Dog Days and Horse Sense

Late August is a very uninspiring time, it seems. It's that peculiar transition time that isn't quite in sync with seasonal change. The weather tends to be hot and the heat feels worse because it's gone on for so long. Everything looks tired. The transitions that occur mostly seem institutional like the beginning of the school year or Labor Day. Here in Mimbres we're getting our second spring, usually nicer than the first if it's been a good monsoon cycle. The uplands are green with new grasses, flowering native plants and the remaining cottonwoods along this stretch of river are still in full leaf with a only a little yellowing here and there. It's the peak of the insect season. Yesterday, Bonner, our 3 year old mustang stallion kicked down a door and got out of the barn where he's been confined with an injury. If you know anything about horses you're probably thinking we're idiots for having such an animal. Leastwise, that's what I would think if it weren't me. Bonner is pretty amazing, he's quieter and better behaved than our geldings. He came that way straight from the BLM adoption program. This particular "auction" was held over the Internet. At 9 mo's he was shipped to us from Colorado, although the Herd Management area his sire and dam come from is in Nevada. He was born in a holding facility and must have had positive contact with humans because he was and is the easiest horse I've ever worked with. He's not a stallion for breeding purposes and would have been gelded but for medical reasons. We're lucky he's so mellow. The door he kicked out didn't require much effort to open. He didn't run off or act stupid with the horses on the other side of the fence. I walked up to him, put on his halter and off he went to a different stall while the door was fixed. This morning I walked him down to the pasture and put him in a training pen we set up a while back, where he contentedly ate the new growth, schmoozing with his buddies who were turned out. He didn't fuss when I took him back to the barn. His 23 year old buddy came up the back way to be with him and now both horses are snoozing in adjacent stalls. Bonner's need for an escapade was a lesson of sorts. Sometime's you just have to kick a little for things to change. I could use a little of that right now, tired as I am of summer and the day in, day out routine. That's when I get homesick for California and all it's distractions. We limit the amount of driving we do because of the cost of gas. It's a 50 mile round trip to Silver City for groceries and by the end of the month there's no room in the budget for "joyriding", let alone impulse shopping. Life out here feels so much closer to the bone than any place else I've ever been. Our values have changed drastically with this move . It hasn't been an easy adjustment, especially during these dog days. That's why I'm sure those grim faces in really old photos have little to do with holding still for the camera. Photos: Bonner at nine months at the holding facilityand 2 years last summer in Mimbres.