Rosie

Just yesterday I was thinking about my mom's goonie paint mare, Rosie. You see, I trained Rosie to ride. She's the best kind of horse to train. Willing, calm, and brave. She doesn't buck - not yet anyhow, and she has never really caused a lick of trouble - well, outside of blocking traffic on the gravel road when I let her out to graze out of the pasture- and getting into the chicken food - and destroying any stall you put her in for longer to eat her grain - and giving Teddy a lovetap in the mouth when she ran past him(poor dog). Hmmm. well, I guess she gets into her share of trouble. But that is not the point.

Rosie is quite vocal. She learned this from her Auntie Wheezy. She nickers when she sees people - and she LURVES people. She is downright snuggly. When she is roaming loose on the farm, she likes to sneak up on unsuspecting teenage boys tinkering with machinery and hang her head right over his shoulder. Then nicker. Matthew hates her for this. I think it's endearing. He jumps up and shouts at her, and she just looks at him like she's saying 'who pissed in your oatmeal?'

She likes to get someones attention you see, when she wants back in with the rest of the girls. She takes charge like that, and since no person has ever hurt her, she thinks all people are good. That makes me happy.

Rosie has a new um, quirk. She has started flopping down at the gate. Generally this happens when she has decided it's time to eat, and us silly people are not moving fast enough to suit her. She will stand at the gate for oh, say 10, 15 minutes then just flop down like she just is too weak to go on. She lays there and plays dead until you go over and pick up her head. I have sat on her while she laid down like this and all she did was to pick up her head a little as if to say 'who's there? oh. It's just you. OK. nice to see you're finally here, but unless you have grain, I have no time to waste on you. night night.'

I have checked her feet, they are fine - not overly warm or cold, no injuries. Just a weird thing she does. I can find no physical reason for this - so it must be mental. Yes. The horse is weird. I wonder if she's going through an awkward teenage phase like some kids do. You know, where they just don't know what to do with themselves so they do bizarre things and act like it's perfectly sane. They even often look like they have no idea why they are doing such odd behavior, but they awkwardly do it anyhow? Yep. that's the feeling I get from her. But, she is a kind, sweet horse. And that makes it worth her oddball behaviors.