The horses came and went a fair few times through the night – I heard them going past, since George isn’t what you can call light-footed, but they didn’t keep me awake. This morning a good amount of hay had disappeared but by no means all; I hung a couple of haynets to keep things tidy and topped up the hay for tonight. They were all out grazing when I got up at 6 but as soon as they saw me moving around the yard with the dogs, they trooped in to watch the geese go out and have some scratches and chat, along with me anxiously checking legs and heads for any injuries! There were none, of course – but whenever I change routine for horses, I watch out for upsets and consequent nerviness and occasionally biting as a result.
They’ve been in and out through the day, and when I called them all at 5 for their feed, they processed very sedately in, led by George. He had his dinner in the horse barn, Poppy and Dancer got theirs in Abe’s stable and Abe had his in the corridor! None of them minded and as soon as they’d licked their buckets clean, I let them all out again.
I think they’ll develop their own routines over the next few weeks as they settle to the freedom. I’m away tomorrow so Lynn will be popping by to feed them in the evening, with my mother coming up to do geese and rabbits – I don’t expect any difficulties but I’ll leave everything ready.
Adapt, Mitigate, Survive 