So a couple of weeks ago there was this big fire, and D&L boarded a horse to get it out of danger. That turns out to be pretty common around here. So we hauled out their stock fencing and set up a round pen.
Then the firefighters got the fire under control and the horse went home. So we took the round pen apart and stored the fencing.
Then Saturday I got a call from L out of the blue: “I’m coming home with a horse. Can you help set up fencing?”
“Er…yeah. I guess I can, but didn’t we just take the fence down?”
“Yeah, but I bought a horse.”
This didn’t come entirely out of the blue. L has always intended to get a horse, which is of course why they own all that stock fencing, and the time was growing close. But we were going to reconfigure the barn first. Build an arena. Build a tack room. Get some infrastructure, y’know? You don’t just show up with a horse.
Except I guess sometimes you do, because here we are.
You may be wondering how this involves me. Well, horses eat a lot of heavy stuff. There are no grassy pastures here. D&L have done me a ton of favors, especially in the past year, and I owe them big time. So now when I tag along on grocery runs, those chickens have come home to roost. I just got done moving roughly six metric shit-tons of hay.
He’s a sweetheart, too. Loves people and is allegedly not the least bit spooky – though Saturday he was kind of unhappy with the way the universe was treating him, and then on top of that we had this really violent storm which upset him further. Today he was calm, happy and “scratch my neck.”
To answer the obvious question, no. This will not result in another shit-shoveling gig.
My daughter is big in animal rescue. That’s how I got started as a ferret owner. About a year ago, my daughter saw a horse standing by the road in a muddy pasture, just about starved to death. She pulled into the house, and the people didn’t want the horse and weren’t caring for it. She took it, and with some food and care he has turned out to be a great horse. Seamus lives at a stables now, as my daughter has an apartment, but they go for trail rides. You just never know what someone will bring home.
Rescued a couple,of guinea pigs from a park once. Not as cool as,horses, but it kept,them alive. Biggest impulse,purchase I ever made was a 14×70 mobile home. Made good money renting it for a few months and then turned a nice profit selling it.
I think impulsebuying a horse is more common than you’d think.But I can tell you,being the friend of a horse buyer,is hard work.