Thursday, June 21, 2012

The pigeons are winning



Life around here has been pretty interesting on the horse front lately.

Last year in the fall we had a couple owls move in, which caused mayhem every morning early when they "hooted". For who knows what reason they are terrifying to my horses.

Fast forward to spring, and pigeons. Lots of them, moving in. 

I guess pigeons sound like owls to horses? Apparently birds that "hoot" are killer beasts much like the plastic bag is the above cartoon.

Every evening at dinner time I've been trying to work with the horses to get them used to the noise. When I catch them to bring them in I usually wander by the pigeon roost and try to get the horses to hang out there. 

Today was another epic fail. I did learn a few things.

1. My gelding while well behaved will NOT go to the pigeon roost. P.E.R.I.O.D. Trying to move a draft sized horse who's grown roots is not an easy task.

2. The 30 year old seasoned rodeo horse can and will exit the area faster than you can get out of the way. Especially when killer pigeons are flapping about over head.

3. Bogs are my favourite gumboots hands down BUT they do not have good traction for sprinting out of the way of above 30 yr old sprinting rodeo horse.

4. I am getting old, being hip checked by two horses in one evening calls for a large glass of alcohol. 

2 comments:

Jane Perala said...

Oh I remember it well - lol! I once had my foot stepped on by a HUGE mare because I couldn't get out of the way fast enough - and of course I just had gum boots on. I was bruised from toes to shin.

Jeanne/J3Jewelry said...

Oh no, that couldn't have been fun, almost being stampeded by a panicked horse. They're just a little bit bigger than we are. I had a horse that was terrified of twigs and branches on the ground. Must have thought they were snakes. Poor guy.