Monty joins us

Until last Sunday, Monty was living a few miles away from us.  Like our horse, Bree, he was alone.  For the past few years, he hadn't been ridden much, so he was bored and lonely.  His people decided that he would be better off living with us, so he was ridden over and joined our menagerie on a sunny afternoon a week ago.

When Bree saw him coming, she thundered up from the field, mane and tail flying, in a state of great excitement.  Monty was pretty calm, and both horses are friendly, so I didn't think there would be any trouble.  Still it's better to be safe.  I put him in a corral where he and Bree could get acquainted with a fence between them.

Monty's a good-looking bay gelding.  Bree loves the boys and enjoys showing off, so for the first hour or so there was a fair bit of squealing, snorting, and kicking up of the heels.  Then the two of them settled down to graze, but stayed near each other.  When I fed them their hay at dinnertime, I put it up against the fence, and they ate together.

Late the next day, I opened the gate between them.  Bree came running in to see if he had better hay than she did, then they wandered off together as if they were already old friends.  I feel much better about our horse situation now.  It's not fair to keep a herd animal without another of its kind for company.