by Sandra Goodwin

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: March 25, 2009

If you have ever been owned by a pony, a mule or an Arabian horse you would know that animals have a sense of humor.

One day we were in the back pasture stringing some electric wire to keep ours and the neighbor's horses from breaking through the non electric wire fence. Both herds watched closely as we put the insulators on each post and strung the new wire through them. We put up the solar charger and connected the wire. Neither of us humans wanted to touch the wire to see if it was working. As we stood there debating who would get the shock I could not believe my eyes when our Arab mare gave one of the geldings on the other side a very overt come here message. The gelding gladly trotted over to the new fence and reached over to touch her face at which point he got a shock that sent him dancing backwards. The mare tossed her head trotting away with her tail in the air and truly seemed to smile.

I took my mule and mustang mare to our local arena one day to teach my mustang to pony another equine. To pony means riding one animal and leading the other beside or behind you. My mule had plenty of experience being the one led and the one leading. My mustang had never led another equine but we saddled up and I took the mule's lead rope in my hand. Before we could take a single step forward the mule walked in front of my horse and wrapped the rope around her legs. I had to back my horse to get her untangled. I thought that maybe my mule had misunderstood so we tried it again and so did she. After about 4 tries with my horse becoming increasingly frustrated I took a really good look into my mule's eyes. They were literally dancing with mischief. I couldn't help but laugh and and that was all it took. Once I acknowledged she was making a joke and I enjoyed it we made many perfect passes around the arena.

How do you know it's a pony? He bites your butt. Cleaning the stock tank at our place requires that you lean into it with your bum in the air. My pony thinks it's the funniest game to see how many times he can bite me in the behind before I get mad. If someone was watching and laughing it only made things worse. One day after swatting at him a hundred times and having him duck out of the way I grabbed his face and kissed his lips. The look of devilment disappeared from his eyes to be replaced by bliss. To think it took me years to figure out the kiss game.

So, do animals have a sense of humor? Mine certainly do.

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