Crazy About Birds

By Kimb

Holden?

This horse is my latest friend. He'll walk all the way from the far side of his field when he sees me coming. I've nicknamed him "Lips" because if you're not careful he'll get your fingers along with the carrot pieces. He flaps his lips around very vigorously trying to suck up the carrot. Holding one's hand as flat as possible generally works, but it's sometimes hard to avoid a finger going in with the carrot piece. That said - so far no harm whatsoever has been done.

I think his name might be Holden, because the coats he's been wearing say respectively "Holden Medium" (today's) and "Holden Large" (yesterday's). He's in the field with another horse I call "Tall Boi" because he's TALL. I'm assuming they are both males. Geldings probably. But I don't really know because they're both wearing coats so far when I see them. Tall Boi doesn't seem to completely understand carrots, so he hasn't gotten many. They both just recently returned from spending the winter in Florida with their people and a bunch of other horses, apparently. Doing horse shows, I presume. The young woman who owns them rents the large stable and several of the fields at Oakfields - an arrangement that started after the owner of Oakfields died and her daughter took over the running of the place. The Connemara ponies were Susan's (the late owner), these horses were not. She did have a bunch of other horses back in the day - and there were often lovely new foals in the spring, but I expect they've all been sold. Two of my favorites years ago were this pair. And again.

Anyhoo - "Holden" is now my pal. If his person gets to the field before we walk by, he misses out on the carrots, but if he's still waiting for his day to begin, he sees me and comes right over even if he's already waiting by the gate way across the field from the road for the person with the halter to appear.

Both Holden and Tall Boi are so much taller than those ponies. It's really startling every time they come over to the fence.

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