One of the highlights of our trip back "home" this summer was the evening a few of us went up to my uncle's ranch (about 5 miles from my parent's farm, up in the hills.) We climbed into the back of his pick-up to ride to the pasture to see the new colts and fillies.
These are breeding mares and so aren't as tame as the riding horses. My uncle took a few buckets of oats and dumped several piles close to us for the mares to come and feed from. My nephew, Levi, and I scooped up some oats in our hands and tried to get the horses to eat from them. Most of the mares weren't very interested. But the foals were more curious and would walk up to us, stopping a couple of feet away and then maybe slowly edging closer. Sometimes a mare would quickly take our oats, but then leave before we could pet her. Sometimes we were able to pet the foals, if we stretched and reached far enough to get to them.
But finally, I managed to get a mare to respond to me a little. She stayed close by and ate out of my hand, and her foal, born just two weeks prior, came up to me. I stroked his forehead, then his nose, and then he came up closer and nuzzled me, and stepped in even farther for a hug. That little thing knew how to pull my heart strings! I was in love. Too bad I couldn't have brought him home with me!
One of the highlights of our trip back "home" this summer was the evening a few of us went up to my uncle's ranch (about 5 miles from my parent's farm, up in the hills.) We climbed into the back of his pick-up to ride to the pasture to see the new colts and fillies.
These are breeding mares and so aren't as tame as the riding horses. My uncle took a few buckets of oats and dumped several piles close to us for the mares to come and feed from. My nephew, Levi, and I scooped up some oats in our hands and tried to get the horses to eat from them. Most of the mares weren't very interested. But the foals were more curious and would walk up to us, stopping a couple of feet away and then maybe slowly edging closer. Sometimes a mare would quickly take our oats, but then leave before we could pet her. Sometimes we were able to pet the foals, if we stretched and reached far enough to get to them.
But finally, I managed to get a mare to respond to me a little. She stayed close by and ate out of my hand, and her foal, born just two weeks prior, came up to me. I stroked his forehead, then his nose, and then he came up closer and nuzzled me, and stepped in even farther for a hug. That little thing knew how to pull my heart strings! I was in love. Too bad I couldn't have brought him home with me!
2 comments:
what great pictures..:)
I can see the bliss on your face in the last pic. ;)
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