Tues 27 Sept 2005
11:32 a.m.

Just kidding about the horses, heh heh. They're lovely, even when they do gallop over and surround me when I walk in their pasture. They're friendly and curious, but ... I have seen pictures of horse bites, and who knows? Not that any of these have ever done such a thing, to my knowledge.

But I remember a way back when I was 20 (in my New Brunswick heyday), when I rode a horse every day for almost a year, that one time the animal was grazing in front of the log cabin when I tried to catch and saddle him up. I reached for his halter and he spun around before I could say Hidee Ho and the bottom of his hoof was, in less than two seconds, all I could see in front of my face. How lucky I was that time ... I could have been toast! I like to think his kick was simply a well-aimed warning ... but I don't forget how quickly a horse can do that. I keep on my toes.

They caught me the day before yesterday out there, though I made it to the trees before they reached me, so I felt somewhat protected. Then they were all around me, sniffing and milling about. I didn't dare step away from the poplar tree I stood behind, until I realized I was standing next to a dead branch and could leap up on it, which I did, thus making a huge cracking sound and scaring the horses off.