The trials and tribulations of the horse husband continue.
Due to my accident in July, I am unable to carry out my activities either as a domestic engineer (cooking, household management) or attend to my equine responsibilities (feeding, catching horses for the trimmer, grooming etc.). All of these tasks now fall to my husband, Jay. My accident happened mid-July, so Jay has had to do these tasks for many days now and there are many more days ahead where the work still needs to be done.
Horse husband is a generic term referring to the significant other (in this case, husband Jay) of the horse-crazy person (that would be me!). If a person does not have the horse-loving gene, all of the tasks associated with being a horse owner are not fully appreciated by the non-horse lover (horse husband).
While I view grooming and raking manure as tasks that allow the doer a quiet time for contemplation and bonding with the equine, the horse husband views these as onerous, thankless chores that are only done with a great deal of grumbling, muttering under the breath and general reluctance. I have tried to keep the requests to a minimum, but there are still tasks that must be done for good horse health. Fortunately, at this time of year, the horses can be out on grass a good deal of the time so it minimizes the feeding chore.
The miniature horses cannot stay out in our rich pastures 24/7, so Jay has to let them out then bring them in. Initially this proved to be a challenge – once those little horses got out on the green grass there was not much incentive to come back in to the pens. However, horses and humans have now reached an understanding, and Jay can be the Pied Piper of minis, as shown in the accompanying photo – he just quietly walks out in to the field, calls the herd and they quietly come in. It is a pleasure to see that relationship blossom, although Jay is counting the days until I can resume the equine management. I did see him hug one of the little horses one day, so progress is being made.
Now is the time for automatic water maintenance, and again the task falls on the horse husband. I cannot understand why there was such a vocal objection to cleaning the green slime out of the waterers, getting sprayed while trying to get the bob valves and floats “just right” – there should be a huge feeling of satisfaction in completing the tasks successfully! Somehow there seems to be a difference of opinion between my husband and I on the nature of the task. In the big horse field, he even had the “assistance” of two very curious full-sized horses that attempted to become tool users (or at least picked up tools and moved them).
We shall persevere. My physio continues and hopefully I will be able to take back some of the horse husband tasks in the future.
