The day a foal came to visit

A human foal that is. We had some visitors to Oakfield Farm today. Our farmsitter, Joanne, came to visit with her daughter jackie and 2 year old grand daughter, Marissa. We have a painting on our wall of a horse and buggy and that caught wee Marissa's attention immediately. She fixed her bright eyed gaze on the horse and was entranced. I've seen that look before. I'm also pretty sure that my mother has seen that look.

After a coffee we took Marissa out to see the horses. Steele came up to say hi but was not all that interested. Irish however has a love of children that is wonderful to see. While Marissa clung to me and looked a little nervous he carefully and gently extended his muzzle and waited. She gave him a tentative pat and then pulled away. He blew gently and she patted him again. Within minutes she was down on the ground and chatting away with him. Steele popped in and out to see if there were carrots but when they didn't materialize he lost interest in the human foal.

Marissa grabbed a broom and tried to sweep the aisle. She then spied the hay. The went and grabbed a single stalk and offered it to Irish. He carefully reached down and took it from her. She laughed delightedly and went and got another one. Over and over Marissa would grab a single stalk and Irish would take it.

He was so gentle and never touched her hands. Here you can see that she's holding a stalk between her hands and he's contorting his lips to get the hay:

In the interest of fairness she offered a stalk to Steele. He sniffed it and turned up his nose.

Me, I think he was jealous.