Shoo, Fly! Don't Bother Me!

Shooing flies is as old as time and has been chronicled in our culture and history. There's an old song that goes,

Shoo, fly! Don't bother me!
Shoo, fly! Don't bother me!
Shoo, fly! Don't bother me!
For I belong to somebody!

There's also Shoo Fly pie, a "ghost train" incident from 1906 involving a train called the Shoo Fly, and the lyrics of the song Jimmy Cracked Corn sing about the blue tail fly that needs shooing from a horse

An' when he ride in de afternoon,

I foiler wid a hickory broom;

De poney being berry shy,

When bitten by de blue tail fly.

One day he rode aroun' de farm,

De flies so numerous dey did swarm;

One chanced to bite 'im on the thigh.

De debble take dat blue tail fly.

De pony run, he jump an' pitch,

An' tumble massa in de ditch;

He died, an' de jury wonder'd why;

De verdic was de blue tail fly.

Tonight the herd was fighting the flies. One thing highly distinctive about Abby is her near-constant tail swishing. And tonight she was on her game with that tail.

 Nose to tail with her buddy, Mason.

 A swish from Abby!

And then a swish from Mason!

I guess we have a little bit of syncopated tail swishing as the two buddies Shoo Fly!