The new rescued mare, Annie, has many ‘isms’.
Now that she is relaxing and feeling secure, her personality is coming alive. And, I am finding that Annie is a funny, quirky girl!
For example, when she first sees me in the morning, she will hoarseholler at me until I speak back to her, then she will stop. But, not before.
If I pet her, I have to start at her shoulder or she turns a circle and we start over.
When she picks up a foot, she will pick it up quickly and slam it down first, and then pick it up higher. She won’t do it my way the first time – yet.
If I bother her while she is eating, she will turn her head away from me. However, if I actually sit down and join her while she is eating, she will shove food my way and eat very close to my body. It is as if she is saying, “Either have the grace to sit a while, or go away. But if you do join me, I’d be very pleased and share with you.”
Today, I was able to photograph another one of her ‘isms’.
Annie and her bagism.
She loves it if I eat with her, but if I interrupt while she is eating willy-nilly, she gets upset.
ANNIE AND THE HAY BAG.
Annie has a love/hate relationship with the new haybag.
I give her a haybag because she is pregnant and I don’t want her to go hungry. I don’t need to provoke her into a huge, hungry, hormonal mare in my front pasture…
The haybag is one I found at the Horse Expo this year. It was called, ‘indestructible small holed’ so I purchased it.
This is the bag Annie loves to hate.
She loves it because it contains hay. She hates it because it doesn’t deliver the hay fast enough.
Each night when I give her the haybag, I pull out several fronds for her quick dispatch. However, as soon as I walk away, I can hear her tossing it into the heavens and then chasing after it. She’ll paw at it and grab it with her teeth… then get very frustrated and toss it another 50 feet. She does this all over her pasture.
I know she tosses it all over her pasture because:
a) I’ve seen her throw it far and wide
b) If I’ve missed the actual tosses, I can see the remnant hay trails from where the bag has landed abruptly… and from where she has dragged it within an inch of its life
c) I once found it in a tree
Every day, I go on a hunt to find where she gave up on the hay bag the night before.
And every time I bring her foe, the nemesis hay bag back up from the pasture – she glances at it as if to say, “Next time, old bag, I’ll get you… until we meet again.”
THE PHOTOLOG
Here is the indestructible canvas hay bag with small holes. (thehaypillow.com)
Annie knows her hay bag is coming and she awaits with anticipation. She has eaten her entire dinner and tossed her bucket aside.
I pull out fronds to get it started – which she loves.
Here she is already becoming frustrated because the bag is withholding precious hay.
Here she is dragging it backwards like a mountain lion with dinner.
Hmmmmm. Where did she leave the bag this time? It is in this photo…
Aha!
Stepped on, dragged, tossed and deflated. The empty hay bag looks exhausted from its fight.
The arrow isn’t pointing at my shadow – it is supposed to be pointing to the hay trail of where she has dragged the bag.
Here she turns around to watch me bring her foe up from the lower pasture.
She regards her foe… “Ah, you again… until we meet tonight!”
The haybag lives on!…
Helen: This ‘hay pillow’ is designed to go on the ground. We do have many that tie to the fence… this one is her favorite.
Its pretty hard for a horse to hold the bag down while pulling out a few strands of hay. Have you tried tying it to the fence so it stays in one place for her? I hang mine and if necessary tie the bottom too so it doesn t bounce and scare them. You just have to be careful that they cant get caught in it and that the bottom tie if you use one is something that can break away. My horses are happy to have the bag held down for them.
Looks like Annie would make a great testament for the indestructibility of this hay bag!