A poor, dumb animal?

My mum has a pony called Humphrey. She bought him when she lived in the wilds of Scotland, after the people who bought him to do pony trekking decided he was too wild for the job and were going to "send him to the glue factory" as the saying goes.

He now lives in a paddock on the edge of town, with other ponies in neighbouring paddocks that he can socialize with and a nice, warm stable that he can go into when he wants to. No one rides him as my mum thinks it would be cruel.

Well, inspite of advancing years and very bad knees, my mum insists on getting up at the crack of dawn and cycling (yes it runs in the family) up to the field to feed and tend to her baby, but this morning she was not able to, so I got the job - being the only member of the family that she trusts to look after him "properly".

So I stopped off on my way to work, in the wind and rain, to feed Humphrey, clean out his stable and paddock, feed the birds that live in the woods nearby, etc, etc. By the time I had finished I was a wet through and caked with mud (nice sticky clay) with straw and hay sticking out from odd places, and must have looked very sorry for myself. Meanwhile, Humphrey was slowly munching through breakfast, taking a mouthful which he would slowly chew on, while looking around, savouring the odd slice of carrot or apple that gets mixed in with his food. After finishing his main food, he strolled into his stable (remarkably warm and snug considering conditions outside) and started to much on some of the fresh hay that I had put in there. Meanwhile, I climbed onto my bike and set off for work.

You know, for a poor dumb animal, he has got us very well trained...