I took this photo of blind Luna this afternoon, right after we brought her in from pasture with her friend blind Hannah. It was blistering hot here today -- it's still 95 degrees in the shade on the back porch as I post this at 7 p.m. -- and although there's a water tank in each pasture, the horses always like to get a drink from the water tank in their corrals when they first come in.
And Luna is a big drinker. She will hover over that tank for a good 5 to 10 minutes, dipping her mouth into the water several times.
See that salt block on the ground under her neck? Well, yes, we do have big plastic salt block holders, but these two girls must use that salt block for a football, because we can never keep it in their holder. We've never actually seen them kicking it around, but somehow it never stays in the holder for more than a few hours.
Luna is an incredibly bright, alert mare who can be a real character. A few weeks ago Luna was following along behind as Alayne led Hannah in from pasture -- with some of these blind horses they'll follow their buddy all the way in, so we only have to lead one horse -- and when Luna got to the corrals, she suddenly veered off to the left. Alayne watched as Luna walked right up the short slope towards Beauty's Barn, headed straight through the open barn doors, and down the center aisle. She was looking for the trash can in the aisle, which had empty grain bags in it. Luna found it, flipped the lid off, knocked the trash can over, and starting sorting through the trash, looking for left-over bits of grain. This from a horse with no eyes in her head.
(Click on photo for larger image.)
Luna sounds like quite a character...love her sense of humour!!!
Posted by: Nina | July 08, 2007 at 08:20 PM
She may be blind, but her nose sure works fine! I've never met a horse who didn't like to find a good, free meal. Some horses have such wonderful senses of humor. You can almost hear them laughing as they go about their escapades.
Posted by: Janet | July 06, 2007 at 09:23 AM
I like how Luna thinks! Great story! These creatures are amazing! Thanks!
Posted by: Shirley & James | July 05, 2007 at 10:01 PM