While Mum was in day care yesterday I had a visitor – my old friend Kath came out from Aberdeen on the bus to pay us a visit. We’ve been friend for more than 2 decades now, based on meeting in Uni, baby-sitting for each other and more recently cinema visits and coffee meet-ups, so she brought the coffee and a DVD out to spend the day at the Croft, rather than me trekking into Aberdeen. It was good to see her again – with Mum’s problems I haven’t had time to do more than answer the occasional text for months! – and we caught up on each other’s lives, had lunch, enjoyed the film and then I took Kath back to the bus stop in time to collect Mum from day care.
George was in the yard as we left the croft and his reaction was glorious. He has met Kath before a couple of times and been hugely admired from a respectful few yards away, but he hasn’t seen her in nearly a year now. All the same, it was clear that he vaguely recognised her, because he turned his head first with a quizzical expression, then swivelled himself around to face us and took a step towards her, still looking slightly puzzled but curious – do I know you from somewhere? I think we may have met – and then as she spoke to him his puzzlement turned into a big beaming smile – Oh, I know! It was here! You liked me!…
Horses have fabulous memories and they remember not only what they felt on a previous occasion – but how you felt, too. It’s a good reason for making sure you always leave your horse on a happy note after any session with them! If you leave them thinking you’re cross or unhappy, they’ll be wary when you reappear. I always greet my horses with a happy voice and a treat, and I always leave them the same way – that way they always associate me with cheerfulness, not with darker emotions, and they’re always happy to see me.
The DVD was San Andreas, btw – an enjoyable bit of nonsense involving massive earthquakes and tsunami as background to the marital breakup and reunion of the ever-muscular Dwayne Johnson and wife while he played hero and rescued a nubile daughter from the chaos. As usual I had a few mutter-at-screen episodes as an extremely-amateur geology nut, but sunshine, muscular blokes and a fast paced action script always makes a nice break on a winter’s day.
Cairnorchies Chronicles 