Now that we're well into March, we're getting out of the deep freeze ... kind of. Like today, I woke up to 8 degrees, but the temperatures made it into the high 20s. And it was sunny, so some melting of the snow occurred.
This pattern has happened a few times now, and the fields are starting to take a beating. They're not exactly icy, but the snow has melted in some spots and refrozen in others so there's this mix of bare ground, some ice, and weird crusty stuff.
When I have the time, I've been taking Dude and Bestie into the indoor to walk them around so they can stretch their legs. Dude in particular has been pretty full of himself on these walks. Barn manager Paula said that he's really tentative outside and doesn't seem to like the crunchy footing, so I guess he's looking to blow off some steam.
About a week ago I brought him in to the arena to handwalk him, and he dropped and rolled, then leapt up, reared, and bucked all in one fluid motion. It was quite impressive - the fluidity, that is. Not the rear and buck, as he only got about a foot off the ground. Last Sunday he must've rolled at least four times - since he can't fully roll over, four times in Dude's world is roll to the left, get up, roll to the right, get up, repeat. Then he pranced up to me and snorted and sort of pushed at my arm, which we've always taken to mean he wants to play.
So we ran down to the other end of the arena. When I stopped to look out the window, he ran in a circle then came running at me, veering off when he got about 6 feet from me. That is his favorite trick when he's loose in the arena. I hold my spot, he veers off, and then he almost always stops and looks back at me.
He's so crazy. Bestie never does stuff like that. If I take her in to handwalk her, she rolls, then sedately gets up and looks at me like, "Ok, I'm done. Now what?"
In an attempt to delve into Dude's psyche, I Googled all kinds of phrases, including "romping with your horse." That one turned up lots of videos of horses playing together. Fun to watch, but not quite what I was looking for. I did find a site belonging to trainer Franklin Levinson in which he answers a question from a woman asking about the meaning of her horse bucking alongside her during ground work.
In his reply, Levinson said, "I would suggest not trying to figure your horse out too much. ... Could be the animal was simply playing and enjoying being with you and active with you in a different sort of way." I love that! Play is good. Maybe Dude just wants to have fun.
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