Spent yesterday morning at the horse place. I got to: feed the horses, lead horses from the pasture into their stalls, I got to groom horses (including asking nicely for the horses to give me their hooves so I could clean them), and then I got to muck the stalls. They gave me older and the most docile of horses and still, they often refused to give me their foot. Oh well. This horse: Yuzu, thought her face was itchy and used the entire front of my body as a scratching post rubbing her face up and down and up and down my body. That seemed fun but weird too. I find dogs much more appealing than horses, but maybe I can learn to like horses.
There were lots of volunteers there. The staff are mostly young women (including like 4 Sarahs), but the volunteers were mostly older men. They showed me around the property and where to put things. After the shift was over, at about noon, I sat in the volunteer lounge where there were others gathering for lunch. I packed a lunch because I knew I’d want to eat before I drove 40 minutes home. It was wonderful. Outside, physical labor, nice people, always some work to do – no complaints and now the Wed morning crew is expecting me back. I’m not appropriately dressed, I need overalls and some waterproof muck boots, but you need to volunteer at least 20 hours before they print you up a name tag, so I’ll finish that before I buy any new gear.
