Home Again

We are back! Raven and I took a quick trip to Oregon to see folks back home. While we were there they had a Music Party, which is a wonderful event where people get together and bring their instruments (if they want to) and sing songs (or just listen, and maybe clap along) late into the night. There is food, there is wine, beer, and sundry other beverages (including of course Scotch). There is above all good company and a wonderful time to be had by all. I hadn't known what a music party was before I met Raven, and now I am addicted to the whole experience (although I very rarely subject others to my "singing" voice, in which songs are generally somewhere in the key of Q). It was good to go and see people, and now it is good to be home.

"Hi there"

We got in late last night, so the stable was closed (and I was exhausted). Mom, Raven, and I all went this morning to see Stella. She was not even mad at me for being gone, and we fell back into rhythm as though I hadn't been away from her for almost as long as I have been with her (both being about a week). Mom has been working with her every day while Raven and I were away, and she was quite well behaved both this morning and tonight.

"Look Mom, no lead rope! I'm still gonna just walk with you, ok?"

Both sessions Stella and I wandered all over the stable. I led her through the barn a few times (which was new to her). I think she likes it on the concrete floor, since her pace and foot pickup changed when she was inside and her ears perked up. If she was a Paso Fino I would suspect that she liked the sound of her hooves on the concrete. I worked at a Paso Fino stable for two years, and one of the babies who came while I worked there particularly liked going down to trot across the sounding board. If she was a human child she would have loved a drum set for Christmas (given by a relative who lived far, far away).

(As the scuffs on her face from before we got her heal, they are showing up more on the camera. But they are also regrowing hair, so I don't think she is going to have any scars from her pre-adopted life.)

Stella also apparently likes the taste of the floor, since once we stopped inside and she began to lick the floor. But then again, Stella seems to like the taste of everything. She explores the world with her mouth. Whenever she can reach something new, it must be tasted. Two horses were getting bathed when I had Stella out this evening, and we stopped to watch. She was not entirely sure about the spraying water, but that didn't keep her from approaching close enough to taste the water on the concrete wash pad. When I let her off lead in the arena this evening she began to happily munch on the dirt in the arena. So I hooked her back up and we had more leading time instead of free time.

"Yeah, I could run around the arena, but I' gonna just stand right here. Pet me?"

And all weeds must be eaten. ALL OF THEM. She leads fairly well now, but a particularly tall or tasty-looking weed still makes her pause and try to grab a bite in passing. We're working on that. She always has hay and water available in her stall, and she has a mineral block that she is working on sculpting, so I don't think that she is short on anything in her diet. She just wants to consume the entire world, one lick and nibble at a time.