The places where I’ve kept my horses for the past 20 years are mostly on town trail systems. The good news is that I’m able to ride on the trails. The challenge has been keeping trail walkers from feeding the horses.
I can always tell when people have been feeding them because Zelda is like the Walmart greeter — she’d be front and center when anyone came near the fence line. Yes, she’s obviously starving to death! Of course, people don’t know what to feed horses, which makes freeform feeding risky (especially for Curly who is prone to choke).
So far, at the new barn, Zelda has ignored the people who walk through the field (we use a town field for turnout which has a walking path through the middle). That’s good news because she’s too big to be begging for handouts from strangers. I don’t want her to scare anyone.
When I showed up this afternoon, Curly and Zelda were standing staring out the gate at the bottom of the field. Damn, I thought. Someone started feeding them. Zelda only flicked an ear when I whistled for her to come in. Usually, after a day on grass, she’s eager to come in for dinner and looks forward to her treat — half a baby carrot.
When I walked down the hill, I discovered it wasn’t food that had entranced them. Across the street, someone was lunging their horse. Horse TV. It’s time to put Zelda back to work!