Too Much for Tex

Tex is our resident worrier.  He worries about Brett’s truck, and the horse trailer, and the tie rail, and anything that looks strange — like a wood chipper, or Sage’s agility equipment.  When Sage runs through her agility tunnel, Tex loses his mind.  The agility tunnel is in the arena next to the boys’ pasture.  There is a wide walkway between the pasture and the arena.  The tunnel is located in the middle of the arena.  When I work with Sage, Tex stands in the middle of his pasture, ears pricked, legs ready to spring, and stares at us.

A few months ago, our neighbor got a new dog.  It’s a large dog, I’m thinking Rhodesian ridgeback, and it spends its time running and leaping around in a joyful, bounding way.  Tex worries about the dog.  A lot.  Nobody else cares.  Sure, Kersey and Sage barked at it for a few days when it was new but not anymore.  You can see that the neighbor’s house is not particularly close to Tex’s pasture.

Last Monday was clear and sunny.  There was a nice breeze blowing when Jason, our farrier, arrived to trim and shoe the horses.  Lucy, Pistol and Flash were all dispatched with no drama.  All our horses stand quietly and lift their feet for the farrier; even Tex.  Jason got Tex’s shoes off and was starting to trim when the neighbors came out to play.

See this nice house?  In it lives a tall, burly fireman, his very pretty slender wife, and three small children — all under five.  Oh, and two dogs — a docile lab and that Rhodesian ridgeback that loves to run so much.  There is a trampoline next to the house.  Tex hates it when the little girl jumps on the trampoline.

So, Jason is trimming away.  Tex is standing quietly.  The family comes outside.  The dog starts jumping in joyful circles around his family.  The father and his little blond daughter start flying a kite.    It soars, it dips, it crashes, it soars again... Tex starts losing his mind.  He poops.  He swings right and he swings left.  But, he’s still picking up his feet and then hopping.  Next, dad gets on a dirt bike, with the little girl behind him, and they ride toward our fence line with the kite flying behind them.  The dog is leaping behind them.  Tex poops again.  He stops hopping and he starts spinning.

We moved to the other side of the barn where Tex couldn’t see the neighbors.  He immediately settled down and Jason was able to finish filing Tex’s feet and nailing on his new shoes without getting smashed by a side-stepping, butt-swinging, pooping horse.  Poor Tex.