August, 2020
Today was a day for a drive in the country along the backroads of the island of Fidalgo. I ended up spending time at a specific location, which I’ll tell you about in the next blog post. But first I want to share this one small stop I made during the drive.
As always, click on photos to enlarge them. Best to use a larger monitor to view the photos if you have one, not your cell phone or small I-pad. But use what you have and enjoy!
I was just dawdling along in the truck driving down some back roads, dreaming and scheming, wondering what I was going to fix for lunch and then for dinner, when off to my right I spied this …
A horse barn!
I pulled the truck off across the road from the farm (that was the only place where there was room to pull off) … then I grabbed my camera and trotted back across the road, through the ditch, and right up to the electric fence that bordered the field. Let’s see if they have some horses. I think I see one or two.
Oh yes, maybe four or five horses!
Oh yes, scratch that itch!
I watched the horses for a bit (no pun intended, tho I did notice that none of the horses had a bridle and bit on, nor even a halter). In all, there were seven horses at this barn although some of them were inside the barn where it was too dark to get photos from that distance. I then walked back across the road towards the truck.
But … the truck was parked a little ways past the farm above, and on my way walking past the NEXT pasture along the road, these two folks were there to take a look a me. I thought that was fair, since I was looking at them, so I stopped for a little chat.
Ahhh, another good scratch in just the right spot.
He sure kept an eye on me. And yet my big black camera was looking right at him too. Animals must think we humans are so bizarre when we hold a big black box in front of our faces. When I take photos of animals, I try to remember that, especially when I’m close to the animals, like I was here. I tend to let them watch my face and my eyes for a bit before I stick that black box in front of my face. After I took the last photo above, I put the camera away and just stood there with those two horses for awhile. He put his head over the neck of the white horse and huffed and snuffed at me several times. I huffed and snuffed back. I think we are friends now. 🙂
Oh my, Ann, they are beautiful! Thank you for sharing pony pics!
Thank you, Virginia! 🙂
Great barn. Great photos!
Thanks Nebraska! 🙂
More barns and horses please! 🙂
I know, I know! Barns and horses (and maybe boats) are the best! 🙂
Love the horse photos! But I need to ask about your reference to an electric fence. I don’t know that that is. Would you tell me more please?
Good question, Judy Bee. When I was a child, an electric fence was simply a “live” electric wire run around a pasture. The wire was wound around ceramic knobs, and those ceramic knobs were nailed or screwed into fence posts … the ceramic didn’t conduct electricity so the fence posts and the grass you were standing on weren’t “electrified” as it were … just the wire. There wasn’t much amperage running through the wire, but enough that if a horse or cow or human or whatever touched the wire, then that critter would get a good, solid jolt … and learn to stay away from that wire fence. In my experience, there was usually just one wire run around a pasture, for horses the wire would be run about three feet off the ground.
In these modern times, I’ve seen more electric “tape” as opposed to the earlier single strand of wire. I don’t know the advantage of tape, but it does seem more common these days. Maybe the tape stands up to weather better than bare wire does. In the blog post photos above there was white electric tape around every section of pasture. I think you can see it in some of the photos, particularly in the photos of the horses that were at the barn … and you can see a few ceramic knobs too.
The white strands of fencing along the other pasture, with just the two horses, seemed to be just a wire that was coated in white vinyl or some such, but was not electric. I might be wrong … I didn’t touch it to find out. 🙂
REally nice photos Ann. I like the personalization and care that you give to animals … we are animals after all!
Thanks very much, Ben. I do try to keep in mind that I’m just another animal on this planet, no better or more important than any other animal, and that I also have a responsibility. It sure is fun to interact with other animals (including humans) when I take the time to find a connection with them.