Quote:
Originally Posted by Seahawk
All comparisons to boat ownership apply...the two happiest days, etc.
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I've also had horses - and boats - and would add another commonality: they will, if you don't have immediate access, end up being largely unused. Boarding a horse, to me anyway, pretty much amounts to having visitation rights with a very social animal. Horses are far more intelligent than most people realize, are highly curious, have personalities all their own and, after hundreds of years of domestication, crave frequent interaction with their human (for lack of a better word) keepers.
When we lived in the foothills (our home was right at 8,000') outside Golden, Colorado the combination of wind and cold could be absolutely brutal. Many times, we'd get home as dusk was upon us, the wind whipping up snowdrifts that made it challenging to get to the upper pasture - and made the gate to the pasture impossible to open. I would often dread fighting my way to our equine and caprine friends so they could be fed - right up until I was greeted by seven beasts that were always happy to see me. I'll forever cherish the memory of being in sub-zero temps, winds raging at 40-60 mph, with a thousand pounds of amazingly warm horse pressed against me on both sides. I certainly didn't cherish the walk to the pasture or back to the house, but the feel and the smell of those moments remain indelibly - and fondly - etched in my mind's senses.
Yes indeed, if you're going to have horses, have horses ... IMHO, of course.
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