I thought my life was pretty exciting. It is not the case. I found out just how boring my real life was. It happened at 5:45 AM October 2012 Tues. I was trying to catch Lucky Star in the yard and put him back into the pasture. I’ve been from house to barn and no Lucky! Usually Lucky Star sees my in the yard and silently appears about 6″ from my face. I shook the grain bucket and I caught a glimpse of him in the light of the garage. He was heading the other direction…away from me.
What!
Lucky Star is a “always in my space” kind of horse. He never runs away from me.
Lucky Star is a “always in my space” kind of horse. He never runs away from me.
I hike after him and find him standing by the far fence. I go get him. I saw a big tree branch move on the other side of the fence. What was there? Big tree branches don’t move like that on their own!
By this time all the other horses had finished eating and left the barn lot corral. They disappeared into the inky darkness of a crisp predawn day. A horse whinnied. The whinny didn’t sound like it came from my pasture. It sounded like it came from where the big tree branch moved.
What?
More whinny. I see all my horses but Sue. It’s still dark. I decide Sue must be the whinny source and she is out of the pasture. How could she get out? There are no gates open.
I get into my car and drive out of my yard into the sod farm next door. I drive along the fence row, looking for Sue. Trees are lighted up in my headlights. Nothing else.
No Sue, no nothing.
I return to where Lucky is eating his breakfast .. I worry some more.
I drive out to the turf farm again. Headlights shining into the row of trees lining the fence. Nothing there.
Drive back to my yard, park my car and return to the barn, I see a shape in my yard. It’s shaped like a horse!
It is a horse.! It’s not Sue. I have a loose horse in my yard! I have a lost horse in my yard!
Horse goes over and sniffs noses with Sue and Lucky. She’s in a small dead end place. She is calm and quiet. I go get my halter. I decide that I might live if I walk up to her in the narrow dead end place. She’s calm. She let’s me halter her. My my my!
I look at her and decide I have a short saddlebred horse. Her neck is elegant and stretched up to the sky. She’s wondering what I’m going to do. I’m wondering the same thing.
I lead her to the barn and she follows right along with me.
Thank you, Lord.
She’s in a stall. I give her lots of hay and go on to work.
I called the Cass County Sheriff to report. I call my town police and talk to the Animal Control officer. I report a missing horse. Animal Control officer drove to my house to see the horse and took her picture.
No phone call all day from anyone about the horse. I call to find there has been interest, but picture proved not to be the right horse. (How could there be interest in missing horses? How many missing horses are there in Cass County?)
Go home and feed the horse. She is nice and friendly. I let her out into the corral where the other horses sniff her. She floats across the corral. Beautiful extended trot. Horses sniff and loose interest in her.
I decide to let her out. Since she had been cooped up all day, she had some energy. She galloped up and down the pasture.
I am standing in admiration of her beauty when two young men walk up to me.
Excited, I say, “Are you missing a horse?”
“Yes” We chat a long time. Nice young men. One of them is the owner. We chat about how his horse got out of the boarding place. Boarding Place thought the young man had picked her up and took her somewhere because the halter was missing. When he took a bucket of oats to her this evening, she wasn’t there. She’s missing. He checks with police and gets sent to my house.
We chat about the horse. She is 4 years old. Young man bought her for his self and his daughter. Her name is Wild Fire. He bought her when she was two. Her former owner named her for the wild flower, Wild Fire. (I shudder at the name.)
She had a week and a half of training by an Amish trainer somewhere down south of KC. She’s quarter horse/fox trotter mix. hmmm…I thought she was a short saddlebred. I don’t see QH in her at all. She’s a very elegant horse. I don’t see fox trotter in there, but fox trotters don’t have a set look.
Young owner sez he just bought a truck. Truck broke down and he’s in a bind and needs to sell this horse. Taking her to auction Saturday.
We chat some more. I mention killers and no one is buying horses because of drought hay situation.
We chat about hay and how the boarding place before bought some cheap 3-4 year old hay. Plus the other horses wouldn’t let his horse eat. Boarding owner wanted him to pay when his horse wasn’t getting to eat the inferior hay. He got her out of that situation. She’s been well taken care of and in her present boarding situation for 5 months.
