Walking the Hedge

We need a pagan monastery or seminary or retreat in Canada, how come all those Americans and UKers get them and we don’t? Well folks, I have the land. Come and make it yours! Yep yep. But more on that after Beltaine folks.

 
I am crazy, crazy busy with Beltaine preparations. I spent about 3 hours yesterday up at the grove, moving rather large rocks around. I need a big strapping man or farm-hand to come help with these freaking rocks.
Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to try to pry a big stone out of its resting place with a stick? Very. I almost impaled myself yesterday. The stone was victorious and will not circle round the grove but stay where it is. The bastard.
I decided to make the fire pit in the grove as small as I dare. No sense in encouraging folks to try to build a massive fire in the middle of the forest after all. Plus I figure a smaller pit will be easier to jump. I wouldn’t want to land IN the belfire ouchies!

 
The horses got out the other night as a big storm passed through. I politely asked Taranis and Thor to stop scaring my horses with their thunder and the storm moved on. But not before Morgan scraped her leg in fright. Poor little girls, things are so new and scary to them.
After a lifetime around dogs, its interesting to switch gears and deal with prey animals. You handle a prey animal a lot differently than and hunter or scavenger that’s for sure. These girls are not large dogs!

Fortunately, the whole property is livestock fenced, so even though the girls got out of their pasture, they were still safely on the property. I’m glad I have gotten in the habit of closing the gate at the hiway though. We weren’t doing that before the horses came. As when I went to round up the girls in the morning, there was horse tracks all the way down the drive to the gate and back.
Come morning the girls were waiting by the gate to their pasture, wanting their grain and fresh hay and happily followed me back into their pasture. Then I had to have a look at Morgan’s leg (no easy feat with a barely harness broke yearling) and off to fix the fencing where they broke through.

After their adventure though, Magick seems to have come around. She is a very bossy horse and wants to be lead mare. You gotta watch her as she will bite and kick and charge you if she can. I’ve been swotting up on my horse body language, to better deal with her. But after their night out in the storm, she seemed to decide to try to make a bit of a change. Or maybe I’m doing something better now.
As rather than approaching me with ears back, head high, bum ready to spin and kick, she stood there staring at me for a minute. And I “ignored” her while she did so.
Then I swear I felt something between us shift. She turned so that she was completely facing me (no butt out), put her ears forward and her head down. Then slowly walked towards me in a proper respectful manner. She stopped just short of pressing her nose against my sternum and just stood there, waiting. I slowly raised my hand and let it rest in her vision by her head. Slowly, slowly, she leaned towards it until I was touching the side of her face. Suddenly she relaxed and I then scratched along her jaw line. She leaned into the touch and actually closed her eyes for a moment. Then I walked away from her. I’m lead mare I say when we are done.
But of course, when the next feeding time came around she was back to her old tricks, trying to get me to spill the bucket and pulling the hay from my hands. She got a flick of the rope for that. Back to square one again lol

Related posts:

1. The Way it Goes
2. Camping