LET ME TICKLE YOUR TUMMY

I make no claim to being a horse 'whisperer.'

The one and only horse I have raised to adulthood is a big fat, spoiled brat who rests his head on my shoulder (sounds cute, I know, but do you know how heavy a horse's head is?),  grabs my shirt with his teeth, and refuses to move if he is convinced he has the right-of-way.

But I now have a herd, and am beginning to sort out which ones are rideable and which ones are not... at least, not yet.

So each horse is being individually separated, lunged, sacked, and saddled (if we get this far) to, er, 'grade' them -- to see who I can use for lessons, for leasing... some way to help pay for their feed.

Now, a couple of them were pretty skittish about even a saddle pad going on their back, so I employed an old trick of mine.

I had discovered my own equine prima donna likes being scratched in certain places; one in particular being his obese tummy. It's almost like a dog - if Najale could easily roll over on his back, all four of his hooves would be waving in the air, he enjoys it that much.

Do you know what this means?
So I thought, why not try it on the new horses?

And guess what? It works.

HORSES OBVIOUSLY MUST BE VERY VERY LARGE DOGS IN REALITY.