Horses are designed to graze. They eat small bits of food all day long. Long ago, the horses ate all the grass in their day pasture so Aunt Mel makes certain they always have a supply of hay on which to munch.

Hay can be bought in square bales. They weigh about 75 pounds. Depending on the density of each flake, a square bale may last two days. Aunt Mel stores a weeks supply of square bales in her garage. They take up a lot of room and make a mess.

So usually Aunt Mel buys a big round bale of hay. A round bale is a spiral collection of loose hay that is bound together by string mesh. Round bales weigh about 600 pounds and will last almost 2 weeks. They are left out in the pasture for the horses to eat at will. Round bales are best because the horses can graze all day.

Sounds like a win, win for everyone except for one factor. The horse’s day pasture is a slight hill. Aunt Mel totes the round bale in her red trailer, carefully driving through the pasture to the unloading area behind the well. The ground is just a little flattered and supported by large wooden poles on both sides, the round bale stays in place.

Except when GiGi has an itchy butt. When GiGi needs to scratch her backside, she backs into the round bale, leans back and sways from side to side against the hay. The strands do a sufficient job of itching. But one day she leaned back a little too hard. In her itching zeal, she pushed the bale over the pole. It rolled down hill unraveling until there was no more round bale. Instead, there was a four foot wide, one foot thick layer of hay that went about 25 yards across the pasture. Aunt Mel was so mad!

The horses only ate part of the unraveled hay. Instead they used the hay as a soft bed for napping and as a bathroom area. Most of the hay was wasted just because GiGi had an itchy backside. Next time Aunt Mel bought a round bale, it was supported by much larger wooden poles.