Steele's Busy Day

Yesterday morning the dogs and I headed out to the barn to feed the horses. d'Arcy, my Border Collie, reached the door first (of course). He stopped dead, did a double take and looked at me. He then backed up. I went to the door and saw Steele in the middle of the aisle reaching up to pull a hay bale off the top of the pile. While Irish watched from his stall.
'Hi' I said
He looked at me. Irish retreated into his stall- 'I had nothing to do with this!'.
'Hi' Steele said. 'I ran out of hay and am hungry'.

Rather than make a fuss about this I decided to ignore it. I went into the tack room and prepared breakfast. Steele watched from the doorway with great interest. I put his feed in his feed bin and he went back into his stall. I then inspected the damage- really there was none. One hay bale strewn everywhere, halters on the floor but no poop or other damage. I don't think that he was out long. I've been racking my brain as to whether I properly latched his door the night before. For the life of me I can't remember.

Later that morning the farrier arrived. We did Steele first. He was pretty good but the flies were stinging his legs and he objected to not being able to stamp. I sprayed him with fly spray to help. Overall it went fine just a couple small corrections. The farrier really likes his feet.

Irish and I are heading to a show this weekend so I was busy getting ready. Steele watched all of it with interest. That evening I used the clippers on Irish. I decided to bring Steele out to introduce him to them as well. When he was standing there I turned them on. His ears swivelled forward and he backed up. I left them on and then slowly brought them towards him about 6 inches. He stiffened and I pulled them away. And what happened next, I love:he walked toward them. He looked at them and I turned them off. I then turned them back on and moved them away. He followed and then put his lips on them. I made sure that he was just feeling the vibration, not the blade. We did this a few time. I then approached his body. He wasn't sure but stood when I asked. I placed the clippers against his body so he could feel the vibration. Within seconds he was relaxed as I rubbed them over his shoulder and neck. I decided to leave it there and turned them off and gave him a good groom.

As I was grooming him I realized that he looked very tired. After all it had been a busy day. So I put him back in his stall and he looked quite happy to go have a nap.

And yes, I made sure I latched it.