there is an abundance of growth, grasses and weeds, he thinks this is a pretty neat idea.

He is pretty sharp too. As soon as I go out on one of the decks of our house, Bailey magically appears. He thrusts his large head over the railing and proceeds to hit me with his "feed me" vibes. He stares at me with his friendly-eyed look. He is relentless. Neither of us has any doubt who will give in first. Within 2 minutes I go into the house, reach into the bag of "horse candy" or get some cut up carrots and go feed the guy.

Rosa, our Paso Fino, saw all this today of course. She was up in the paddock at the gate. So I walked up the hill and fed her some goodies. She doesn't go out on the acreage because she'd be a balloon within an hour!

Bailey in the meantime, had ambled up to the gate too. He hates being left out of the Goodie Department. I refilled his water bucket, and he stood next to me, hinting that it was time for his hose bath. Over the last 10 days its been in the 90s. We have established the routine that when I fill up his bucket, he gets a hose bath if he stands next to me.

Later, he went down the hill and parked himself, hind leg cocked in the napping position, next to our truck. He napped there in the sun for quite a while. He has made that a favorite napping place. On the weekend, when the car was parked a few feet away from the truck, Bailey wandered over and placed himself exactly between the two vehicles, faced the same way, and napped. A few minutes later when I looked out the kitchen window, Bailey was gently rocking while he napped.

It is an extraordinary feeling to interact with our horses this way. Sean picks up on enthusiasm of people he loves, which is why he has picked up on this horse thing with me. It will be fun to see where it leads!