Beau Geste – It’s Alive!
I’ve never met a horse who didn’t love to eat. Hay is good, but grain is deeelicious. One morning I got an unwelcome surprise when I stuck my nose into my feed bin. My grain was squeaking! Kids may like cereal that says, “Snap, Crackle, Pop”, but I’m not about to eat anything that talks. I looked accusingly at Mom wondering if this was some kind of joke. “What’s the matter Beau?” she asked. Since I didn’t look sick, she shrugged her shoulders and let me go outside.
When it was time for us to return to our stalls, Mom threw a handful of the grain into my bucket and said, “Come on, Beau. I’ve got fresh grain for you”. Occasionally parents use treats to bribe their kids to behave. Of course kids—and horses—should be good without being bribed, but sometimes the end justifies the means. I’m not always cooperative about returning to my stall if Mom tries to catch me, but I can’t resist the allure of grain. When I hear that lovely click, click, click as the grain pours into my bucket, I hotfoot it inside lickety-split.
Since I’d missed my breakfast, I was really looking forward to my dinner. I trotted in and stuck my nose into my feed bin. Yikes! The grain was still talking and it had teeth! I hightailed it out of my stall before Mom could shut the door. Now she was really worried.
She entered my stall to check out the bin. The grain talked to her too and showed her its teeth. She was as horrified as me when she saw that it wasn’t toothy, back-talking grain; it was a mother bat and her baby.
Mom wanted to hightail out of there as fast as me. She thinks some wildlife shouldn’t be seen or heard. I hoped Mom wouldn’t wimp out and leave me in a grain-less, bat-infested stall.
Thankfully, she sucked up her courage and got a shovel. Yelping and quivering, she plucked the bats out of my bin and carried them into the woods far from the barn. When she returned, she locked me in my stall and cleaned my bucket with bleach and water before adding some fresh grain. “Come on, Beau. This grain won’t yell at you or try to bite your nose.” I wanted to believe her, but I’d been traumatized and I wasn’t about to be tricked a third time.
Mom put her hand in the bucket and stirred it around to show me it was safe. Since I am a glutton, I inched my way over and took a nibble. What a relief; my good old silent, toothless feed was back!
Like millions of youngsters, Nancy Di Fabbio was infatuated with horses and never gave up dreaming that one day she’d be riding one of her own. She eventually realized her dreams and got her first horse, followed quickly by her second, third, fourth and finally fifth. Passionate about sharing her love for this amazing animal, she’s written Saddle Up! – And Live Your Dream, a comprehensive how-to for the budding equestrian which will be released this fall. She also writes a children’s column about the exploits of her herd, but the stories are informative, funny and touching enough to appeal to everyone. You can share their adventures on TheExaminerNews.com website under the heading: NEIGH-borhood Tales
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.