Oct. 29, 2007 - Cooper
A week or two after Brown Sugar and the calves were moved home, my fil showed up one morning. And he had a young colt, about 6-8 months old with him. Cooper was his name.
At the time, we only had one pen, so Cooper made himself at home in the pen with Brown Sugar and the calves. Cooper was very malnourished. When our neighbor dropped by to trim Cooper's hooves, he told us it would probably take at least 6 months on a high dollar feed to bring him up to par since he was in such bad shape.
But, no. That's not what happened. lol Cooper had to be put on a diet after only 2 months here with us!
Cooper loves Ray. He follows Ray around everywhere he goes when Ray is in the pen. :)
And Lerah is in little girl heaven. She adores Cooper. She's recently taken on the task of feeding Cooper twice a day when we do animal chores. She loves Cooper even though he's stepped on her toes a few times (that's painful!).
On occasion, one of the boys or Ray will take Cooper on a walk. And Cooper can hear the horses down the road a piece where our neighbor lives. And Cooper does his very best to insist that walks go in that direction. :)
Recently we got more cows (more on that in another post) and they live in the same pen as Cooper, a bigger pen we built next to Brown Sugar's pen. Turns out that having only cows as penmates has led Cooper to think that he's a cow. Cooper has begun laying down with the cows on a regular basis instead of doing like horses do and standing most of the time. *giggle*
My intentions as far as Cooper goes are not altruistic. I figure if I have to invest time and money (in feed) in an animal, they must do something to earn their keep. I'd like to train Cooper to pull a buggy so I can ride him. But more importantly, I want to train Cooper to walk in a horse mill that can power an ole timey washing machine. Then Cooper would be providing our homestead with a valuable service (besides his manure, of course).
Comments
