We have a horse named Shot O’ Whiskey — we call him Whiskey for short, which is a little playful. He is very curious and not fearful of much. He’s only three now, so he can be pretty immature. He comes to me and will let me pet him if I stroke his ego with telling him how handsome he is. For the most part, he doesn’t like a lot of people except for my daughter and my husband. He is pretty social with them and our dogs.

The daughter has taken him down to the fairgrounds to track cows a few times. He thought chasing our dogs was fun until he got to chase cows. He hunted them down and kept them right in line, not letting them get away. At one point I thought he might try to bite one, but he just nudged it with his nose. I think he will make an amazing cow horse down the road.

He likes to chase the dogs — but for fun. Cornering them on the front porch is a pastime he loves. He will start to walk away, but pays close attention and when they start to move he spins around real fast and stares them down. They bark and he just stares at them for a while and then starts the game over again.

Back at home, I was feeding the dogs in our front yard and all the horses decided to come see what I had. Of course they bothered the dogs enough that they didn’t want to eat and moved on the porch. The dogs have a hard time with animals bothering them while they eat — especially chickens. To detour the chickens, I usually break out the water hose and “water” the lawn while the dogs eat and it keeps them away. So, I thought I would do the same with the horses.

I picked up the hose and started to turn it on and three of the four horses left the yard, not really wanting a bath that day. The fourth horse was Whiskey. The water coming on didn’t even faze him. He looked at me with that playful look in his eye and ran in front of me. I sprayed him and he reached the other side of the yard and turned around and came through the hose again. He did this a couple of times, getting faster each time. He even held his mouth open like I’ve seen some dogs do running through the stream of water in front of me.

He ran a little closer and a little faster each time he ran by. I laughed at this crazy, fun, water loving horse, but I backed up a little each time until I was on the porch with the dogs. I think this was his plan all along.

When I reached the porch and continued the stream of water for him, he stopped right in front of me. He faced me and I sprayed his chest with the water. He stuck out his tongue and lowered his head to lap the water like a dog. I giggled to which he gave out a whinny as if to laugh that he had won this game by getting me on the porch with the dogs. Then he turned and ran to join the other horses.

I’m guessing it is personalities like Whiskey’s that helped coin the phrase “horsing around.”