This post was lost in my edit file from April.  Made me smile remembering that day.  The horses and pigs are surprisingly tolerant, even curious towards each other nowadays.

April 2009

I brought home my first pair of piglets last night, Spam and Hamlet. I decided to put them in the barn because of the weather (freezing rain here) to settle in for a few days. While I got the stall across the aisle from the horses stalls ready for them, I left them squealing in the back of my truck.

The horses, having never seen a pig, decided to vacate the premises and ran off to the far end of their winter paddock. Ever curious, they carefully crept back to the barn area just in time for me to haul the first squealing pig to its new home in the barn…pandamonium set in and off they went again to the far end, nearing tripping over each other in their hasty getaway. Well, I waited for them to creep back close (they were afterall hungry and the hay is near the barn) because I am evil and enjoy the spectacle, before hauling the second pig out and bringing it into the barn.

I proceeded with my remaining barn chores and it was pretty evident that the horses would not be coming into the barn under any circumstances despite the weather and insisted that I leave their hay outside. I tried to demonstrate the dimunitive nature of the pigs by picking one up to show the horses, only to finally convince them that these menacing creatures could fly!

I settled for putting some music on to drown out the piglets constant snorting and this did seem to settle the horses down abit, but they still showed no interest in coming inside.

This morning, I was greeted by five horses who appeared ‘hung over’, like college kids that stayed out too late partying on a school night. My thin skinned TB was particularly surley grabbing mouthfuls of hay from the bale I was hauling out for them. Nose pinched, he looked at me accusingly….’I’m wet, I’m cold, where have you been?’

Meanwhile, the piglets were curled up in a corner fast asleep. I left the barn with Bob Marley inappropriately singing the words “Is this love, is this love, is this love that I’m feelin’…”