Every night, Hap is shut in his stall while he finishes his ration of horse chow. Then I go to the barn and let him out to join the others to eat hay at the hay feeders. I’ve been leaving Orion, with some difficulty, at the gate while I do so. Rion has been doing his best to get through the gate with me since he doesn’t feel I should go anywhere without him.
This evening, I had let Hap out out of his stall and turned out the barn lights when I saw this small dark shape streaking toward me. I had barely identified it as Rion when he turned and dashed in front of Hap, who was joining the others at the feeder. Hap put his head down almost to the ground, and carefully placed his feet so he wouldn’t squash Rion. I called Rion who changed course again and dashed back to me. Rion seemed very proud of his success in joining me, presumably having found a place a very small dog could go under the mesh fence the separates the dog run from the horse field.
Hap has always been quite tolerant of dogs, and I am extremely grateful that he extended his tolerance to Rion tonight. I felt as though my life flashed before my eyes when I saw eight pound Rion on an apparent collision course with an eleven hundred pound horse.
My life flashed before my eyes as I read this…yikes! One of my Appy fillies took exception to someone’s stray Pom and stomped it before my eyes before I could drop her hay and rush to the dog. It was the worst thing I had seen. Thank heavens for Hap’s tolerance.