Mrs. Penn said she understood, that I’d just been awakened from a night with little sleep due to the boys. She was right about that, but still, I certainly had no reason to take it out on the woman who’d been so kind to me. And I told her that, too. Then I begged their pardon and fled out the back, eager to see how Frey had weathered the night alone.
My stallion came running the moment I reached the door. Then when I opened it, he practically ran me over in his eagerness to greet me. My pampered pet was beside himself, and even though he was being careful around me, for the first time, I was really, really insecure about being barefoot near him since his rears and hoof ground-stabbings were so prominent.
“Calm down, Big Guy,” I warned him. “You want me to turn around and go back inside? I don’t have my boots on, Frey. It would hurt even worse if you stepped on me right now.”
His ears did their flipflop, and, except for his frantic nickerings, begging for reassurance, he subsided somewhat. I encircled his neck with my arms and gave him a big hug and a kiss right on his muzzle. He loved that.
Together we walked to the shed. I unbolted the door and reached in for a flake of hay, only I found that I had to untwine it. Frey didn’t want to wait. He nuzzled my back and tried to push his way inside, eager for companionship, as much as for food.
“Stop that, Frey. Give me a moment here.”
It wasn’t easy dealing with a horse that could topple me over with a hard push, but I managed to break a single flake free, then I exited, refastened the door, and tossed the hay over on a grassy spot, slightly away from me.
Frey froze. His head swung towards the hay, then back at me again. Then again more head swings. He pawed the ground. “Go ahead and eat it,” I said, which left him free to move away from me. He still remained uneasy, tearing a bite from the flake, then returning to my side with a worried nicker.
I reassured him each time with a pat and a slight push away. He gave a snort, then, trotted back to the hay, where he diligently dug in. I chuckled, but I still had water to refill before I could go inside to get my mug of coffee!