the bucky update

okay, so i got to see him, touch him, love him today. it's the best way to spend a day. and like a knucklehead, i forgot (and i've never, ever, not once forgotten) i had to go to work.

so i spend this wonderful, relaxed, leisurely day with my girl. we're laughing, we're painting things, we're spending time with the horses and i'm spending time like it's the cheapest commodity i've got.

i waited to take the giant horses out, i wanted to see the instructor's technique with the gate. i still let that damn gate swing open, and the poor horse i was leading went in with me, then out, i didn't think through positioning his body on the other side of the gate when i closed it. duh.

but i'm learning. and having fun.

more horses approach the fence rails now as i stroll by, and i say hello. wish them well and continue on my way.

so i turned out the large horse with the instructor leading her young quarter horse, and wander over to bucky's paddock. he's asleep.

mind you, i've never snuck up on anything. i make so much noise. and i was calling him and talking as i approached, but i was up wind, apparently. because he was curled up in a ball (or all folded up, more accurately) with his muzzle on the ground, his nostrils flaring rhythmically, while his ears alternately scanned. and his eyes were closed. he was so sweet, i didn't want to disturb him, so i squatted down and watched him sleep.

for a good five minutes (well before the old legs cramped up) and it's too moist to sit, believe me, i thought about it.

then, bucky opens his eyes, and startles awake because he's never seen me in a squatted position and i'm about twenty feet away from him at the fence post.

once up, he walks right over and proceeds to love on me.

i pick the crap out of his eyes, and scratch his forehead, he loves this, and seems to demand it. then down the sides of his neck, underneath his mane (i love this), and see how caked on the mud is.

his owner hasn't been there in at least three weeks and i'm dying to groom this gorgeous stallion.

meanwhile, he grabs my shirt and wants me to come inside. i resist. he wanders away to eat. so i watch him for a while more, and then leave to watch my girl ride.

she was in the outdoor arena, and it was a gorgeous day.

one particular hawk kept vigil with me the whole time i was out there.

on my birthday, i walked out of the stables to a hawk circling above my car, and two crows chasing him. he seemed to be patiently abiding their abuse, and when i saw him, i stood there watching him until he wafted from view--about five minutes, quite a long stretch of time. and he was straight overhead, not fifty feet up. a gorgeous red tail.

today, a redtail was on a tree perched by the outdoor paddock where i turned out the two ponies, and it flew over past bucky's paddock when i was walking toward that way. it stayed with me until i walked back in and i was grateful.

so i decide to crash my belly dancing class because i think i have the night off, right?

well, it turns out the class got cancelled, which worked in my favor as i was supposed to be at work at the very time the class was to have started, making me only 45 minutes late by the time i got home and got over to work.

i've never had that happen, being so lost in goodness and joy, happiness and peace that i forget, i've got shit to do. namely, work.

but it was good to forget everything today, and when we went to see bucky one last time before we left the stables, the girl who brings him in let us walk with them back. he kept turning his head toward me as i tried to keep up beside them. i kept my hand on his flanks and rubbed him the whole way back to his stall.

wishing he were mine.
but grateful for the time with him.