FTLComm - Tisdale - May 25, 1999
 
It wasn't that this fellow was rude as much as just preoccupied. I strolled over to where it was standing and tried to strike up a conversation. In the winter there had been some curiousity, but on this encounter after this initial and polite greeting there was indifference. Now I have been working on my interspecies communications skills and know that verbalisations are species specific, so I took some time to get the message from this individual and I was astonished.

The big issue, that is if you are a horse is grass. Nothing complicated here, but the focus and concern of life is on the acquistion and processing of grass. Now this horse demonstrated to me that even though I was friendly and a good conversationalist that really was not in the running with grass. This guy thinks of grass, dreams of grass and spends much of every waking minute consuming the stuff. Of course we have laughingly referred to horses as hay burners for years but think about it. This is a huge animal, just standing around it consumes a massive amount of calories each day and in order to stay alive and keep that big body functioning there is only one thing - - - Grass.

As I watched this being mow with incredible dilligence everything in sight, I noticed that dandellions, flowers stems and greens were as useful as grass and you will notice in the picture the shortness of the grass to be nibbled. With its nose to the ground and a steady pace it constantly removed every blade above two inches. Some how we town and city dwellers have it wrong. This guy and some of his buddies could wolf down a lawn or two before lunch and three or four more in the afternoon. The question I pose is why is he here instead of out on the football field or in some park cleaning up?

Efficient and friendly we have definitely got to think this problem through. On top of the bad planning most of my neighbours bag all their clippings up and they go to the landfill while this poor guy has to nibble and nibble and nibble. Clearly we have a need here to share the resources of this planet more efficiently with each other. Humans seem to want lawns and groomed parks and horses have the mechanism to mow without pushing, or changing oil, or blade sharpening.

Harmony is possible, if we work together.