This time of year we usually feed the horses after sunset. Although we have electricity in the barn, there are no lights between the house and the barn. I know the way so well that it is usually no problem, even on moonless nights, to walk out to the barn and turn the lights on. I actually enjoy the walk, because I can look at the stars.
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\nLast night, I was halfway between the gate to the horse field and the barn when I heard the sound of hoofbeats coming near me at a rapid clip. I can see Rags in the dark: his light colored coat almost glows on its own. Smoke never moves faster than a walk, even when he is going to be fed. However, a mahogany bay like Hap is almost impossible to see, if his white facial blaze doesn’t catch a gleam of light. <\/p>\n
Since the night “Rags ran into the fence”:http:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/archives\/002403.html, I have trusted the night vision of horses a lot less. I started yelling at the horse I couldn’t see. I didn’t want to run to the shelter of the barn: I might be running into Hap’s path, since he was presumably headed to the barn as well. Finally, a little too close for comfort, I saw a shadow passing by a few horse lengths away from me, headed to the barn. I quickly and cautiously followed and turned on the lights. Hap was standing in his stall, doing his trademark impression of a feral Thoroughbred: head high, and nostrils flaring. <\/p>\n
I try never to ignore the internal voice telling me that I just did something stupid while handling them. Last night that small still voice was telling me, This time of year we usually feed the horses after sunset. Although we have electricity in the barn, there are no lights between the house and the barn. I know the way so well that it is usually no problem, even on moonless nights, to walk out to the barn and turn the lights on. … Continue reading Hoofbeats in the Dark<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Npw-b7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stardel.com\/fiveacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When there is no moon, carry a flashlight, dummy!<\/q><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"