Dinner Time!

Who says "It never rains in California."? We've had 2 weeks of rain, and I have 2 mud balls hanging out in their paddocks. We're trying to get the grass to grow in the lower pasture, so I haven't been letting the horses down there. However, last weekend we had a break between storms, and they had their noses pressed against the gate saying "Open, open, open." Since it was close to feeding time anyway, I decided to let them out while I did my barn chores, and got their "dinner" ready. Usually, they are hyper aware of feeding time, and hang out by the gate waiting for me to call them in. Not this day. They made a bee-line for the lower part of the pasture and stayed there. It's a bit of a walk to the lower part of the pasture, and since Parelli says "Don't catch your horse, make your horse catch you." and being the savvy girl I am, I have trained JJ to come to me when I whistle. It wasn't hard. Since he's a food-aholiach, all I had to do was give him a cookie when he came to me every time I whistled for him and pretty soon even he was charging up the hill. (Come to think of it, that's the only time he runs, other than when he's scared, and that dosen't count.) After I finish my chores and am ready to head in I whistle for the horses. Nothing. I can't eve see them. I walk over the hill to a spot where I can see them and whistle again. JJ picks up his head to look at me, and then continues to graze. Sooo, I whistle again. This time Sassy looks up and starts to trot towards me. Her movement gets JJ's attention and he starts charging up the hill towards me. Now, it's dusk and horses don't have real good depth perception, so I'm not real sure if they can see me. I start jumping up and down making a bit of a ruckus (the neighbors must love me) to make sure they see me. Well they charge right past me to, I thought their paddock. But no, they circle around and head back down the lower pasture. As I was standing there watching them go it made me think of being a kid, playing outside and having mom call me in for supper. Sometimes, I ran to the lower end of the pasture and pretened not to hear her call because it felt so good just to be outside.