Yesterday was one of those days where everything had to timed perfectly. Watch the UConn game until 12:30, head to the barn to bring the horses in, leave the barn by 2:00 in order to change for arrival at a jewelry party at 3:00, leave the jewelry party by 4:00 in order to arrive in time for my hockey game at 5:00. Clearly a day where I didn't need horses going through the fence.
Here's what happened. Both Dude and Bestie looked happy outside when I arrived, so I did a quick check of their stalls (done) and water (I cleaned and filled) before preparing to head outside to get them. Jodi was putting Ben back out after a ride, so she offered to help me bring Dude and Bestie in. Perfect.
Since she was walking Ben out, I carried out two flakes of hay for Ben and Jake. Bestie and Dude perked up as soon as they saw me, but seemed fine. Then, as I was dumping Jake's beet pulp into his bin, I don't know if they thought I was taking too darn long coming to get them, or WHAT. But they got agitated. Very agitated. Bestie ran up to where Dude was prancing at his gate and kicked out at him. A real double-barrel with no contact, thank goodness.
She did that at least a couple times and at some point caught the fence. It's just braid with temporary poles so it came down easily. There was a moment when they both sort of got an "Uh oh" expression. Then Dude jumped over the fence on the ground and started running around Bestie's pasture. Jodi and I were both in there at this point, and the horses calmed down pretty quickly and allowed us to get halters on them. No apparent ill effects; I checked the back of Bestie's legs although I didn't think the braid would cut. Everything looked ok.
I think I'm back to putting them out when I get there. The fields are such a mess from the rain that I just can't take the chance of any wild running during the day.
Now for the good horse part. The vet came today; the very patient Dr. Emily who has plied Bestie with treats for years in an attempt to win her over. Bestie is very distrustful of anyone wielding a shot or wormer, and Dude usually puts up a token fight but once backed into a corner is usually ok. But it's a pain when I have to wrestle with them. Emily is great and really takes the time to build trust. It paid off today. She walked right in, gave each of them a treat, then gave them their five-way shot and a wormer without any bad behavior from either horse. After she was done I took each of them out to graze separately, and regardless of who was in and who was out, they were both on their best behavior. Awesome! It was good, no, GREAT, to have an uneventful day after yesterday.
I think I just set a record for slowest entry of a posting ever. I'm on the laptop, on the floor, which seems to be the optimal setting for the teenager still in the house, but certainly not for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment