The Universal Law of the Wheelbarrow.

I’ve mentioned the Universal Law of Wheelbarrow Tipping only briefly before.  There are many Horse Logic Laws that come into play in the world of horses, the kind of universal truths that are only encountered when you spend too much time with horses. This is where the nerdy science girl comes out in me. Apologies ;-)

A few variables come into place in this law. The length of time the wheelbarrow is unattended. How full the wheelbarrow is. The length of time the horse is unattended. Other influencing factors are the slope the wheelbarrow is on and the mood of the horse. Also Quantum Physics and Schrödinger's cat come into play as the amount of tipping and spreading of contents is also influenced by an observer i.e. if you can see this happening but you are too far away to stop it, then it is more likely to happen.

Simply put if I am standing across the paddock and Harry and the full wheelbarrow are on the other side of the paddock he is more likely to tip the wheelbarrow if he knows I’m watching but I can’t do anything about it. This can also be put down the perverse sense of humour of my horse of course. Yah Schrödinger had absolutely no need to put a cat in a box. He should have just filled a wheelbarrow and watched a horse.

Here’s a simple graph taking the two most important elements - Time Unattended V  Wheelbarrow Tipping.

Cirque du Soleil Lunging

Can someone please explain to Harry that behaving like one of the Cirque de Soleil acrobats on the end of a line is NOT lunging. That antics and displays are not impressing me, that bouncing off the ground like it’s a trampoline is not funny. That other horses can and do lunge beautifully and it can be helpful to their riders. That lunging is like a dance between a rider and a horse where the horse pays attention to the slightest cue. That what he’s doing at the end of the line is not lunging. *Sigh*

The Pièce de résistance to this particular grey horse is to buck and fart and generally carry on for 10 minutes, followed by producing about 30 seconds of nice work and then just on a horsey whim he turns in,  halts and gives me the horsey equivalent of a look that says TaaDaaa! “Are we finished now?”