Alys: Well, did you all enjoy your respective outings today?
Raudi: It was okay.
Hrimmi: Agreed.
Tyra: Agreed.
A: just okay?
R: Just okay.
H: Just okay.
T: I’d say a bit better than okay.
A: How could things have been better?
R: If it had been 30 F warmer and we’d been given the opportunity to lie in the sun.
A: Those days are coming. Look. The light’s coming back. First comes the light then the heat of the sun.
R: You say this every year.
A: And every year I’m right.

The three mares lined up at their stations

H: Let’s hope this is the case this time.
T: Hope is an illusion.
H: Let’s not go there again.
A: Why not?
R: We don’t need another discourse on metaphysics.
H: Now you’re sounding like Tyra.
T: Right now, I have bigger things to contemplate.
H: Contemplate?
R: She means think about.
H: Please simplify for us simpletons.
T: I’m thinking about all those poor animals in Texas – being subjected to cold conditions.
H: What animals? What cold conditions?
T: Texas. It’s a state far away. They had some bad winter weather; the temperature went way below O F.
R: How do you know this?
H: A little bird told her.
R: Not the little bird told her bullshit again.
T: Okay. Listen up. Down in Texas, some animals suddenly had no water.
H: How could they end up without water? I can’t imagine their owners suddenly deciding to cut their supply off.
R: It must not be like here where Pete gets the water from a well, heats it on the stove, brings it down in sled, and fills our buckets.
T: No. The horses drink from troughs that are heated with electricity.
H: What’s electricity
R: You ask Pete. He is up on this kind of thing.
T: Anyhow, a lot of the horses died of dehydration and cold.
H: I don’t understand how they could die from getting cold.
T: The horses there are used to warmer temperatures. We acclimate to it.
R: All except for Tinni here.
Tinni: Alys or Pete put my blanket on me when it gets cold. This is because, being older, I lose heat more rapidly.
H: I guess they didn’t have enough blankets to go around in Texas.
R: You’d think that now the owners will stock up and have a ready supply on hand.
H: You know, it’s hard to say. Human beings aren’t that intelligent.
T: This is because they have a prefrontal cortex. Because of this they have a hard time prioritizing.
H: Alys seems to think that humans having a prefrontal cortex is an asset.
Tinni: Now, now. Alys has been doing well by us. The other day she was very sick. But she still got out and cleaned the pen.
R: And she took you for a walk.
Tinni: Yes, she did.
H: And the rest of us got the day off.
Tinni: You should consider yourselves lucky.
R, T, and H: Near simultaneously: We do!!!

Next: 53. 2/22/21: Still Crazy after all These Years