Parents, leash thine children!
More work-stupids: This time, why parents need to keep their children on leashes, especially around extremely large animals.
Our two Percheron draft horses spend most of their weekends outside in our nice, shady, warm and sandy round pen, which is across some scale model railroad tracks (they're about half-scale and carry passengers) and a good 100 yards from the barn. Generally, before bringing the horses in or out, we wait for there to be a lag in visitors just to make it a little easier on us.
Sunday, we began to bring the horses in during a particularly peaceful lull, but just as we got them across the railroad tracks, some little girls came screaming (yes, literally) out of the barn - "HORSIES!! HORSIES!! HORSIES!!" My coworker walking the horse infront of me told the girls to stop where they were and move to the side so we could go by. Parents are, of course, nowhere to be seen. Luckily, the girls listened and backed away as we passed.
It's a damn good thing I looked back when I did, because one of the little girls just COUDLN'T stand the temptation anymore and came sprinting up behind the horse. I do believe everyone here knows better than to come running up behind a horse, let alone touch a horse on the back-end without it knowing you're there.
INSTANT PANIC.
"NONONONONONONONO!!!!!!" I yell. "STAY RIGHT THERE!!!" All while holding onto a slightly upset 2000 lb horse with feet as big as dinner plates. The girls' dad finally shows up with a "Autumn. Come back here. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn, come back here. Autumn, stop. Autumn." EFFECTIVE, obviously. ::sigh::
On the funnier side, when the horses are out in the round pen, they tend to have a little lie down and a nap and even we joke that we need to call "dead horse removal" to come get them. They *do* look like their dead, but it's still funny to have people come up to us absolutely terrified that the horses are dead or sick and we need to go check on them. I can understand why - Danny drools like crazy and his lips get really slack when he's napping.
Our two Percheron draft horses spend most of their weekends outside in our nice, shady, warm and sandy round pen, which is across some scale model railroad tracks (they're about half-scale and carry passengers) and a good 100 yards from the barn. Generally, before bringing the horses in or out, we wait for there to be a lag in visitors just to make it a little easier on us.
Sunday, we began to bring the horses in during a particularly peaceful lull, but just as we got them across the railroad tracks, some little girls came screaming (yes, literally) out of the barn - "HORSIES!! HORSIES!! HORSIES!!" My coworker walking the horse infront of me told the girls to stop where they were and move to the side so we could go by. Parents are, of course, nowhere to be seen. Luckily, the girls listened and backed away as we passed.
It's a damn good thing I looked back when I did, because one of the little girls just COUDLN'T stand the temptation anymore and came sprinting up behind the horse. I do believe everyone here knows better than to come running up behind a horse, let alone touch a horse on the back-end without it knowing you're there.
INSTANT PANIC.
"NONONONONONONONO!!!!!!" I yell. "STAY RIGHT THERE!!!" All while holding onto a slightly upset 2000 lb horse with feet as big as dinner plates. The girls' dad finally shows up with a "Autumn. Come back here. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn, come back here. Autumn, stop. Autumn." EFFECTIVE, obviously. ::sigh::
On the funnier side, when the horses are out in the round pen, they tend to have a little lie down and a nap and even we joke that we need to call "dead horse removal" to come get them. They *do* look like their dead, but it's still funny to have people come up to us absolutely terrified that the horses are dead or sick and we need to go check on them. I can understand why - Danny drools like crazy and his lips get really slack when he's napping.