ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 1, 2011:  Hubby just picked me up from the airport and I hadn’t finished my blog for today.  It is midnight so… I thought this post would be perfect.  Except, I’m not sick this time, just tired and happy…

Have you ever been so sick that you pondered whether it would be a bad idea if you went to the ER or maybe it would be an even worse idea if you died on the couch?

Well, that is how I felt today…  As I writhed around on the couch, moaning softly (between feeble internet “symptom” searches) I exclaimed out loud, “And I haven’t even started my blog for tomorrow!  Waaaaaaaahhhhh.  What if I die before I get it done?!”

Hubby, being the great nursemaid that he is – between taking a quick trip to paddle board – boasted loudly, “I’ll write it for you.”

Me (wrapped in blankets on the couch): Wha?  Did I hear you correctly?

Hubby (whistling in the kitchen):  Sure!  I can write your blog.

Me:  (wheels turning a mile a minute for a zillion reasons)  Reeeallyy…  Alright.  You’re on!

HUBBY WRITES

Around 10pm, I was feeling slightly better so I started to write my blog.

Hubby came over and asked me what I was doing.  When I looked at him balefully, or as balefully as I could muster, and told him that I was trying to clear my foggy brain to write my blog – he said that HE was writing it.

Me:  Oh…  what are you writing about?

H:  Fixing fences and you with a whip behind me.

Me:  Uh, do you think your fan base will like that?

H:  Whaddyumean?

Me:  Well, I don’t think your fans want to hear that I have a whip to your back…

H:  I’m just kidding…

Me:  Uh huh.  Ummmm. What pictures will you put in?

H:  Pictures?

Me:  Well, just do whatever you want and you will be my first guest blogger!

H:  (mumbling under his breath) Fanbase?  Pictures?  This is harder than I thought…

Me:  (rubbing my hands together)  <big smile>  OK, I’m off to bed.  Let me know when you are done and I’ll post it.

SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HUBBY’S BLOG!

So, Dawn’s been a little under the weather for the last few days.  And I’ve been gone on business, which is a fairly commonplace occurrence these days.  I came home Saturday evening, and she was a WRECK, I tellya.  Keeping this place together, all the animals fed and healthy, all while having a “real job” and writing a blog every day is a tall order for a healthy person, and too much to ask for one that is not feeling 100%.  Since I always feel guilty when I’m not around when she is sick, I volunteered to write for her tonight.  I figured that at least a few of you out in reader-land might be interested in the view of the husband of a horse fanatic.

First off, I will freely admit that I am not a horse person.  Before I met my lovely wife, I would have never dreamed of living with horses.  I didn’t even have a dog, just a fat grumpy old cat that didn’t mind if I left for a week, as long as there was food in his bowl.  I won’t bore you will all the details, but life changed when I married Dawn.  For one, I got a dog.  I saw how she had this amazing relationship with her dogs, and they loved her back – I figured I needed to try this myself, so I ended up with Shiva, and I can’t imagine life without him now.  I moved inland (difficult for a former Navy guy and surfer), to a place with lots of fences and a well and a septic system and irrigation system and a thousand other things that can break (and do, with regularity).  And horses.  Not just one or two, but a whole herd!  I’ll admit, I have a love/hate relationship with the horses.  Some a little more love, others… you get the idea.

Today, I got to fix fences.  It’s been a long time coming.  Dawn has been asking, and I have been promising for a few months now, and the longer I procrastinate, the more fence boards come down (and the more insistent the asking gets).  So after a few cups of coffee, I trudged out into the heat to curse at bent nails and warped corral board.

First was the pasture with the Tennessee Walkers and the bratty manchild.  Wrigley immediately trotted up to try to figure out what was going on.

Wrigley: “Hey, what are you doing?”
Me: “Go away.”
Wrig: “Cmon, what are you doing?”
Me: “Fixing fences that YOU BROKE.  GO AWAY.”
Wrig: “Can I help?”
Me, picking up a dirt clod to chuck at him: “NO.”
Finn: “Dude, get a clue.  You’re being a pest.”

Good ol’ Finn.  I like him more all the time.

My last stop was the mare pasture.  Interesting how the mares have much more complex personalities, while the guys are pretty two-dimensional (kind of like us humans).  Gwen bugs me with her bullying and pushiness, and I’ve let her know it a few times, so she keeps her distance.  Sam the mustang is generally very aloof, but today she was interested in me and stuck around until I started hammering.  Remi ignores me, and I think that’s fine.  The only one in that group that I have any sort of connection with is Grande Dame Tess, the Helen Mirren of the group.  She’ll always come up and greet me with a kiss, but knows that I have a job to do.  She gracefully walks away to stand in the shade.

So the fences are fixed, more or less, for the time being.  When I tell people that we have horses, they are always aghast when I say we have ten.  I shrug and say, “They make my wife happy.”  I don’t expect them to understand, because neither do I, but that doesn’t matter.  Even though I don’t enjoy the same sort of connection and love for the horses that Dawn does, I do get to experience their different personalities in small amounts (which is the way I like it, I suppose).  And even though I don’t have that connection with them, I know that Dawn wouldn’t be the same person without them.  And that alone is worth all of it.

 

 

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

 

 

 

 

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