Adventures in babysitting

Remember the movie?


Some days I babysit the barn in exchange for a riding lesson. This Sunday was one of those days.

The morning feeding went smoothly. I took Huey out solo for a woodland ride as I'd planned. The woods were quiet and cool. But our ride took about an hour, not including tacking.
"Whinny?", said Armani as I headed to my car.

"No problem. I'll ride you when I come back in the afternoon."

That afternoon I mixed up dinner. I began bringing inside the horses who need to eat separately. Then I started doling out feed.

"Whinny! WHINNY!" said Armani. I brought him his food and found that he had taken the hot-tape down between his pasture and the next. "Well, that's typical, Armani. Not enough grass where you were?"

Next I went to feed the "boys". They are three bouncy 2-4 year olds, who's brains haven't quite caught up with their size. One of them had decided to go for a swim in the stock tank... again... So I hooked up the hose.

Then I went to fix Armani's pasture. I searched in the grass and found 3 of the 10 or so missing tape snaps. "Armani, what were you thinking? These have tooth marks on them?!" I walked along the fence, untangling the tape and snapping it back up.

"Murble-burble!" said Armani. And of course he loves to help! So with his help, it took twice as long as it should.

Then I headed back to check the boys' water. It wasn't filling. I walked back along the hose - no kinks. Until I got into the barn and found that the isle had become a wading pool. The water was squirting out between two pieces of hose. A stream gurgled down the isle into a stall. The Big-Chestnut was happily paddling his feet in the puddle in his stall and dunking pieces of hay. "Well, I'm glad I could supply your evening entertainment!", I said.

I cleaned everything up and ran water to where it was supposed to be. At 8pm I was headed to my car. Armani reminded me that I'd forgotten to ride him, "WHINNY! WHIIIIIIINY!"