I guess I should have prefaced my previous post with the story of how Mimi came to be in the lower pasture in the dark while the rest of us were at the stables. This involves suppertime. Ron has a daily schedule imprinted in his genes. Time to wake up, time to walk the dogs, time to have breakfast/lunch/supper, time to feed horses, time to nap, time to go to sleep. He has been this way since we first met. If he gets off-schedule, he is cranky. It is maddening. Ron also refuses to do Daylight Savings Time. For as long as I have known him. All of the clocks in our house are always set to real time. It makes having appointments with other people who do not share Rons disgust at DST a little problematic. I am always having to remember to adjust time to be on time. It is maddening. AND, our horses dont care what the clock says. When the sun comes up, it is time to eat. When the sun goes down, it is time to eat. I try to adjust my schedule to keep their tummies happy, even when the sun keeps changing the time it rises and sets. It is maddening. Juggling all of this is easier because I dont care what time I eat. If I am hungry, I grab a banana, and get on with whatever I need to do. I am trying to get Ron to do the same. This time of year, Rons draconian schedule at breakfast and suppertime is in direct conflict with the horses. And, guess what? The horses win. Most of the time. Well, the other night when Mimi was so wired about whatever was in the lower pasture was one of those nights when we were slightly late for the evening feeding because Ron had supper before we left the house. When we arrived to take care of the Boys, Mimi was herding Buck into the paddocks Go, go, go. Time to eat. Get where youre supposed to be. Theyre here. Go, go, go. Buck was shuffling and dodging, and trying to get a hind foot up high enough to kick Mimi and make him stop being so bossy. I got out of the car yelling at Mimi to quit, Mimi!! Stop it!! Leave Buck alone!! And Mimi quit, and Buck went into his paddock and peered at me with his old cloudy eyes over the fence, Oh, hello, is that you? Is it suppertime now? And both Boys were a little hurried when they were eating, like they were so hungry that they were wolfing down their food. I was staying on the timing of when they get each course (a couple hello cookies, their carrots while they wait for their food to be ready, main course of mush and grain, wait while alfalfa gets hydrated, alfalfa, sweep dropped food into neat piles on the mats, a little more alfalfa, some apple pieces, make the switch to let the other guy clean up the leftovers, some goodnight cookies, go have hay on the pads). Staying calmly on our normal routine despite a few extra foot-bangings on the gate, and some extra lip-flapping telling me to please hurry up. ** (I need to mention Mimi and his lip-flapping at this point. He does it to Buck, Hurry up.. He is dominate over Buck. He does it to Buck a lot. He does it to Ron, Hurry up. He is at times slightly dominate over Ron. He does it every now and then to Ron. He doesnt normally do it to me. When he does it to me, I am surprised, and ask him, Why are you flapping your lips at me?, and he stops abruptly, like he forgot he was talking to the boss. When he flaps his lips at me, he needs me to be the boss of him. It is a horse thing.) ** So, their anxiety levels were slightly higher than normal. And Mimi needed us to take over being the boss of them. He needed a break. To further emphasize his need, when he finished his alfalfa, he didnt come to the tack room door to socialize. He stood on the mats, looking towards the lower pasture, snorting. Then he walked stiffly on his toes the whole way to the gate to the lower pasture, snorting and blowing, ears hard forward, staring intently into the dark. He stood rigidly staring into the dark, puffed up twice his size, head high, seriously scary to whatever was there (probably a terrified raccoon). And then suddenly, he broke and ran like a crazy thing back to the stables. Ron and I were watching this amazing performance from the time he left the mats to walk into the dark. I had actually said, Go with him. See what is there., and Ron had replied, No, hes got this. Well, it really wasnt about what might or might not be there in the dark. It was about who was in charge, who was the boss, who made everything safe and good. And that was me. Whether I want it to be or not. Mimi could easily stomp the shit out of almost anything. But he relies upon me to make his world safe and good. Sometimes I find that overwhelming. He really thinks that I can handle all of the monsters. Wow. Just wow.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 21:44:36 +0000
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