Organized Chaos

It's always fun feeding the horses on a rainy day. There's something about the drop in barometric pressure that makes all the horses act like 15-year-old high school kids. I opened the pastures to let up the first bunch--Sky, Naysa, Cymba, Lady, Annie, and Tucker. They are the "good" ones, the horses that run up to the barn without a fuss and make their way to their own stalls, no halters required. (Sky will even open her own stall door if it's closed.)

Today was not that day.

I followed Tucker, Annie, and Lady up to the barn, but the rest had not figured out that I had opened the gate. When I got to the barn, Aubrey was waiting. She had recently leased Bingo and had come to ride him. I looked down to the pasture to see Sky, Cymba, and Naysa looking for a way out. "Gate!" I called. "Go to the gate!"
As if they could understand English perfectly, the three horses turned and ran to the gate. They galloped all the way to the barn. When they got there, Sky went right into her stall. (Good girl!) Then Cymba came in and went directly into Naysa's stall.
"Cymba!" I said, and hurried over to Naysa's stall to get him out. He let me lead him with my arm under his neck and my hand on the side of his face.
Once I got him in his stall, Lady came in and promptly went into Naysa's stall. (Must have been the popular stall of the day.) Naysa followed her in and Lady bolted out. You could hear her exclaim "Oh!" But instead of going into her own stall, Lady ran back outside.
At that point I went into an open stall and looked out the window to see Annie grazing by the fountain.
"Annie!" I reprimanded. "Barn!" She looked up as if she was as innocent as a newborn filly. Then she trotted off, right to her stall. (Sometimes you think they understand English.) Tucker came in shortly thereafter. And finally Lady made her way back around to the barn.
I laughed and shook my head. "Chaos," I said to Aubrey.
"It's nice though," she said. "It's organized chaos."