Five minutes later the phone rang.
It was J. "I just drove in, and guess what's in the yard?" She wouldn't call about loose sheep, and she most likely wouldn't call me for the cows. That left.... yep, the horses.
Someday I'm going to learn
to listen to that little voice when it says,
"Go check the horses!"
to listen to that little voice when it says,
"Go check the horses!"
They were happily eating grass in the yard, and J had the drive gate closed. But she was worried that as soon as they discovered the sheeps' corn buckets and/or the alfalfa bales, they'd start raiding those - not a recipe for healthy horses. And she wasn't confident she could get eight horses back in, in the dark, by herself.
By the time we got there she'd already tried luring them in with a bucket of grain - no dice. They were having a blast. No way were they going to give up that easily.
We parked midway up the drive with the horses in the headlights. Sunny, bless his heart, I caught with my belt around his neck. He went back in with barely a hesitation. Of course once he realized he was in by himself....
The rest were snorty and high on the excitement of being out. People parading around in the dark with halters don't have nearly the appeal of the grass on the other side of the fence. What better opportunity to kick up their heels?
The barest excuse sent them off. They made a lap around the neat rows of round bales into the upper sheep pasture and back - heads snaking, mane flying & tails flagged... I wish it had been light enough to take pictures!
Luckily, they discovered the sheep's corn buckets. That slowed them down! Ooh! Yummmy! They practically left skidmarks.
We caught the three year-olds next. Sunny was happier with company. Then the rest gave up by ones & twos. J manned the gate and we had everyone in in farily short order.
They all seemed pretty pleased with themselves, and no one was any worse the wear - well, except poor T. Foxy stepped on him a couple of times, but no lasting damage done.
Best guess, G didn't fasten the chain on the gate when he filled corn buckets for the sheep - the corn bin sits inside the upper horse lot - and when the horses came up for water, they just shoved the gate open and helped themselves to the nice green lawn. They usually come in at dusk, so if they were on schedule, they wouldn't have been out for long. And none of them had more than a few mouthfuls of corn.
Thankfully, the house is back off the road, and all's well that ends well. But I bet G got an earful when he came home!!
3 comments:
I once had a pony that used to escape all the time, no matter my efforts to keep him in. I would find him miles down the road in a neighbor's yard mowing it! LOL
Ponies are such escape artists! I remember traveling once we spotted a herd of them, grazing near the road. Two of them, with their heads shoved through the fence, had weird collars on. It looked sort of like a harness collar, but with a piece of pipe sticking out at the top and bottom. The pipe pieces hit the fence wires above & below where the ponies were eating. I guess it kept the ponies from just sliding right on through the fence. Pretty clever!
BAD ponies! LOL sounds like a frustrating night... I'm lucky that my BO has that "inner voice" and usually follows it, she just knows stuff it's scary!
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