Hose about that then!

So today was fun!

I went down to the horses today a little harassed by life and feeling a bit deflated with everything.

After traversing the frozen lumpy ground to get everyone a warm bucket feed and fill all the hay feeders, I was needing a lie down! Ha, no such luck - water buckets needed tackling next.

Tackling with a 300 metre frozen anaconda (this is my pony Jack’s definition of my hose joined to a hose joined to another hose to reach the water buckets) took a while, carefully supervised from a distance by the herd. I was relieved to see the water flow freely when I turned the tap and that sitting on it for half an hour to defrost it wasn’t necessary!

Magic was keeping his beady eyes on me from across the field. After all my routine jobs, I always go and do something with him - usually performing ‘smile’ tricks or itching the sweet spots! I was obviously taking longer than normal (and acceptable) so he decided to sidle over and sample the water and see what i was up to and have a chat.

Filling the water buckets takes forever! (Particularly when everyone decides it's time to have a drink and depletes what you have just filled up!). It’s also a very meditative thing to do, so my mind often darts this way and that -  planning what i should be doing, what i've got to do, what i've forgotten to do and then usually circling back not having achieved any answers and with a few more ‘to do’s’ added to the list!!

So, as his lordship had joined me I asked him what i should be doing, how I was going to fit it all in and how to move forwards without panicking and freaking out with the sheer volume of stuff to do and competing responsibilities. 

His message of wisdom today was conveyed by actions rather than words. We usually have very long and thoughtful conversations so it was a bit odd. Reflecting on this now, it was clear that Magic could see I needed to ‘get out of my head’ for a while and have fun in the moment rather than whirr more words around my head.

He nudged me this way and that, and I was careful to keep the hose out of the way so as not to scare him or cause him to spook or feel that I had done anything aversive to him. I couldn’t really work out what he was trying to do to be honest, until he stuck his nose into the stream of water coming from the hose and gave a glorious flehmen* response.

Magic isn’t scared of the big yellow hose at all, but he has never actually engaged with it before in all the years I have known him. I was a bit taken aback that he had started a game with the hose and laughed out loud! 

So that was fun, but there were other buckets to fill and then we had to drag the anaconda hose across the field into the other part of the field to fill the other buckets for the two smaller ponies. Usually Magic leaves me to this human madness as it's rather boring work i have to say! Today though he jogged along next to me, stamping on the hose a couple of times just to show it who was boss in case it got a bit carried away!

So, off I went for round two,  filling the 5 buckets in the other field and Magic and I shared some quiet present moment together and started to let the things in our heads go for a while and just enjoy each other's company.

After I had finished the buckets (finally!), I started to drag the crazy hose back to where it came from when Magic nickered at me as if to remind me of the fun we could have with said hose. So I offered it over the fence to him again to see if he wanted to play. He did!

We must have played for 20 minutes with this hose - such a simple thing on a winter's day. I don’t know who had more fun between the two of us but either way it was delightful. The video below shows a small snippet of our larking about. I only managed to get a couple of short videos because we were having too much fun!

When you look at where we are standing, you can see how bleak the field is at the moment. Like so many fellow horse guardians out there we are dealing with poached fields and bare hedges and getting through the winter months is really hard. The snippet of joy this interaction brought me today filled my whole winter season with sunshine.

He reminded me to stop and have some fun with friends. I can honestly say I laughed a lot and didn't think about anything that I should or could be doing. When I left to go home, I felt much lighter, and was beaming from ear to ear. An afternoon with the guy that brings sunshine to my life was exactly what I needed and he knew exactly how best to use our time together today!

They say the best things in life are free, and they would be right!

*The flehmen response in horses is a behaviour where they curl back their upper lip to expose their vomeronasal organ, helping them detect pheromones and identify scents, often associated with investigating or assessing reproductive-related odours. While it may not be driven by a sense of "fun" in the way humans experience enjoyment, horses may exhibit the flehmen response when exploring or investigating novel scents as part of their natural curiosity and sensory exploration. In such cases, it could be considered a behaviour that contributes to their overall environmental awareness.