Ramona and Queen

Ramona was one of our first mares here at Elysian Eventing, so of course she has always gotten some special treatment. Since the first day we got her off the trailer, we noticed she’s… how shall I say… picky. Incredibly picky. We’ve tried so many different combinations of feed, but she rarely takes to anything.

On a crisp fall day, I ran out to Starbucks before starting the daily barn routine and grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I carried it around with me for a bit while I put halters on horses and brought them out to their pastures. Carrying it around from stall to stall was slowing down my routine, having to set it down at every stall to put a halter on, picking it up and carrying it while I went to the pasture and back, so I just decided to leave it on the tack box in front of the feed room. I hadn’t really put much thought into it, but when I came back into the barn from the pasture, my latte was missing… It was still pretty early, so I thought maybe I had put it somewhere else and just forgot about it, but after looking around a few minutes, I knew I had left it right there. All of the sudden, Ramona picked her head up in her stall and I saw some whipped cream in her mane… As I got closer, I could smell that overwhelming pumpkin smell and knew I had found the latte thief.

I opened her stall door and found my cup lying on the ground licked clean.

“So you’re picky about all your expensive grains and supplements, but your guilty pleasure is Pumpkin Spice Lattes!?” I said sarcastically. When I was bending down to grab the empty cup, she moved her hoof in front of it, blocking me.

“Really?” I asked her, “It’s empty Ramona. You ate it all.”

She paws at the ground impatiently in response.

“Fine. You can continue licking it clean, but I’m going to be watching you the whole time. Who knows, your new-found love for lattes may lead to you learning you also like to munch on plastic.” I said rolling my eyes.

Once all the horses were in their pastures and the morning routine was done, I went in to look for some pumpkin spice latte-y treats that I could make for Ramona. Within ten minutes, I had found the perfect recipe. I got to work making them as quickly as I could. I ran around the kitchen and the barn’s feed room grabbing the ingredients.

“Okay.. I think I’ve got it all now, 4 cups of whole oats… 1 can of pumpkin… 2 cups of water… 2 teaspoons of baking powder… 1 and ¾ cups of flour… and finally 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.” I mumbled to myself as I added the ingredients into a large bowl. Thirty minutes later, I had a huge batch of pumpkin spice treats for Ramona. I snuck them out to the barn and hid them in the feed room, then I brought Ramona in from the pasture and hooked her up to the cross-ties in the aisle. I brought out two of the treats, holding them behind my back. Her nostrils were going wild, taking in the smell of pumpkin, and her eyes just lit up. She couldn’t contain her excitement, I was so happy to see it!

It’s now a tradition to bring her one with every meal. She’s even started to act stubborn in the pastures and not come to me when called so she can get an extra treat in.

Once her filly Queen arrived, we all wondered whether or not she would inherit her mother’s pumpkin spice latte obsession. Whenever I brought Ramona her meal time treats, I would quietly stand outside the stall, looking for some kind of reaction from Queen. She didn’t seem to have much interest. I even tried to leave an extra treat next to her in the stall, but she really didn’t even get the chance to sniff it, her mom swooped in faster than I have ever seen her move and snatched up the treat. Once this started happening, Queen started to show some more interest in them. She must have thought it was a fun game between her and her mother to race for the treat. The look on Ramona’s face when Queen first took the treat from her was absolutely priceless. After a few days of the "friendly" competition, Ramona reluctantly gave in and shared with her little filly.

Looking back it may have been a slight mistake introducing Queen to the pumpkin spice treats… We’ve now got to deal with two pumpkin spice latte thieves running about, wreaking havoc. No pumpkin spice latte is safe anymore.