Mustang Saga

June 22, 2006 - Day 33

Last night I just couldn't sleep. Which is weird for me, normally I can fall asleep within 5 minutes no matter what time of day! I was kind of half in and half out of sleep when I heard a horse call out. I recognized Tonka's voice. I've heard him do that in the night before, but was a little worried. Decided to ignore it. Well, once he'd whinnied twice more I decided to go out and check, maybe he somehow got out and was upset that he couldn't get to his buddies. So it's midnight, I'm wearing a purple nightgown, John's canvas coat, and my muck boots, and I head out into the cold darkness. I was really hoping the unrest wasn't caused by a predator nearby, and I almost took my dog out, but if he was loose that sure wouldn't have helped me catch him. So off I went, all alone, with the darkness playing tricks with my eyes. I was getting the creeps. Soxy was there, happy to see me, and I could see Coda, but didn't see Tonka until I got into the pen, and then it was just his ghostly white blaze in the distance, and I wasn't too sure it was him. I called him and after he stared at me for a minute he came on in. There was nothing wrong or out of place at all, that I could see. So there I am, shivering, and Tonka just wants to visit. Then to top it all off when I came back in the front door I scared my poor son and he screamed. I don't know if he saw some strange apparition walking by outside his window and then come in the front door, or if just the door opening scared him. I felt so bad! I hugged him and reassured him, and then back to bed I went, and finally fell asleep like I normally do.

This morning Tonka and I went for a walk up the road again. Same route as yesterday, but farther. He's awesome. Beginning of the walk he was trying to stay behind me, drifting into my space, stuff like that. But by the end of the walk he was relaxed & staying where he should. He actually jumped a little bit sideways for the first time today, because of a culvert and a little pond that must have suddenly made an ugly face at him. No biggie though. We went all the way down to where the road Y's, right by the lumber store. The oiled road was interesting to him, and he's very aware of shadows, like the shadows of telephone poles and such. Changes in the ground bother him a bit. We visited some more garbage cans and mailboxes (what people must think, with me tapping and whapping their mailboxes). At the end of the walk there were 4 horses that really wanted to visit, galloping up to see us. One was a very cute little foal who was just glued to mamas side. Adorable. When we got home I got the mail, waved it at him, he said, "whatever," and we headed down the driveway. I decided to try to kick down some of the bumps in the driveway. He didn't know what to think of that at first, but eventually started grazing, as if to say, "Go ahead and do your silly dance lady, I'm going to eat." I put him up, picked all four feet, and fed them, and that was it for the morning.