Horsey Hide and Seek

This was too cute! Last night I stopped by the barn and did a short groundwork/grooming session with Rugby. We've been having a whole bunch of rain lately and I figured we'd do what we could before it started in again.

All went quite well considering we only did about 20 minutes or so of actual groundwork on the lunge line. I finished up and returned him to his stall. I went out to put some gear away in my locker and when I came back I proceeded to clean up the hair on the floor (he's been a doll about having his mane pulled but I do it in increments so it doesn't become too much with all the tugging. So each night we remove a little more hair). As I'm doing this I see he's standing right at the stall door, watching my every move (waiting for his end of work treat, no doubt).

So when I went out the side aisle to dump the rake full of mane hair, on the way back I stopped and hid behind the wall. I then peeked around and saw him still watching where I'd gone. I quickly ducked back then slowly peeked around at him again. I ducked back again and was immediately rewarded with a deep nicker from Rugby! It sounded like either, "dude, what's UP with you?" or "cut the crap, lady and give me the treats".

Who cares, It was cute to get a response like that. I laughed and put the treats in his pail. I tried it again, this time mimicking his deep nicker as best I could (humans just can't do a perfect horse sound) as soon as I was out of his sight, and he answered me in the same tone! For that he got rewarded with a horse kiss by me blowing softly in his nostrils. He loves that. This is fun.