The Doc Days of Summer

The last few days have been filled with extremely Doc-centric activities so I felt I should bring my readers up to speed before he pops up in the headlines of a national newspaper. Unlike Jack and self, Doc likes his days to be filled with lots of excitement and he doesn't really care how or why it arrives in his orbit. His favourite criticism of quiet times is "Borrrrrring". Not original or insightful in any way, but definintely Doc at his pithiest.

He does not care for the sort of trail riding the woman and Molly pursue but he does love something called "showing". Showing consists of large numbers of horses and humans congregating in one spot so the humans can have nervous breakdowns and the horses can show off their paces. Doc and the woman did this sort of nonsense years ago and lately he has been hinting strongly that he would like to do this again. Herself agreed most reluctantly and the two of them have been practicing various movements for weeks now. She even got out the clothing she wore years ago and with the liberal use of axel grease and a shoehorn, managed to get them on her person. Both sets of Doc's apparel, which is called tack, were scrubbed and polished and she even got out his halter with the silver bits on it.

Doc had an absolutely wonderful time and had lots of adventures, all of which he enjoyed. He saw two vehicles with flashing lights and sirens that hauled away injured humans, he met an infant human who invited him to play on the slide and swing set (he was all for it but was unceremoniously dragged away) and he tried various food groups, including something called pretzels. The woman came back looking like an over-ripe aubergine and Doc returned sweaty and tired but very pleased with some bits of ribbon he won. He would like to do this every weekend but the woman said something about hades being iced over first.

Doc was feeling a little melancholy by today and just generally finding home life tedious when a most amazing thing happened. The young lad who delivers our bedding left the gate open! Doc found it first and of course the woman noticed and closed it before we other three could escape. She ran off after him armed with halter, shank and a bag of carrot bribes. Doc travelled through the wheat field in front of the house and made a bee line for the road. The woman was trotting along parallel to him at a distance and swears her legs turned to jelly when he ran up the embankment and between two cars coming from opposite directions. Both managed to miss him.

Doc checked out the new corn at the neighbour's and crossed back to our side when he heard the carrot bag rustling. He was haltered and led back to join us. We gave all sorts of loud comments and advice as the event unfolded and welcomed him back with a chorus of whinnies and brays. The woman looked strangely greyish and sweaty. Quite unattractive. Doc was his usual cheerful self and vows to try to escape again as soon as possible and this time to try the pool of swimming water at the neighbour's. The lad who was responsible for all this excitement has been notified and swears to never let it happen again. We'll see, we'll see. Jack says if he ever escapes it will take more than a bag of carrots to get him out of ninety three acres of wheat. Molly says she'll head for the bright lights of town and I would weigh my options carefully, capture not being one of them.