Yup. I have three very spoiled horses. Well, two spoiled horses and one very spoiled donkey.
You see, these three know that they will get a bucket every morning. So instead of eating their hay which I provide first in the morning… they wait and wait and… wait… to have their buckets first.
Who does this?!
My other horses wouldn’t wait. They wouldn’t wait one minute.
Yet these three, either taught each other… or are too polite to eat before the other… or they are just very, very spoiled …with great reserve.
I’ll show you:
PHOTO DISPLAY OF MY SPOILED HORSES THIS MORNING.
I had already fed hay. They have all been waiting to be fed since last time I fed them. The other 5 horses are eating heartily. However, these three: Dalton, Norma and Gwen – will not eat hay until they get their morning buckets.
I’m in the garage, looking out. I can see yonder that Dalton is not eating his hay. He’s standing where I put his bucket.
I zoom in my camera, and there he is, standing in front of his fan NOT standing in front of his giant feeder where I have put lovely hay – which he has been waiting for (and banging his barrel all night) to eat.
Gwen is even worse. She will throw her hay out of her feeder while waiting for her bucket. Me taking her picture instead of making her bucket… really upset her.
I went over to Dalton to take his photo… and he just stared at me. “Shouldn’t you be making my bucket now?…”
“Yeah, my bucket. It goes right here.”
Here is Norma Jean, asking me for her bucket, too. She, at least, is standing next to her barrel and grabbing pieces when I’m not looking.
I relent and give to my dear, sweet, old donkey girl. She’s happy.
And of course, the handsome gelding is finally happy.
OCTOBER BUCKET FUND!! Let’s help NUNU recover! She is the horse who was ridden at a run for 7 miles on a Chicago freeway. OMG. I cannot tell you how I feel about the idiot who did this to this mare. All donations are 100% tax deductible and will go to her recovery. Yes, she is alive.
Click here to donate! THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Well, I too have one (out of 4) that waits for the bucket, and very politely as well. I do spoil him, on purpose as he is nearly thirty; I have had him in my life since before he was born and he has been a very hard keeper all these years. I never want him to head into fall and winter without enough weight so he gets a bucket full of a combination of soaked beet pulp pellets (easier for him to eat with old-horse dentition issues), plus pellets that are a combination of alfalfa, beet pulp, rice bran, vitamins, minerals and probiotics – most importantly no soy, yes there are some horses who react very badly to soy and he’s one. Only after he has finished a 5 gallon bucket pretty much full of this mix, given 2x daily, does he tackle his hay feeder (he has free choice mix of orchard, bent grass and meadow grass). Frankly I would rather have a hard keeper than have to worry about daily intensive management of an EMS horse so the well-catered menu continues.