Afraid to Feed the Horses

all the horses are in the meadow right now. That's a herd of 6 -- and are they ever happy to be there together.

The problem is feeding time. Trying to feed a herd is tricky at best, but in my condition it is dangerous.Cordell feeds them in the morning and he has a system worked out that seems to work pretty well for him. But I've tried now for two nights in a row to feed them, even with help, and it is too scary.They mill around and fight with each other. Although none of them would deliberately hurt me, I can easily picture a situation where one of them suddenly moves sideways or backwards and bumps me. Even a bump like that hurts and could do harm. And another phenomenon with feeding the herd is that as they fight with each other and sometimes a stray hoof or set of teeth aimed at somebody else lands on the handler (me). I'm not ready yet to take on this challenge. If I had two good arms I could get a horse with a lead rope and put him in a separate area and go back and get another horse and put him in the same area so that I could feed the two slowest eaters in that smaller area. But I'm not able to lead a horse and open and shut a gate all at the same time. That's a two-handed operation. No matter how I look at it, it's just not a good idea for me to be taking care feedings like this.

I can think of only one solution -- and that is to keep the horses that need grain here at the farm. I'm sorry to do that to them because it is good for them and they are happy out there in the big meadow. But I guess safety first. How about that -- you won't hear me saying that very often. I am humbled by how difficult this recovery is turning out to be. I never want to go through this again.