Safety Observation

One of the things we are required to do at work is submit "Safety Observations" to the company database so that we may all learn by near-misses. Since my co-workers are all diligently safety-conscious (and, admittedly, since they moved most of the department to a different building four miles away, and there are actually only two of us in my area), spotting "near-misses" is quite tricky.

Luckily, I was provided with a near-miss this morning in the form of a hoof hurtling towards my face at warp speed. Apparently the weather made my horses grumpy, and their slave wasn't quick enough to provide hay bags. I'd finished mucking Roo and Uno's joint shelters and went back to get the hay, and was opening the gate to the shelter when Roo's rear hoof connected with it just next to my hand - about 6" in front of my face, spattering me with mud.

Big mistake.

To be fair, I don't think he was aiming at me - I think it was one of those buck-in-place-to-show-your-room-mate-horse-[Uno]-your-superiority leaps. Either way, however, in terms of superiority:

and this point needed to be made very clearly, so out into the mud went Roo, with a screaming banshee after him (I'm still slightly hoarse, hours later).

The hay bag was removed from the enclosure, Uno was let out to go find something to eat in the barn, while the banshee continued to supervise Roo's exile. I still had to muck ST's shelter, so multi-tasked by doing that while ensuring he stayed out in the mud by occasionally javellining my plastic muck rake in Roo's direction (apparently he didn't know I was omnipotent and able to reach 15 feet) with satisfying results.

The scene of the crime about 15 minutes before it occurred.
I love having a pearly white horse, especially when it snows.

So the term for Roo's foreseeable future will be "move the feet". There will be no Roo anywhere near Lucy unless invited to be there. The Roo's feet will be firmly ushered away from Lucy's presence (sadly for him, out into the slop) every time Lucy needs to be in the shelter, either for mucking purposes or for the hanging of hay bags. Ignoring requests for foot-moving will be met with strict repercussions. And this regime will continue until the

message is firmly re-implanted.