Two draft horses are pastured near here for the summer.
When I saw them, it brought to mind a line from a book I once read where a German soldier was talking about his wife. She has a rump like a brewery horse, he said. A rump you could go to town on.
I tried to track down the quote. I reread Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and it wasn’t there. I wondered about rereading Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum and realized I was being ridiculous.
Surely I can post a few photos of some finely muscled draft horses
without dignifying it with a quote from a famous author.
Surely.
Alice,
Love the horses!
I have a couple of questions to ask you about Wordpress? Can you send me an email so we can start a dialogue?
Allie - in Texas
Other than the cropped tails, they look exactly like the pair loaned to our neighbours for grazing (or lawn-mowing!!) each summer. Why are their tails cut short?
I don’t know… I guessed because they were so much to comb. Alice
Alice and Valley Girl –>the tails are traditionally docked in draft horses to keep them out of the way of the harness, and also because it’s easier to keep the tail clean. They’ve actually amputated the tail between the 3rd and 4th coccygeal vertabrae — it’s not just a hair cut. There are, of course, questions regarding how humane this is (not least because they swish flies with their tails), and so the practice is not as common today….
…and Paula, it looks like a mean trick: these horses are switching their stub compulsively, and the flies don’t budge. Alice