Today, as I was feeding, I broke open a new bale of orchard grass and for a moment, I was taken aback by the glorious fragrance and the bright, green color.
“Wow. That is gorgeous hay!”, I said to myself.
And then I laughed to myself.
“Self, ” I said, “You have gone waaaay down that road of horse person.”
And I have.
FORMERLY… (whenever that was when I didn’t have horses….)
Before, it never would have occurred to me that hay could be gorgeous. Pretty much I thought hay was what you fed all farm animals. I mean, that was it. I’m not even sure if I knew it was grass… maybe straw. I have no idea what I thought before, but I do know that I didn’t think much about hay.
So, to hear myself exclaim poetically about hay… well, it made me laugh.
I think, if you feed horses, you know what I mean.
BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS (affordable) HAY
Nowadays, especially in California (which is an agricultural green belt, they say, but we cannot grow grass hay because we grow everything else…) Grass hay is incredibly expensive. Our local store that delivers, charges almost $27 a bale.
I like to use the place that delivers… but it upsets me to spend that kind of money for one bale of orchard.
So, I usually go to the place that doesn’t deliver, but has really fine hay that I can load onto my truck and kick off as needed.
Today, I found some especially nice grass hay in my new pile from the place that doesn’t deliver.
And as I broke open the new bale to feed to my precious charges, my senses were hit with the gorgeous color and gorgeous scent of exquisite hay.
And I remembered to find the joy and the little things!
OK, so it didn’t really photograph as nice as it is in person… but it is very green, full of yummy stuff and very fragrant.
Another step down that horse-person road: A few years ago I visited friends who live in a rural area in Manitoba, Canada. They were growing their own organic hay for their llamas, and were experimenting with different grass blends. It was early August when I visited, and when I saw that lush hay field in all its verdant mid-summer abundance, I whooped out loud the words “Horse salad!”, and my mouth actually started watering. My friends felt quite complimented!
Yes! I have had that thought! Many times!
Watch out for the next step in horse-person-itis, which is mentally contemplating hijacking a hay truck. Oh my. 30 TONS of gorgeous hay – what a temptation, right? We formerly lived near a major highway where hay transports from the east side of the mountains – hay growing region – traveled to the less-farmed/higher population west side of the mountains. Just the very thought of pulling off such a heist from that steady stream kept us mightily entertained.