Category: Farm Life

Sometimes mom lets me out to “mow the lawn” and I get run of the front yard.  I love this time because there’s so many extra things I get to check out.  I can see how handsome I am in car mirrors, hang out in the workshop with my human dad and best of all is the front porch.

There’s SO much stuff on the porch to check out.

Lately I discovered that they keep chicken feed on the porch.  I used to be able to just walk right up like the humans do and dig through the buckets but they put a rope across so now I can’t.  No matter.  I have a long neck and can get to the items from the ground!

Mmmm. Chicken scratch! I can smell the stuff from anywhere.  One night I figured out how to wiggle under the fence and made my way into the breezeway where mom moved the chicken scratch to.  Guess what I found?! A bucket of chicken scratch!  Mom was a bit mad at me because she thought I ran away.  Silly human, you know I want that scratch.

Good morning!  After I finally rested up my new humans let me out to play!   Unfortunately before I was allowed out they put some nasty tasting paste into my mouth which gave me a bit of a milk mustache as I tried to spit it back out.  YUCK, I hope they don’t try to do that again.

The area they lead me to already had a big black horse in it who seemed disinterested in me all together but I didn’t care I wanted to play!   I ran right up to him, arched my neck and grunted a hello.  The other horse barely looked up and said his name was Goliath.   I reared up, bucked around and jumped on his back so happy to have a playmate.  All I got in return was too heels to my side and flatten ears.  Meanie!

No matter, I galloped around the pasture as fast as I could letting my cooped up legs fly.  The area was too small for my liking so I went over to investigate the fence.  Back home I could lean right on it, put my head through it and munch on the grass that looked so tasty on the other side so I stuck my nose out to do the same.  ZAP! It bit me!   Bucking in a circle to show that fence who’s boss I stretched out and touched it again.  ZAP! 3 times I tried and each time fire hit my poor nose.  The fences at this place are no fun.  That grass will just be all green and beautiful on the other side and I’ll never be able to nibble on it.

Life was pretty good here and my new humans were always coming over to brush out my coat, give me treats an take me for walks.  They constantly insisted on touching me all over and picking up my feet.  I didn’t mind much, I always got lots of cookies if I let them do what they wanted.  Humans are so easy to train.

One day a new lady came to the barn.  My human kept saying “good boy”stand”good boy” so I happily picked up all my feet for the new lady and asked for my cookies.  The new lady however started taking out all these extra things and made me hold up my feet longer while she did some magic spells on them.  A few minutes went by, more treats and they walked me around.  WOW, my feet felt different, so much easier to move around without tripping over myself.  I felt great!

When my human put me back out with Goliath I immediately ran over to him jumping and bucking into the air so he could see all 4 feet at once.  He wasn’t amused and told me to go away so I trotted over to the fence and called out to the other horses announcing my new awesome feet.  They seemed much more interested but I got bored after the conversation got all girly talking about different polishes, shoes, ribbons, bows.  Yuck, girls.

 Hello my name is Pete.  I’ve decided to share my adventures with you as I grow up from little colt to a big black stallion.

<– This is me! Well this was me a year ago when I came to live at Dutch Hollow Acres and boy did I have to travel a long ways away from where I was born to get here.

I was born in the state of Missouri on a rural Amish farm so far away from civilization that the farm I called home didn’t even have a house or street number.   Life was good there I lived in a small herd with my mom MVR Black Beauty and my dad was a big stallion named Fritz P and the people there called me Rocket!

I got to live there for a whole year until one day a big truck came and I was asked to climb aboard it rather reluctantly.  At first I didn’t like the trailer much and it moved beneath my feet and was very scary!  After a while it wasn’t so bad.  Every few hours the trailer would stop moving giving me a chance to rest.  People would bring me water and hay so I could keep my belly full.  I was on the trailer a long long time and watched the sun set and rise again 2 times!

Then one night we stopped and I heard new voices.  The back door opened and someone came for me.  I wasn’t sure what was going on and didn’t want to get off the trailer which now felt safe.  2 new faces greeted me in the darkness and one of them took the lead rope from the man.  She gave me a pat and the guy next to her did the same.  They seemed calm and friendly but in the dark I couldn’t see very well and could hear the calls of horses in the distance.

The lady and man lead me down a very long and dark driveway which followed a fence line where lots of other horses came to investigate me. I was very unsure of where I was going and took each step slowly and deliberately until we got to the barn.  The lady lead me to a stall with deep bedding, fresh hay and clean water.  They stayed for a while giving me pets and eventually turned off the lights and let me rest.

When the sun rose so did the tall lady and she tended to all the mysterious voices of other animals I could hear but not see.   She eventually came to me but I was still scared of this new place I was thrust into and so I tried to hide in the corner and get away.  She was calm and brushed my coat with long slow strokes and gave me some grain to eat.

The man came in the barn a while later and he too came in and started brushing and stroking me until my coat shinned so brightly it almost looked blue not black.  I still was unsure of the new place but the people eventually left leaving me alone to get some much needed rest after my long trip.  I slowly drifted off to the sounds of an unfamiliar place……Zzzzz.