Good eatin’

Yummy! Two horses enjoy the lush grass we have now, getting positively fat from the abundance. It’s interesting to see where they like to graze. Most of the time they are over a mile away, down at a neighbor’s place where we get to use their 80 acres of mostly open country, with not as many trees and steep hills. Since horses prefer to see what’s going on around them, they don’t spend much time in dense forest if they can help it. Fewer predators to worry about, like bears and mountain lions. Of which we haven’t seen many in the past few years. Someone shot a bear that was on one of our high hills a few years ago, and we haven’t seen a lion since Karla got within maybe 20 feet or so of a young lion almost 10 years ago. The lion was upwind, sitting by the gate Karla wanted to open, and had its attention on something as she got closer and closer, thinking, “Hey lion. Wake up. Go away!” She made clicking and shooshing noises. The lion, startled, ran off lickety-split. (When’s the last time you read the term, lickety-split? Must be an old geezer writing this stuff.)

Coyotes aren’t much of a threat except to very young horses. Rattlesnakes won’t try to eat a horse, but could nip their noses and make eating and breathing a bit difficult till the poison wears off. Wild pigs don’t seem to be interested in them, and they’ve learned to live with bunnies and squirrels. Turns out horses aren’t bothered by much at all, except flies. But then that’s what forelocks, manes and tails are for — built-in fly swatters. Being a horse wouldn’t be all that bad, except for the severe paucity of brain cells.

[For you readers in southeastern California and parts of Nevada, that earth tremor you felt was my daughter exploding when she reads this.]