Just say 'No!' to going green!

Max does NOT like garden waste bags. This is a new fact.

After a bit of work in the school this afternoon, riding in his Dually and pretty much letting him have his own run of things, we did our carrot stretches, and then wandered out to Max's field. I had a pear in my pocket as a parting gift.

I watched him drink slimy trough water with relish... This is something I've had to get over. I mind, Max doesn't. And it's not like he hasn't got plenty of clean water in his box, which he's also happy to drink. He won't go into that field without stopping for a drink of slime though, and then giving me a kiss when he's done. Yuck. Not just Max either, all four ponies that share his field do exactly the same thing.

Anyway, after wiping green slime off my cheek, I showed Max the pear and walked on ahead of him further into the field.

Max followed playfully, we stopped and he took a polite bite, and then all of a sudden he hopped up with his fronts, snorted, got big eyed and Arab necked. He started to trot away, then he came back (I was still holding the rest of the pear, after all).

I looked around to see what was troubling him, but could find nothing, until I looked in the next paddock and saw, against the fence, moving provocatively in the gusts of wind, a green garden waste bag, used for recycling... um... garden waste.

"I don't like it, I don't like it!" exclaimed Max, hopping foot to foot. "I HATE it! What is it? Get away from it. No! Go closer!"

I walked towards the bag, and Max followed behind me, all skittish and silly. He shook his head at it and snorted, then quickly ducked his head down for another pear bite, then a quick trot away with his tail up, back in a circle to come and stand with me again, then bravely approach the thing on his own.

"What is this fiendish device, eh? How did it come here?"

Max looked at the two ponies sharing the field with the bag, and saw that they were quite sensibly ignoring it. You could almost see him trying to work it out and determine the level of threat posed.

In the end, he decided the last pear bite was more important, and was content for me to leave him in his field despite the garden bag. He even escorted me back to the gate, and then, euw! had another drink of green slime.

"Mmmm! Fortifying!"