Happy Birthday Melissa (!) and PSA

The first item on the agenda is that today is Melissa's birthday ! We've got the cake and candles and dinner is taken care of so please join me in wishing her a very happy birthday ! :)

The second item on today's agenda is a farm safety PSA.

Earlier today one of the horses had a minor spook while Melissa was attempting to put his feed bag on. This happens every day, and we know to pay attention and keep a watch out for this particular horse. But in spite of all our knowledge and training, and in spite of doing everything correctly this horse chose to spook and Melissa got hurt. While she's not exactly sure exactly what happened, she's pretty sure that he caught her under the chin with his head and he hit her hard enough to lift her off the ground and knock her out cold for several minutes and when she woke up she had a mouth full of blood though thankfully she still had all her teeth.

Of course all this happened in Lynnville and while this was going on I was out of touch on the bush hog here at home in College Grove.

I understand that horses are basically pets and that (especially) women have a special relationship with them and in many cases they are treated more like kids than animals, etc., etc., etc.. But at the end of the day they are going to act like horses and horses are large, flighty animals that sometimes behave in very unpredictable ways.

Please be safe, please don't turn your back to a horse, especially if he or she is loose, and please do whatever you reasonably need to in order to make the horse respect your space.