Photo by Audrey Pavia
Me with Rio , one of my equid therapists .
My life is hectic .
I work in an office all 24-hour interval as a technical writer and do freelancer employment in the evening and on weekend . I also have three cavalry on the 1/2 - Akka suburban lot I portion out with my hubby , Randy , as well as sevenchickens , aCorgi , and anurban barn cat(more of a service department qat , but we keep the hay in the service department , so it sort of qualifies as a barn ) . I also live with two lapin and four true cat inside the house .
It ’s wry that I have to influence so hard to maintain my urban farm that I find I do n’t have much time to savor it . My hubby bugs me to slow down and decompress , but I ca n’t . If I want the privilege of this lifestyle , I have to hustle to keep it .
I do n’t know if it was a confederacy between Randy and thehorses , or if the horses came up with it on their own , but today was different , at least for a while : I was forced to slow down down .
I had just receive back from the grocery store and went out back to the horse stalls to check on the work party . Rio , my 2 - year - oldSpanish Mustang , had plunge over his plastic water trough and was playing with it . Randy has water obligation , but he was in the house putting away foodstuff , and there I was . So I figured I would take a minute to fill up the trough .
I pulled the garden hose to Rio ’s stall and dropped it in the bowl . As I started to take the air away , Rio grab the nozzle and started to play with it , squirting water all over the blank space . Knowing this son ’s capableness for mischief , I realized I would have to stand safety over the hose the total prison term . I had body of work to do in the house , but the trough needed fill . I hesitated . Should I wait for Randy to do it ? Rio looked thirsty . What the netherworld , I figure . I ’ll do it .
I knelt down on the outside of Rio ’s stall so I would n’t have to bend over ( bad back ) . Rio stuck his muzzle under the nebulizer of water and started to act with it , flapping his lips and giving himself a Water Pik treatment on his tooth . Just then , my openhanded 9 - twelvemonth - old Spanish Mustang , Milagro , who shares a fencing panel with Rio , sauntered over to look on .
Then , as if on cue stick , my very laid-back 21 - year - oldQuarter Horsegelding , Red , do up and stand behind me . He was the lucky one getting “ turnout ” at the moment , meaning he had the freedom to roam around the outside of the stalls .
As I knelt at the trough , Rio go along to flap his brim in the H2O while Milagro began to snooze . Red hovered over me , his chest only a few inch from my articulatio humeri . His head was above me — when I looked up , I saw the bottom of his Kuki-Chin . He began to sniff my hair and absentmindedly brush it with his lips .
My horses have short attention spans , and such a scene should have only lasted a second . But it did n’t . For 15 minutes , the four of us stayed as we were : Rio flapping his lips in the urine , Milagro snooze within foot of me , Red standing over my shoulder joint . The sun was lovesome , the breeze was mellisonant and the birds were singing . I could n’t tear myself away , no matter how much employment I had to do . Thanks to my horses , I was forced to slow down and live in the moment — and call up why I figure out so firmly .
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