Back in 2007, while staying at my ranch in Northeastern New Mexico, I loaded up a pick up truck that I keep in the barn up there with bales of hay. This is a 99 Dodge Ram Truck with a Cummins engine and about 186000 miles on it and it is great for running around the ranch as it is a very tough 4 x 4 and you need it there. As I mentioned once before, we lease the land to grazing herds from Texas who want to bring their cattle to a higher elevation where it is generally cooler and lots of green grass to use as feed. We have had as many a 1000 head of cattle from 3 to 4 different stock owners. We also raise hay on this land. Now you say why hay. Well, hay sells for 19.00 a bale in the State of Florida and that is good money. They send their own flatbeds and load them up and take the hay back to places like Ocala and sell the hay for $23.00 a bundle to their horse customers. The revenues from these enterprises pays for the upkeep of the property. If I were back there, I would take a hard look at expanding production on the hay crop to 500 acres.
So I grabbed about 10 bundles and headed to the Northwest quadrant of the property where we have well and a fairly large trough for the animals to drink. Well, I have a lot of native animals that like to visit occasionally, like mule deer, elk, and wild horses. So I was really going to see if the horses needed some hay to munch on. It took me about 40 minutes to get up there as this is not a paved superhighway. When I got there, there was a herd of about 30 horses lingering around the water tank. They really did not seem afraid of me or the noise of the truck. I started the gasoline engine at the pump and filled the tank with fresh water. When that was completed, they started to amble over to the trough to a fresh drink.
I then went back to the truck and started to drag the bales out of the truck. Then I started to split the bales and spread them over the area. The horses noticing what I was doing, said lunch time and came over to have a snack.
One of the horses, a big male, looked over at me watching me very carefully as I sat on the tail gate of the truck. I think he wanted to eat but he appeared very apprehensive. I waved at him with my hand and said come and get it. He really did not move. I then got up to spread out the food some more and I was walking right in the middle of 8 horses as I spread out the hay. I turned around to walk back to the truck and standing six feet in front of me was the big male. O.K...........Are we in a good mood or am I going to be walked on. So I said in a nice quiet voice: "how are you doing big fella?"... You want some water and hay?" And then I froze in my spot. He stepped very slowly towards me, until we were one foot apart from me to his head.
I said to myself: "this is different. Man survives war to get trampled by horse. Cool." Before I realized what was happening, he leaned forward and put his head on my chest. I was taken completely off guard, and my reaction was to pet his forehead and pet him on his neck. And, I spoke to him very quietly and gently. This went on for what seemed an eternity but was only 40 seconds or so. Then he backed off and rejoined his herd. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I doubt it will every happen again.
I like animals and for all intents and purposes, I get along fairly well with them but not to this extent. I packed up and drove the truck back to our modest little cabin. I told my wife about this and she was amazed. The next day, we drove back up there together, but the herd was gone. I am glad that I had this opportunity and that these horses benefited from my little contribution of water and hay.
I wish that I could be back there today. Perhaps, when I get better, we will have the opportunity to spend more time there.
Ed
