We sold him last week.
We sold both the horses, both goats, leased the house in Oregon, I have a deposit on the round pen, and DD and I sold some solar lights at the Sunday Market, all in one week.
We grieved the most over Do and Re, the goats, we really loved those little girls. We miss them, their walks with us, their daily bottle—they didn’t need it, just wanted it, and we were giving them only warm water. They were beautiful characters—did you know a goat was like a dog, only one that will dance on anything, the higher the better? I do not have to barricade the Prius anymore, nor the storage shed, but I suspect the trees will not be as well pruned. They will be dairy goats.
I hadn’t written about the horses, for since their purchase I wasn’t sure they would stick--meaning I didn’t know if we would keep them. Always before when I bought a horse I had been so excited I could hardly contain myself. This time I used logic instead of emotion. I like emotion better.
Hoshi meaning “star” was DD’s, while Mango meaning fruit was mine. I was rather neutral about the horses at first buying Mango basically to be a companion for Hoshi. Mango, though, was Mr. Personality. He would come when I called, and he would come to the house un-beckoned, stand at the gate and whinny to me. I fell in love with him, a big beautiful mango colored paint gelding with a map of Hawaii on his hip. The previous owners said he didn’t like many riders. He preferred one person he could relate to, I figured that was me. Now I hope it will be his next owner.
I only rode him once when we checked out both horses, but felt I really didn’t want to risk my body anymore with riding. Neither did we want to risk the horse’s health. Hoshi bucked with DD the third day after we got him, that reduced us to sniveling idiots, depressed and low—that was until we found he was in pain.
We found that this lava rock is murder on horse’s feet. The change in diet, the sore feet, a fly allergy, all contributed to his ill humor. We had shoes with pads put on his front feet and began feeding him supplements and he improved. I could see it in his eye—he was becoming a happier horse. The Ferrier thought Mango was doing fine, but last week with a rider on his back we could tell his feet were sore. Neither were the exuberant horses we brought here—this land and grass and rock was not good for them, they needed to go someplace else. I am so happy we didn’t bring our horses from Oregon, it would have ruined them.
A wonderful lady bought Mango, saved him from this property, and will put him with about 9 other horses on 120 acres of good ground and good grass and a good mineral block. She almost teared up when we parted saying Mango was replacing a paint they lost earlier in the year. “Sometimes animals come back to you,” I said. She agreed.
Hoshi went into a horse family, a mother and her two daughters.
DD said she was glad we got the horses, for now she feels complete with horses for awhile. Had we not gotten them she would be longing for one. They were good visitors for a time.
See the Hawaii chain of islands on Mango's hip?
P.S. We have horses on our property again though, the neighbors. These horses are conditioned for this land, and are good mowers. Maybe they won’t care if I hug them once in awhile.
