All for Love
Jim is such a character. Quite honestly, I doubt that there’s another horse as well suited to living with him, as Aurora is. She’s like a long suffering girlfriend or wife, putting up with the nonsense, her fella constantly does. I swear, if she could roll her eyes, she absolutely would. As it is, she must make do with snarky mare faces. Not that they have any affect on a blind horse or anything, but she puts in the effort anyway.
On a daily basis, Aurora puts up with his accidental head butts and placements. That big head of his ends up against or under all sorts of inappropriate places, between her back legs, front legs and more times than we can count, under her belly. For all the snarky faces that she makes at him, she never lifts a hoof in response. There isn’t any physical retaliation whatsoever, nothing, nada, zip and zilch. Oblivious to every witchy expression, Jim blissfully carries on.
It amazes us to watch him. He steps boldly, as if he can see where he’s going. Nearing a fence, he’ll stop before touching it, which is rather incredible as he’s the same no matter where we house him. Moving from a pen and adjoining pasture to a winter pen, he seemed to remember that he’d been in it before. From the moment he and Aurora moved into the winter pen, he moved about the space as if it’s familiar to him. Jim has been like this since shortly after he came to live with us. Once he’s been in a space once, he remembers it. He’s such a smart horse. Not only is he incredibly smart, he possesses quite the personality. One he tries to impose upon the Princess herself, Aurora.
The water tub is in one corner of the pen. Just like the hay and feed tub, Jim will walk unerringly to get water. Once there, he’ll either drink with Aurora, or he’ll nag at her in the hope she’ll leave the water to him. What he did this morning was so amusing, so surprising, I stood there and laughed. Instead of nagging at Aurora by pushing her with his head, or nipping at her neck and mane, he behaved just like a naughty boy. Standing directly behind Aurora, he lifted a big knee under her rump. At first, I thought it was quite by accident, but when he repeated the action over and over, it became obvious that he was doing so on purpose. He wanted Aurora to move, and he wasn’t giving up until she did. What did Aurora do? Well, being the Princess she is, she ignored the rude demand, and enjoyed her drink of water. It seems the honeymoon is over.
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