Just a Good Lookin Horse

Thursday March 20 2008 I've been keeping Stormy in a big paddock with a babysitter, Mac or Kazam, the last two days, where he can sniff the rest of the horses (including butthead Finneas) over the fence. He hasn't really been concerned one way or the other - he's all about eating every tiny blade of green grass and weed that is in the paddock. He hasn't seen green grass in over a year. Stormy took advantage of our riding today - Connie and I rode Mac and Finneas - getting turned out with Kazam, Diego, and Quickie. Stormy didn't really pay much attention to any of them - he was off exploring, finding and stuffing as much grass as possible into his mouth, and probably looking for his buddy Woody, who he was with constantly in California for the past year. Diego got caught in the round pen and got all excited when the others left him, then he remembered where the gate was, and came zooming out at a flat-out run (with a buck thrown in mid-stride), heading straight for Stormy. Stormy was unimpressed and uninterested, and I think Diego was a bit sad that his entertaining effort was unnoticed. (He's still waiting for Jose to come home to play.) Stormy walked up to one of the hay bales to check it out, and Quickie pinned her ears and threatened to go after him. He just dodged out of her way and ignored her, and later they rolled together, and she followed him around. (I hope Finneas didn't take special notice of this.) Connie and I had a nice ride along the rim to check on an old hawk nest - we saw two, neither occupied - giving the horses a good workout, up and down some short steep hills, and counting the few snowflakes making it down here from the snowstorm ahead of us in the mountains. When we got back to the house, we rode back among the horse herd - and Finneas went after Stormy, twice, with Connie on his back! Connie gave him big time What For, so I put off turning Stormy out there with the whole herd including the big butthead a while longer - at least until I have a truck and trailer here in case somebody needs a vet! We put Finny and Mac back in the pen a while longer, leaving Stormy out with the other 3 until evening. I followed Stormy around with my camera. He just makes the whole Owyhee herd look better, doesn't he?

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