If you’ve followed this blog for more than approximately 2 seconds, you know that Henry is a total weirdo. You also probably have heard me say that he’s not particularly “normal” when it comes to horsey societal behavior. He’s one of those horses that tends to prefer to have friends from afar – ie he wants to see the other horses but he doesn’t particularly want to interact with them. He’s got that crochety old man “get off my lawn” personality.

So imagine my surprise to see that he appears to have struck up some kind of kinship with the yearling, JB. I’ve caught them playing over the fence too many times to count by now.

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen Henry play with other horses. Scream at them, yes, bite them, yes, chase them, yes, but play with them? And seem to genuinely enjoy it? And LEAVE HIS PILE OF HAY to do it? You could knock me over with a feather. I never would believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

I guess maybe he and JB have a particular connection. They’re both weird. Super duper mega freaking weird. Like I don’t think I can stress enough how weird they both are. None of the other horses really seem to like JB that much (Presto loves to play with him, but I’m not convinced that he particularly enjoys his company otherwise), and in fact most of them seem to find him quite annoying. He’s like the mega-strange little brother that you tolerate because you have to but you also kind of want to strangle. Henry is the most easily- annoyed horse I know, yet for some reason… he’s ok with JB’s particular brand of annoying?

Now I catch them playing almost every day. Granted, they don’t live in the same pasture, so I’m not sure that Henry’s apparent affection for the weird kid would carry over if they spent more time in each other’s direct company. Still though, it seems to have had the effect of softening Henry’s rough edges a bit when it comes to his social interaction in general. He and the older mare are stalled next to each other and I catch them contentedly hanging out, faces mere inches from each other, quite a bit. I’ve even caught Henry playing with Presto over the fence too.

Yeah I dunno I can’t explain that. I have no idea what was even going on there. Presto seemed content to have Henry hold his chin with his teeth?

I even ended up having to move Henry to a different pasture, otherwise he would just stand at the fenceline of the other one (which was of course the only muddy spot on the property) and look forlorn all day. The pasture he’s in now runs lengthwise to theirs as opposed to just sharing an end, so he can stay near them no matter where they wander. He seems happier now having more and closer access to them. It almost makes me want to try turning him out with their group to see if his friendly behavior would carry over and he could be normal for once in his life. I don’t even know what horse this is. Making friends? Enjoying the company of other horses? What??? Tis a Christmas miracle.

Speaking of Christmas, I have a photographer coming out on Friday to do holiday-themed pics of the boys. I’ve never had pro pictures done of them outside of shows, but there was a great deal on holiday mini-sessions that I couldn’t refuse. It’s also possible that I bought antlers for Presto.

I think Presto will just wear his green Kincade halter for his pics (he also has navy leather and black leather?), since it’s festive, but I think I want to put Henry in a bridle. I just have to decide which bridle, since he has, uh… five. Hackamore bridle, side pull bridle, dressage bridle, figure eight bridle, flat hunt bridle.

The hackamore and the sidepull are out for aesthetic reasons, and I think the figure eight might be too busy. That leaves me with the black dressage bridle with black rhinestone browband (like this one, except his is not patent and doesn’t have the flash):

Or his brown flat hunt bridle, like this one:

Thoughts? They will be black background style shots, if that matters. Never done this whole photo shoot thing before!