He offered me $50 to keep horse till Saturday. He has to borrow a trailer. We talk about the magic number needed to fix his truck $300.
hmmm. I like this young man. His horse is proof of a well-loved and cared for horse. He is polite and truthful.
The next day,Wednesday, I tell Facebook groups about the horse. What to do to save this horse. Let’s raise $300 and he can keep his horse. I’m doing my best to not own this horse.
Then the fatal comment came on Facebook:
Wild Fire is a Stolen Horse!
What. Wild Fire is a Stolen horse is repeated and no further explanation
A day of fury on Facebook.
I report to police that allegation has been made that she has been stolen.
Fury keeps on coming on Facebook.
That evening, I come home to find the horse has leaped out of my pasture into my neighbor’s pasture. Neighbor has geldings that think they are stallions. Or it could have been Lucky Star exerting some dominance over her and she jumped the fence to get away. She found me because of Lucky Star and now she’s with 5 other geldings. She must be a great jumper! There’s not a scratch on her.
Called neighbor and tried to explain this. She’s at work and will get home in about half an hour.
Darknes comes. Young man, his wife and nearly one year old daughter come with a bucket of oats for their horse.
“Bad news,” I say. “Horse jumped fence and someone alleged she is stolen.”
WHAT!
It’s the former boarding place with the cheap hay and the horses that kept our horse from eating. Boarding place locked horse up for non payment. Owners Stole Their Own Horse. That’s the stolen part. I am furious with the Facebook alleger. Furious! I revel in furious, because it’s been years since I’ve felt furious at anyone except spouse.
We drive 5 miles to see horse. If we had a gate between our pastures, it would be about a block away. She is now in stall in neighbor’s barn.
Neighbor agrees to keep horse for time being.Owner sez it takes 4 grown men to load this horse.
Here’s a horse destined for auction, alleged stolen, wanted for a child less than a year old and needs four grown men to load in a trailer!
I’m busy Saturday and Sunday, but tell them that I’ll walk her back home if I can find a gap in another neighbor’s fence. Neighbor sez she has a shute system rigged up to trailer load a horse.
Monday am comes and I’m up at dawn plus an hour or so…9:00am. I did find a gap in the fence. I need to saw a tree limb so I can walk a horse thru. I call up this neighbor and ask permission to lead a horse thru his yard.
“Sure” he says. He’s noticed that his neighbor has an extra horse.
I go get the horse. All her geldings try to friendly up to me and run away the mare. We have words. I catch the mare. She doesn’t want to leave the pasture. We have words. Geldings decide to run elsewhere and watch the show.
I get mare to leave the pasture. Whew!
We walk about a half mile to my house and I get her into barn stall again.
I go into house and collapse in my recliner.
After I recovered, I called the young man and told him I was buying his horse.
Turns out she is half Morgan, 1/4 qh and 1/4 Arab. That explains her “look” . She is beautiful.
Jenny comes out on that Friday and takes about 15 minutes to load her. She is a quick learner and not really too afraid of the trailer. Jenny loads her in both my trailers. It takes about 1/2 for all this to happen and she is a relaxed loading horse. I get to take over. It takes a few moments for my kind of communication to get through and some coaching from Jenny. She loads. I get her to load in both trailers.
Turns out she is half Morgan, 1/4 qh and 1/4 Arab. That explains her “look” . She is beautiful.
Jenny comes out on that Friday and takes about 15 minutes to load her. She is a quick learner and not really too afraid of the trailer. Jenny loads her in both my trailers. It takes about 1/2 for all this to happen and she is a relaxed loading horse. I get to take over. It takes a few moments for my kind of communication to get through and some coaching from Jenny. She loads. I get her to load in both trailers.
Loading lesson done for life. She can now be transported!
I take her on trailer ride on Saturday to Fair Play. I played with her in the morning and another person played with her in the afternoon. They are hooked on each other. Love is blooming!
Meet Miss America….. Missy…. MissA
