It has been awhile since our last trip. You have heard about the West Virginia trip, the Blueridge incident and heck… just have been so busy I have not had time to sit down and yap.
A cold, wet and rainy November day… I open the door to the barn and the whole clan starts making noise… whinnying starts to fill the air, and that sound just perks me up. Yeppers, its time to eat. I start handing out feed, ohhhhhh.. they start to move back and forth.. a couple start kicking at their neighbor.
Once all the feed is out and noses in the buckets, I walk around giving everyone a scratch on the head. A few love to hang out of the stall with their heads tilted 45°, chewing in slow motion, with half of the feed falling out their mouths.
I know what they are saying, because Buttercup loves to talk. "MMmmmmm… feeeeeeed… goooood… mmmMMmmm… yuuuuum".
I walk back to the house and gather the bridle and saddle. Today I am going to try something different.
An hour later I bring Buttercup out of the stall, I begin to saddle him up in the isle, the others looking on. Its cold out, a little drizzle… but not bad. Might as well now while he is dry under the saddle. I hop on and we begin to exit the barn. Walking out to field, then around the corner out of sight of everyone. Buttercup starts to hesitate… his ears perked forward, his nostrils start to flare out. Taking deep breaths, then he stops. He looks left… then right.
"Ok.. whats going on? Where is everyone? I don't see the others.. where are they? Hey… Hey… HEY!!!! ".
Ohh great… now the others reply from afar. Buttercup turns around… Uhhhh, I don't think so buddy boy… turn around and lets go. Although he hesitates a bit, he does manage to walk far enough away where we don't hear the others calling out.
We walk for an hour and Buttercup turns his head around to me, "Hey… since we are out, you don't mind if I take you somewhere… do you?".
Naaaaa.. I don't mind. Where do you plan on taking me?
"Sit back and relax… have I ever done you wrong?", Buttercup says.
Well, I never did find out what happened up in the Blueridge with you and Lady. And what about that time you took my wallet? Huh?
"Wallet? Uhhhh… whatever.", Buttercup replies.
We reach the Potomac river and then we take a right, toward the coast. Walking along the river we seem to go on for ever. The temperature starts getting warmer. I knew that it gets warmer around noon, but this is crazy! Its probably near 90 degrees. I take my jacket off. Buttercup starts to go back inland. Walking thru woods and thick vegetation, it almost looks like a rain forest, warm… humid. I look at my watch, its only 10am, only 2 hours since we left.
Suddenly we stop and Buttercup says, "Ok, look straight ahead, do you see that? Huh? DO YOU? ".
Umm… I see a city neighborhood. Whats so big about that? Other than it has tons of barns.
"IT’S THE ICE CREAM MAN!!!", Buttercup yells. "I'll race you?", he says.
Whaaaaa?. But of course, by the time he said that, he reared up and the took off at a gallop. Of course, me… not expecting it… I fall right off. You would think that I would learn to hold on better, but with Buttercup, I have never needed to….. unless he went into his rare frenzies. I could have even predicted this one.
I get up and begin to run after him. I am a bit perturbed. Running on pavement now, I notice there is a weird smell about this place… its… like… a stable smell. Hmmm… ohh well.
I turn the corner where Buttercup went and I stop dead in my tracks. There he is… in line… with 10 other horses. I slowly walk up and the whinny sounds get louder.
I lean against Buttercup… ok my friend… what is going on?
"You have a dollar?", he asks.
No… I don't. You have got to be kidding me! What is going on? Huh? Since when did you come here?
"Well, if you don't have a dollar.. I will have them put it on my tab.", He says.
Eh…. You're ignoring me. Geeesh!! A TAB???? How often do you come here?
"Do you want anything?", Buttercup asks. No.
"Then go over there and sit down.", he says.
Confused, I walk over to the bench and sit down. Thinking to myself… here I am, taking orders from my horse… and I listen. Ohh yeah.. that’s showing him. What am I doing? Supporting his habit.
Buttercup comes walking over and sets his cone in this holder at the end of the bench. He starts to lick it… then lips it all over.
"You wanna lick?", he asks.
Not really.
"Ok, your loss."
Yeah… right. I watch him eat his ice cream, and about 2 minutes later.. I just had to ask.. just haaaaaaad to ask. What flavor is it?
"It’s a textured super-pop with a molasses hard-shell coating. And it has a carrot bit at the end of the cone!!!", he says.
Yeah.. I remember when they put gum-balls at the end of nutty-buddy cones, I think to myself.
So what is this place? I have been to most counties in this state, and I have never seen this place.
"This is Equitown. The only place where horses can get away and enjoy themselves. Never gets dark, you are never alone, and everything is made for us. You know when you get to the barn, and one of us are just roaming around the isle? Well, that is where we almost got caught. Not enough time to get back into the stall and lock the door…. So we play it off.", he says.
Ahhh… hmmm.
"See over there? That’s the alfalfa fields. And over there, near the salt licks… are the 1000 gallon fresh spring water buckets. And over there, Peter Rabbit picks all the carrots for us.
In the Apple orchard, there is a goat that picks the fallen apples, waits for them to ferment… then offers them to horses that are having a hard time. Some get stone cold drunk. Have you ever seen a drunk horse try to trot? HA!!! Funny.", Buttercup says.
So why even come back home? This sounds like heaven.
"Money. Its hard to spend whats not in your wallet. Grain costs here.", he says.
Yeah… right. How about you and I head back home? I'm hungry now.
"Ok.. lets go.", he says.
Buttercup and I start to walk back thru the woods, then to the river. As we walk back, the weather starts getting cold again. Its raining and the watch says 1pm. I suppose if they trotted the whole way, it wouldn't take long at all.
Buttercup, I'm not to impressed about how you dropped me back there and ran off.
"Yeah, Im sorry about that. Its not to often you catch the ice cream man on a Saturday.", he says.
We get back to the barn and the rest of the clan comes over and watches as I take the saddle off. They are all staring at us… they know where we went.
Buttercup does not look them in the eyes at all.
"I want to go in the far pasture", Buttercup says.
Nope… you are going with the rest… I think thay wanna talk to you.
"That’s what I am afraid of.", he says.
Im sure you will get over it.
Buttercup goes back to the field and the others surround him, taking turns sniffing and asking questions.
Sitting on the fence, I just watch them mingle and graze. Makes you wonder about some of those mornings and everyone is so perky and happy. No sleepy eyes, hardly any manure in the stalls. Water buckets are full and they just are not eating much hay.
I wonder how many actually get out and go to Equitown……..
'till next time.. DsT
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