Tonight my dear friends Kelley and Ralph came over to took at my horse Mia, whom had suddenly developed pain in her right front foot. I tell you Mia was a rock star for Ralph! Even though it hurt her, she allowed him to test her hooves and examine her, never once acting up. Ralph worked on her front foot finding an abscess, recommended I call our horse vet in the morning, however in the mean time suggested I soak Mia's foot in Epsom salts. It sounded easy enough...
I went out, bought a bucket, a bag of Epsom salts and headed back to the barn to soak the princess' foot. Calmly, she gets out of the stall, and then it goes downhill in a hurry.
Me: "I just need you to put your foot in the bucket of salt water."
Horse: "What?! In that bucket?!"
Me: "Yes, that bucket. Just pick up your foot and put it in the bucket."
The horse dips the tiniest bit of her toe in the bucket, her eyes widen, head and ears go up and then: "OH JESUS! That water touched me!"
"Relax, you gets baths ALL the time. You are not dying...."
"Um, baths with cold water! Not with warm water, and not on my foot!", as she steps backwards dumping the bucket of salt water all over the floor. "Stupid human! See what you did?! You dumped water all over the floor!"
"No, I did NOT spill the water. YOU spilled the water and now instead of warm water you will have to soak your foot in cold water, because we are in a barn and that is ALL we have! Now, put your fecking foot IN the bucket!"
With her best sulking horse face: "Fine. I will put my foot in the bucket, but you could be nicer you know..."
I fill up the bucket with water and salt again, and once again I lift her leg to place her foot in the bucket.Mia looks at me, wide eyed, and with a certainty that death is near: "OH GOD! That water touched my foot AGAIN!"
"Yes and you did not die the first time, so stand still."
"I can't do it! What if I fall into that small bucket of water and DIE?!"
"Um, you will not fall in that bucket and .... SPLASH!" She spills the water everywhere again....
"Mia you have an abscess, you are in pain, and you really need to soak your foot. Put your damn foot IN that bucket!"
This time I put her foot in the bucket with no water and decide I will pour water into the bucket.
"Okay, we are going to go about this different. I will put your foot IN the bucket. You will stand on your foot and I will fill the bucket of water around you."
"Okay, okay.... That sounds like a good idea Human!" She puts her foot in the bucket, I pour the water in and BAM! She once again spills the water all over me and the floor.
"Damn it Mia! What the heck?"
"I got nervous."
"Why?!"
"I have no idea really."
Sigh...
"Lift up your foot."
"Okay. And put it down like this?!" as she steps through the side of the bucket busting it into a million pieces.
"No Mia! Now we don't even have a bucket to put water in!"
"Oops. What shall we do now?"
"Nothing, you win. You can go back to your stall."
"Yea! Will there be cookies?!"
"NO! You do NOT get cookies for this horrible behaviour!"
As she walks back to her stall with her head hung in sadness... "But Human! Why can't I have a cookie? Sniff.. Sniff.."
"Fine you can have a stinkin' cookie. But I am only feeding you because I can't eat you!"
With her little smirky horse smile: "Checkmate!"
Tomorrow, Round 2. I have a sneaking suspicion I won't win then either....
