Fly-By Danny Boy

Danny made me think of a mime in a box today. Brandy sneaked into the food line up. Brandy, for those of you who don't know her, is my old Appy. She's at least 32 and most likely older. She has to be separated from the herd to get her special ration that's intended to keep weight on her. The others, easy keepers all, certainly don't need any extra weight so I feed them a "treat" of sweet feed twice a day by hand that seems to keep them satisfied. They line up along the fence and I go from one to the other giving them a handful of sweet grain. They show varying degrees of patience and absolutely no semblance of an actual desire to share with their herd mates but I've taught them to stand in their space and out of the horse's next to them...for the most part. Brandy use to stand apart from them during feeding, never daring to even get within view or one of them would come after her baring teeth and chasing her away. She began coming to the fence on the opposite side of the road about a month ago....she is a wise old girl. Not wanting to lose their place in line, the others would leave her alone. Recently, she's started getting braver and braver getting closer until she's actually lined up with the rest of them....or maybe that's sneakier and sneakier since she creeps in so quietly and stands so still seeming to hope the others won't notice her. When she stands beside the other two boys, she keeps her distance and I make the boys keep theirs. Those two usually "mind" me quite well. Danny is another matter. When she takes her place beside him, like she did this morning, he puts back his ears, strains his neck despite the fact that he's not stretching it that far, and with those neck muscles bulging and his lips trembling, he gets within a fraction of an inch of Brandy but he never actually touches her. I truly think that me saying his name is the invisible wall....or if not the actual speaking of his name, the tone I say it in, softly, quietly but with enough expression of authority to get my message across. ;-)