I can’t see the side of my head but apparently Abe can read the instructions there. A whole oat fits snugly into a human ear, pointy end first.
This came about because Abe’s herbal medication has arrived to treat his sarcoid problem. It’s fairly pungent with the smell of turmeric, though there’s other stuff in there – garlic, possibly, and I think I detected green tea – and he’s supposed to have 5 little scoops twice daily, in his meals.
Not happening. At least yet.
I put the 5 scoops into his breakfast and he took one sniff, accused me of attempting to poison him and went on hunger strike. He turned his bucket upside down and then stood in the contents to express his opinion. On the other hand, we did get some very good work done together on leg-yielding in hand – possibly having missed breakfast his motivation for carrot chunks was higher? I used one hand to lead him forward and the palm of the other to press against his ribs (mimicking the feel of my leg, I hope!) and after a few attempts, he got the idea and crossed his inside hind under his body as he stepped forward. Before long he’d mastered that and decided he was ready for higher things, so he went straight to half-pass… bent the wrong way, of course, but still, a good attempt. George came out and had a super leading session, managing the whole length of the yard at a brisk straight-line walk without any ears-back, let alone herding me up!
I tried sneaking the medication into his dinner – just one scoop. He can get used to that and then work up, I thought. He refused to eat it. I hand-fed him each bit, and once I’d added another scoop of beet and another scoop of oats, he did accept hand-feeding… but then he was full up and couldn’t manage another oat, even, honestly.
This morning I went straight to hand-feeding and he ate a good amount – but then he was full and disinterested again. Still, they all had their hooves trimmed this morning and he did an excellent leg-yield in-hand several times as well as striding confidently across both the pallet and a length of upside-down Lino I have on the ground for them. George also walks straight across the Lino – Poppy hesitated, nerved herself up and stepped gingerly across it because I asked (she’s such a brave horse!) and Dancer thinks if she steps on it something horrible will leap up and eat her.
After Abe had been trimmed I took George round and tied him up next to Abe, so he could watch and listen while Odette and I chatted and the mares had their hooves done – all good for George! He was quite well-behaved, apart from allowing Abe to get him involved in a play-fight over the goose water bath that ended with George picking up the bath and tipping the contents over Abe’s front legs!
This evening I cut the chaff out of Abe’s dinner, so he just got oats and speedi beet – and two scoops of medicine. He gave it a few disapproving pokes and snorts, then decided to eat it anyway. He ate a mouthful, then his nose itched and he needed to rub it on me (I was sitting on the mounting block holding his lead rope). He had another mouthful and the other side of his nose needed to be rubbed on me. Then an ear itched. Then the other ear. He nearly knocked me off the block with those! Then the end of his nose needed to scritch my sleeve, wetly. I was brushing sugar beet pulp off my sleeve when he managed to insert the oat directly into my left ear.
This was a distraction, I have to say! I couldn’t get hold of it in my fingers to pull it back out so I just had to live with it for the duration.
After a few more itchy ears and wet kisses and so forth, Abe decided he’d had enough to eat and would throw the bucket away. I just grabbed it before he swung it through the air in his teeth, so then at intervals – when he thought I might be off-guard – he tried again. In the meantime, I started hand-feeding him again, and although about half of each mouthful was dribbled back into the bucket, wiped on my face, hands or clothing, he did get to the end of the bucket – eventually. I think someone’s been whispering stories about desert princes hand-feeding their precious Arab horses in their tents or something… he’s certainly enjoying having my attention fixed on him like this!
I managed to extract the oat after the horses were back out by borrowing a small syringe from the ferrets’ medicine collection, filling my ear with water and then turning my head so the water drained out, taking the oat with it. I hope Abe doesn’t make a habit of putting oats in my ears, it’s very uncomfortable!
In other news – Patchy Girl has ducklings! She’s still sitting on the nest, but when I stole a quick glance under her wriggly tin roof this afternoon, she had yellow fluff tucked against her chest instead of white duck-down. I’m looking forward to seeing her bring them home in a few days. Black Duck may have ducklings, I can’t see into her nest to find out. I tried, but my field of view was filled by a very beady-looking duck face clearly indicating an opinion along the lines of ‘and the horse you rode in on!’.
The saga of the little black rabbits continues. Shortly after number two bunny escaped, number three followed suit and I’ve been chasing little black bunnies all over the place ever since. I managed to nab one this afternoon and it’s now safely back in the hutch. The other two are still at liberty so there’s a chapter or two more to come yet…
Holly’s litter of ferret kits now have their eyes wide open and are very active, chunky darlings!
Cairnorchies Chronicles 