Friday, Nov. 29, 2013 – Neighbors Join Us, Lunch with Old Friend

Discovered that at some point yesterday evening, a neighbor moved in. I felt kind of bad because we had put up some tarps around the corrals opposite our horses to provide a windbreak during those cooler nights, and I guess it looked like we had taken over the entire 8-corral structure, because the couple had put their horses across the parking lot in another corral. I apologized and removed the tarps (weather was warm enough not to need them now anyway), and later in the day they moved their horses back over. Our did pretty well with neighbors, though every time food came out, Apollo was compelled to kick at the horse across from him, as a warning. A remnant from back when he was in a herd in a pasture and had to fight for every scrap. They left to go riding, while we unhooked the truck from the RV. I had found and arranged to buy some coastal hay about an hour’s drive away, which happened to coincide with the halfway point between us and an old friend who now lived in Tyler (the Rose Capital, we learned), so we headed first to Howard’s barn, where we picked up 18 nice heavy, wired bales of coastal at the local price of $8 a bale, then headed down to Lake Jackson Seafood, a sparsely decorated place on Main Street, but it had an extensive menu and excellent prices, with large servings, actually more than we needed so we had leftovers to bring home. Had a pleasant get-together with our friend Phil, then headed back to Ennis, a quick stop for diesel and a few staples at Walmart before getting back to camp a half hour before dark. Got the horses settled in, but Apollo seems way too full of energy. I spent a couple of minutes lungeing him, just to calm him down. Obviously the other horses in close proximity, too many oats and not enough exercise are catching up to him. We definitely need to ride tomorrow, though I’m thinking of using his regular bridle with a bit rather than his hackamore, just because I think I may need the extra control! Had a pleasant evening after a busy runaround day.