Cool Morning

The mornings are cool here at the Tumbleweed Crossing. The sun takes its time slowly coming up and peaking over the Sandia Mountains to the east of us. As it does it looks in my east windows and wakes me up. Of course the dogs help wake me up. I let them out the back to laze a bit in the early warmth of the sun and sometimes I join them, bringing my first cup of coffee with me. I have an older 2-seater glider that sits in the middle of the back yard. It was meant to be shaded by the trees by now, but the trees haven't grown big enough yet. Since it is summer I turn on the water and water the trees, roses, tomatoes, and other plants. They never seem to get enough water in the summer, especially since we haven't had much rain.
Now I hear the hungry whinny of a horse. The dogs hear it, too, and try to remind me that we are supposed to feed the horses. I turn off the water and go through the house, out the front door, and find myself greeted by the whinnies of four anxious equine critters. The dogs do their morning thing of playing and running and barking at the horses, hoping to find a rabbit dumb enough to say out where they can chase it.
I open and enter the hay barn, the smell of rich hay helping to wake me a bit more. I ready four buckets of hay and four smaller buckets of sweet feed and physliam. The physliam is a grain product that is expensive but helps their guts pass the sand that they consume when they throw their hay out of their buckets and eat it off our sandy ground. The expensive stuff is worth it after finding out what it is like to call a vet out on an after-hours-call for a horse with colic.
The horses get more impationt as I start feeding. One bucket to Sundance, one to Star, one to BlackJack, and one to Nita. They all push their heads into the buckets, tossing the grass hay out, looking for alfala hay. But it is summer and they only get fescue and timothy grass hay. Alfala is to rich and puts to much weight on horses that don't get enough exercise. As it is all four are a bit overweight. But hunger has it's way and they all start munching the hay. It is a pleasant sound to hear in the early morning, this sound of the grinding of big equine teeth on stems of dryed grass. Now I pass out the smaller buckets of grain. This is a pleasant treat for each horse. They love the stuff like you or I would candy. Sometimes I add a couple of chunks of carrots or apples. They look up at me with an expression that I believe to be a 'thank you' and then keep eating. I watch them for several minutes. Several small birds come in close to them searching for a stay piece of grain. A cottontail rabbit ventures out from under the hay barn to creep under the belly of a horse and snatch a mouthful of hay. The horses don't seem to mind sharing a bit with the rabbits and birds.
Now my stomach is saying that it would like some food. I make my way to the house with three hungry dogs following. They want feed, too.
So far the morning has been just right.