Morning Laughter

Mayflower tucked between two friends!

Early in the day, I had seen the mares come into the barn from the hill. Normally they wait there for me to arrive, but by the time I got there this time they weren’t there anymore. I spread their hay, and they still didn’t arrive, so apparently they weren’t close. Before taking a walk to find them, I walked to the stallion pen and fed Asi. On the walk back to the mare paddock I noticed that the mares had decided to come in. The four oldest mares came first and entered the paddock and started working on the hay I had spread. Then I saw yearling Aimee and mare Calista and her foal Mayflower running in. Rather than come into the paddock, though, they went to the waterer on the outside of the paddock.

I completed a short chore, and I saw Aimee come in, but I didn’t see Calista and Mayflower come in. I went to close the gate, pondering a walk to go look for Calista and Mayflower, then Calista appeared and passed me and went in. But where was her baby Mayflower? I started calling as I pulled the gate shut, my anxiety rising as I considered what might have happened to my young foal. As I turned around for one last look at the mares in the paddock before going out to search, I saw Mayflower looking at me from the lineup of mares, as if to say ‘here I am!’ I started laughing really hard. After I acknowledged Mayflower, she turned around and went back to eating hay and I laughed even harder.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2021

There are more stories like this one in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.