Tiny Streams are Terrifying & Fences are Merely Suggestions.

Today I went out to work with Midnight and Merlot. Midnight is an Arabian-cross gelding, about 8 to 10 years old. Merlot is a beautiful white gelding, over 20 years old, and unfortunately has arthritis.

I wanted to see how Midnight was with a halter, since he hasn't been ridden in a while. Well, I got the halter on Midnight with absolutely no trouble and started leading him around the pasture to see how well he cooperated. He was an absolute angel, which was encouraging, so I decided to take him across the little creek that has formed due to recent rains.

He followed me sweetly as we headed to the stream-- and then stopped suddenly in his tracks. I turned around to find him quivering, a look of complete fear in his eyes. I tried to calm him and coax him forward... he took one step towards me, and then started sliding down the mud on the small bank! As he slid down with all four legs braced, he made the most ridiculous sound-- I wish I could describe it! It was utterly hilarious. This giant horse, afraid to cross a

 couple feet of a stream about 6 inches deep!!

As I was dealing with Midnight, I turned around-- only to see the entire herd of goats on the other side of the stream had escaped! They saw me, seeing them, and froze. I turned to deal with Midnight for a minute, turned back around... and all the goats were innocently back in their pasture. Hmmmm... Tricky little guys!

Eventually, I convinced Midnight to cross the stream (with me holding him). We got to the other side and attempted to recover his dignity. I decided that was enough for one day, so I took off the halter and walked away to check the goats. I couldn't tell how they'd gotten out-- they must have jumped their fence-- but I did notice something funny. Midnight was standing at the edge of the water staring at me expectantly.

I went over to him and could easily tell he wasn't going to cross without me. I walked down closer to the water. He walked up to me but didn't go further. So I walked into the middle of the stream. He came up to me again, and at this point I realized he really wasn't going to cross without me. So I crossed all the way, he followed, and as soon as his feet were back on the soil, he bolted like no other, straight back to his pasture buddy Merlot. I was laughing so hard!

On the way back to the barn, I saw the llamas behaving quite ridiculously. I turned to the two Irish Dexter cows, Molly and Bridget, and jokingly said "Well they're silly aren't they?" Molly mooed in agreement.

Midnight waiting for me to cross the stream with him.

Molly & Bridget think the llamas are quite silly.