Gremlins.......Up Close........and Personal

At this point Legs and I are stopped on a downward slope. The horse's croup is about six inches higher than his whither but Legs was comfortably locked into a secure stance.

One of the older boys asked me which direction we were trying to go. With most of the area covered in underbrush, there really weren't many choices. I pointed to the path leading to the right so the kid gave more specific directions to his little clan.As the area in front of me cleared I started to move my horse off to the right.

It was about that time one of the younger boys asked, "Can we pet your horse?" Since it looked like these boys really were trying to listen I decided a short visit would probably be ok. Again I stopped Legs and got him secure before I gave the boys instructions on how to approach my horse.

"You can pet him but move up to him slowly and stay at the front end. Don't make any quick movements."

I swear that little band of boys suddenly turned into a beehive of excitement and sound. They moved as I instructed but their little voices were going ninety miles an hour in a pitch I hadn't heard from them up until now. There was so much talking I could not keep up with the questions being answered.

It was a good thing that one of the older boys was there. The youngsters seemed to be tuned in to his voice. He instructed them to be more quiet and to pay attention to me.

By this time all twelve of these little boys were swarmed around Legs. How they were all managing to find a way to reach in to touch the horse, I'm not sure but every single one of them was petting my horse at the same time. Some were up high and some kind of crouched low to allow room for all of them to fit. Every boy in the group had a least one, if not two, hands running over my horse.

Legs could have cared less about the intensity of this situation. The horse just stood there soaking up all the attention. I could see him intently watching the movement of the boys. Every now and then he'd look off at the movement of a squirrel or a rabbit but Legs didn't make any kind of effort to move.

The only part of him that seemed to be moving at all was his head and his tail. The flies were fierce so that tail was doing it's job. It was a good thing none of those boys was back at that end. That whipping tail can be pretty harsh on a bad fly day.

I was batting at flies on the horse's neck no wanting him to swing around to try to get them himself. The boys quickly picked up on my mission and joined right in in the pursuit of the fine art of fly squishing.


By this time most of the boys were pretty quiet. There were just a couple of them chattering away. I was asked about the usual questions about the horse's name, how old and such.

When asked if Legs was a boy or a girl, I responded that he was a daddy. That thought seemed to intrigue a couple of the boys. One said he thought that daddy horses were supposed to be white horses. Another disagreed saying, "Oh NO! Daddy horses are supposed to be BLACK!"

The next question from there was "How many kids does he have?" Someone in the group answered, "One, does he have one?" When I replied he had closer to thirty, the boys were very impressed. "THIRTY!..................He's had T H I R T Y ! ! ! B A B I E S! ! !..... WOW! He must be good!" Ya gotta love the logic of a nine year old.

I can't help but wonder if Legs wasn't somehow relishing this conversation. These boys were definitely stricken by his manly prowess at this point and Legs seemed to be a bit more aloof at the moment.

About that time the job of fly swatting got overlooked and Legs swung his head to take care of it himself. About four little boys went flying helter skelter diving into the bushes. It was good to know they were paying such close attention even though they really didn't need to move. Legs was watching where he was swinging that head even if he was being bitten by a fly.

To be continued................

A Little Gremlin Farewell