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All right, here I am writing at the top of week 4 of my 25 week sabbatical. We are hosting job candidates this week, so will be very busy. Plus I am trying to work on several papers. Plus read journals. Plus get a grip on a few administrative tasks. So, I don't necessarily feel the "rest" or "break" side of my sabbatical, but at least I am working and feeling like a scientist.
What else? Okay, I am sure that I am going to report this in other places, but yesterday was pretty exciting. I went to the stable and put out all the horses and then walked over to the front pasture to have coffee while watching my six. I counted 5. I look and look and then my mind trys to process that Renny is confidently standing on the opposite side of the fence from his girlfriend, calmly chewing shrubs as he stands on a precipice like a mountain goat. My boy has figured out how to scale that steep incline covered in brush and trees. I walked over to him and tried to shove and scoot him down the hill. He just looked at me like I was nattered. "Poor Grams has lost it." So, I took a stick and tickled him. Nothing. And then finally I poked at him with it and he turned and slowly leisurely casually walked down the precipice without any missteps or slips.
So, later that day, Barbie texts me and tells me that when she arrives at the stable, Renny is completely gone. He escaped up the hill again and was calmly eating grass by the round pen while all 5 girls watched over the fenceline at the naughty boy!
I know he's smugly happy with his naughtiness, but now he'll have to stay indoors or for very short turnout until we're able to build a fence alone the ridgeline. Barbie says that he's very brave -- not shrubs, underbrush or steep inclines scare him. He'll never refuse a jump. He will be a great eventing/hunting pony!! I love that little dickens!