A heap of horses came by the house today, and I encouraged one of them to re-introduce himself to our agave that lives near the lemon tree. He sniffed around at it and didn’t even try to lick or bite any part of it. These are not native plants, so encountering one doesn’t engender the immediate shock and awe that horses would normally exhibit. It’s re-education, something that I encourage all of our domesticated beasties to participate in, since we are using these plants to control their behavior around the Great Wall.
After a couple of minutes of sniffing, horsie-pie* walked off to tell his buddies to avoid these things at all costs. I overheard him using the term, “organic concertina wire.” Glad I comprehend Equus. I don’t speak it, just understand its dozen or so words, like “feed me,” “scratch my butt,” “don’t use such a big needle when you give me a shot of penicillin,” and (when you want to ride) “not now; I have a backache.”
*I know all the names of all our 36 horses, but I can only connect the name to the horse in about half of them. I am sure daughter Hilary will correct me, but I kinda like “horsie-pie.”
4 comments:
You're right, I will.
Horsie-pie is a "she," not a "he," and it's Rosa, and she'll be 2 this May. So it's good to hear that her vocabulary is starting to include complex terms like "organic concertina wire." That means she's smart enough to start riding, and we'll see if she knows other complex terms like "jaquima" and "disengagement of the hindquarters."
They don't say "not now; I have a backache," they say, "not now; I fear you'll hyperextend my lumbosacral joint."
You're just not listening hard enough when they speak Equus. There are some subtleties of intonation.
Just don't call her "cow-pie."
Speaking of cow-pie, it reminds me of a joke riddle. Hilary and one of her friends and I visited the Scharffen-Berger chocolate factory in Berkeley. During the tour they kept referring to the bean from which chocolate is made, cacao, pronounced “ka-COW.” Once when we drove down our road through a neighbor’s cattle herd, I asked where chocolate milk came from. The answer? Ka-COWS.
To hhhorses: I will have to sharpen my understanding of Equus. Since horses are four-leggers, my prejudice prevented me from giving them the benefit of the doubt regarding such things as subtlety of intonation. My apologies.
So that’s Rosa, eh? Good looking horse.
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