Got sick at work yesterday and ended up taking today off since I got very little sleep last night. When I got up this morning to get ready for work, I found myself yelling at the dogs and just generally feeling crappy. So I e-mailed them at work to say I wouldn't be back until tomorrow. I napped off and on all day. Joey and me. He's really funny. No matter how much sleep he's had, if he sees me laying on the bed, he immediately curls up next to me and lays his head on my shoulder. That is so odd because he's SO active whenever he's up - really hard to control. But once I lay down, he's like a big stuffed puppy.
It was a good day to sleep since it poured down rain all afternoon. But fortunately by the time I got ready to go feed the horses this evening it had stopped. Torri had brought her horses inside and put them in their stalls to get them out of the mud so I decided that today would be a fine time to try turning Lizzie back out in the regular pasture for the first time since she had that laminitis incident in the spring. The only horses out there this evening were Duke and Ladybug (who she will have to get along with when they come home anyway) and Sugarfoot who is always low lady on the totem pole in any group.
It took Lizzie a little while to get used to the idea of being out there so I stayed out there with her for a half hour or so. At first every time she saw another horse look at her she would trot back over to me. But eventually she realized that no one was going to harass her and she seemed thrilled to be able to graze WITHOUT sticking her head through a barbed wire fence! I'm hoping that since it's been so hot and dry for so long that the grass out there will be low enough nutritionally that she won't be affected like she was on the spring grass in that small paddock.
In the picture below, shortly after I turned her out, Lizzie is grazing near Duke on the right, while Ladybug is some distance away (as usual) on the left. She always prefers to be alone. Sugarfoot was on the very far end of the pasture, far to the left side -- also alone, but in her case not because she's anti-social, but because no one lets her get too close to them.
When Sugarfoot realized Lizzie was there in the pasture, she headed down that way to see if Lizzie would let her be friends. Below Ladybug is pinning her ears, glaring at her, and getting ready to run at her, thinking she's coming to visit with HER.
But once Bug realized that Sugarfoot was headed past her and down to the other end to be with Lizzie and Duke, she settled back down and ignored everyone again and by the time I left Lizzie, Sugarfoot and Duke were happily grazing together while Bug was still happily alone. Nice.
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