Booby Crusts

This is the hopeful gaze of a horse who wants me to feed her more of her own booby crusts.

I’m guessing that sentence leaves you with many questions. What are booby crusts? How did Kas gain access to her own booby crusts? Why did Kas, a herbivore, choose to consume her booby crusts? I can answer some, but not all of these questions.

I was in her pasture, offering some pets while I waited for the water tank to fill. Kas enjoys a good belly rub, like a 1200 pound dog, and thus I was giving her one. In this instance, she actually lifted her hind leg to give me better belly access and that is when it occurred to me I should clean her udder.

Clean her udder?

Yes, a horse’s mammary apparatus is rather tucked up between its hind legs, which means it tends to gather dirt, sweat and old skin cells resulting in black crusty bits that should be cleared out once in awhile. In seemed as good of a time as any, what with her standing there looped out on belly rub endorphins with her leg dangling in the air, so I stuck my hand in, rummaged around a bit...and pulled out a half dollar size chunk of booby crust.

Kas has always been weird. She is curious, fearless and easily bored by normal horse life and apt to get herself into predicaments in her efforts to “livin things up a bit”. As a weanling she would be come so enraptured by getting her bottom scratched that she would collapse into a pile of legs. As an adult horse, she has all manner of weird cuts and scrapes from exploring her world by sticking her head and legs into places they don’t belong. Just this past fall, she was the one who stuck her head into the midst of bloody, gory chicken butchering to see if she could “help”. And as of today, she is the horse who made a conscious choice to see what her own booby crust tasted like.

Because her ingestion was no accident. I imagine it was like that kid who, after a nostril spelunking expedition, pulls out a big one and after peering at it for a bit, just can’t help but stick it in his mouth to see what it tastes like. Because Kas didn’t just gobble it out of my hand thinking it was a peppermint—Noooo, she sniffed it long and deep before wrapping her lips around it and thoughtfully chewing it. And then afterwards, looked at me expectantly for more.

I have no words and no explanation other than none of this strangeness surprises me when it comes to this mare. 🤷‍♀️