Sultanna's Back

 Sultanna is back home! She visited her boyfriend for over three months; hopefully we will have a baby on the ground next spring.

I'd been running errands and had just gotten my Covid and flu shots, and since it was a lovely day, decided to head out to the barn.

With only three horses on the property, Tim has had to mow the pastures. I've been with him twelve years and only once do I remember him ever mowing them. A telltale sign that there are not many horses in the pastures at the moment.

Those mowed pastures were far more accessible for me, but I'd forgotten to bring my walker and just walking from my car to the gate was difficult. Maybe I will try to visit Abby's grave this weekend.

Sultanna poked her head out of the old barn when I whistled, but she simply stood there and watched me. No nicker of greeting, no trotting up, nothing. Just standing in the barn door.

I probably should not have been surprised. As the lead mare, everyone followed Abby. And she always came up to see me and so the rest came along, too. Without her there, neither Sultanna, Hokey, or Easy were interested in seeing me.

Not gonna lie, I was more than a little crushed. I'd hoped Sultanna would've been happy to see me, maybe even whinnied, and come up for a visit. But in retrospect, why should she? At Tim's request, I only gave his horses treats on occasion. They got scritchings and pettings, but rarely anything to eat. There really was not a lot of motivation for them to come up to the gate.

I shed some tears as I drove home, but I also thought a lot about how bonded Abby had been to me, from our very first encounter until our last days together. She was always happy to see me, and she enjoyed the people I sometimes brought out with me (especially the Pony Pals.) Not once did she ever pin her ears at me, kick or threaten to, or show anything except, "I'm glad you're here!"

How very lucky I was to have her.