Lessons From A One Eyed Horse

 Moonie, you one-eyed wonder.  You are no spring chicken any more, and yet you greet each day with as much gusto as you can muster.

I've learned so much from this kind-hearted, stoic soul : no matter how hard you think you might have it... there's always someone who has it harder.  It's been a year since Moonie lost his left eye to cancer, and from that day he has only looked forward, never back.  He willingly accepted his fate without grief or malice and seemed to sense that everything we had to do for him was in his best interest.  I call him stoic, and yet that's not to say that horses don't have emotions.  

I have lived with horses on the farm long enough to know that horses feel a broad range of emotions.  I witness their joy on an almost daily basis.  I have seen a horse mourn the loss of a pasture mate.  And I have observed loneliness and boredom in the eyes of a horse who has no pasture mates.  One thing that I have never witnessed, however, is self-pity.  

Although Moonie approaches life with an appropriately small amount of caution, he remains utterly fearless.  Joy requires a certain amount of fearlessness, doesn't it?  

Each morning he meets me in one of the barn stalls and holds still while I put his fly mask on his face.  Obviously, at this time of year there are no flies - but his mask is a special one that helps block UV light from his one remaining eye.  He never refuses the mask or balks at the idea... just willingly bows his head so that I can put his ears in the appropriate holes and fasten the velcro strap beneath his chin.

And though he willingly concedes to the donning of his "Foster Grants", he also quite often decides to shed them at some point during the day... often times leaving them laying in the mud.  Luckily, we have two masks, so there's always a dry one to spare.  Yesterday, however, because the sun was low, behind the woods, I decided to give him a break from his mask.

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I caught this photo of Pete, as he was helping Jack with chores.

He's quite photogenic. (BTW... I LOVE this cat - he's exceptional!)

And if you are wondering how Gus is doing... he is quite at home in the barn.  I am pretty sure he is here to stay!

We had a brief visitor pass through the farm yesterday afternoon.  Our neighbors' 12 year old "Puggle" was AWOL on an adventure.  He passed through the dry lot which made all of the horses a little uneasy.  They are all quite used to our dogs, but a new dog underfoot had them all a-twitter.  I quickly escorted him out from under hoof to safety beyond the dry lot fence.  It was clear, however, that he was not here for a visit, but was on a mission... trotting down the farm lane towards the pond and whatever lie beyond.  Meanwhile, I found the neighbors who were out searching for him and they were quickly reunited.

Just before sunset, we took the dogs to the woods for a quick run.  Our kids had seen a rather large herd of deer while running in the woods during their time home for the holidays, and we wanted to see if we could spot them.  Far ahead of us on the trail into the woods, 8 deer crossed our path (there may have been more that I couldn't count.). Sadly, I couldn't get a photo as they were too far away.

Yesterday was bread-baking day.  This just might be the most satisfying thing that I do in the kitchen!  We're into our second year of eating nothing but home-baked bread.  It's hard to eat store-bought after tasting homemade!