Over My Head!

["Karen J. Zelinsky" <kjz2@juno.com>]

Good morning ridecampers!!

Field Report . . . 

Beautiful morning in almost crispy-crunchy central PA, and just down to
feed the horses.  Clear air.  Perfect fall temperature.  Let me OUT of
this stupid stall sez my mare (limiting her grass intake).  She and her
boyfriend head straight for the 'ol apple tree nearby.  The night-shift,
(probably), of ground hogs and muskrats have cleared the ground of
munchies, so ... what to do?  I've had an old, wooden, rickety,
life-endangering-ladder positioned directly under the tree's branches,
and use my plastic stall-cleaning pitch fork over my head for the new
sport of whacking apples - not horse sh.....  MUCH more fun!!  The two
horses are playing the catchers - shadowing me - my mare almost resting
her head on my shoulder as I whack waaay up there for the ever-bigger
apple up in the sky.. plunk, plunk - a rainfall for their barrel-racing
muzzles - beautiful whole-body dressage moves and I keep setting my goals
higher and higher!

Aaargh!  Can't reach any more and they're banging their knives and forks
on the table!!  Hmmmm...... hundreds more up there, but can't reach....
IDEA!  To heck with a pitchfork -- try a long branch.  Works for a bit,
but.... bigger is better (i.e., LONGER and lighter is better)... rummage
around the barn and emerge with a looooonnnng and thin piece of wood...
Voila!!  Higher and higher... plunk, plunk, plunk... apples hitting
horses and almost me!  Reinventing the wheel??  Feet on ground, long
stick held high, and many apples safely (well, better than a rickety
ladder) knocked down.  Horses happy!  And damn! --  my batting average is
getting better!  So, this is the way to practice batting balls?  Up in
the air, waiting for the pitch?  Horses are the catchers... And for
ground practice, there's always turd-kicking in the winter....  Life is
good!!

So, for the best laugh I've had in a while, all it took was me "dropping"
apples, and watching these horses develop a high-food-getting IQ by using
(probably) John Lyon's 3-second-catch-and-eat reward system!!!!!  

Simple-minded-fun-in-the pasture  Karen
(and, burp! burp!! Keely and Alex) in perfect central PA

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