JR in the back and the Bay Girls, Sue and Isabell
We have a new fence. We fenced the horse pasture. We fenced our 4 acre yard. I’m now letting the horses out into the yard where there is really great grass. Sometimes they eat grass right outside the front door. One morning, I slowly woke up to a strange sound. It was Isabel pawing the sidewalk. She was telling me to get up and feed her. Ahhh the rewards of horse life are great.
Until someone opens the gate and leaves it open. Who opened the new gate this morning and left it open!
I woke up this morning and looked outside. I saw JR being agitated on the other side of the lake. Then I saw two tiny brown shapes that looked suspiciously like horses far beyond the horse pasture. Yep…two brown horse shapes…the bay girls-Sue and Isabel.
I drove over there and couldn’t see them in the turf farm (neighbor directly to the west). I looked and looked. Then I looked into the pasture of the diagonal neighbor to the southwest. There they were. In another pasture. To get to the gate of this pasture, I would have to drive 5 miles. There is no road from my house to this neighbor. One of the roads to get there is Highway 58. hmmm Surely I can find where they got into this pasture.
I got out and discovered the neighbor’s barb wire fence is very low to the ground. I found a spot where it was almost lying in the ground. I got my grain bucket and shook it. That elicited excitement from the bay girls. They had to cross a small creek with water in it to get to me.
Isabel came first with Sue the shadow right behind. Isabel jumped the stream and then she hopped over the fence. Sue just stepped over everything. My bay girls were out of the neighbor’s pasture.
I fed the both of them on the ground and then put the halter on Isabel. I ignored Sue the entire time. I don’t want to give her the opportunity to go into her “can’t catch me” routine.
I got into the car and drove back, leading Isabell. She was a trooper. I was able to reach out and pet her most of the way back. Once she got hysterical and ran ahead. I lost the rope. But she stopped and allowed me to get out of the car and get the rope.
We drove back to the gate. I parked the car there. Took the bay girls through and shut the gate. I let Isabel loose, but she stayed right with me as I walked back to the house.
It didn’t take JR long to figure out he had to run across the pasture to get to us. Then we had our breakfast and I left to go to work.
Horses are stress creating creatures!