Scaring the Horses

When the temperature hit 39 and the wind dropped, I went out to irrigate the summer paddock, but for the umpteenth time this summer, no water came out. I donned the bathers and grabbed a watering can to prime the pump. We had deduced that the foot valve that keeps the water in the system was not shutting off properly and water was draining out so the pump couldn’t get to pressure. The 2 litre bottle kept at the pump meant too many trips to the water’s edge, so the watering can was the latest streamlining of the priming process. I dived into the dam first to check that the valve wasn’t obviously clogged; it looked fine so I took the plug out with the newly bought No17 kincrome spanner and refilled the pump and pipe. I shut off the upstream pipe to make sure that it switched off ok when it got to pressure then opened the tap to the horse trough to let the air out. As I walked up to check the flow, middle horse took one look at the white legs and the bathers – stretched across a stomach over-inflated after 2 weeks of Christmas eating – threw his head up, snorted and ran off. I didn’t think I had looked that bad, and had felt very practical wearing the cossie and not having to disrobe at the dam’s edge.