Relative Something

Upon arriving home yesterday around noon, I was greeted by this sight:

Hmm. The two chestnuts, Light and Mia, were outside all the fences! I showed up at a very good time, indeed.

The other two horses were still inside the small paddock showing keen interest in the two escapees but not acting overly anxious about the situation. The scene was surprisingly calm given it was an extraordinary circumstance for horses to be roaming free beyond their usual boundaries.

I stopped my car well away from them so I wouldn’t trigger a reason for any change from their calm state.

Having learned a lesson when I became overly anxious the time Swings escaped the fences, I didn’t even approach the horses. Offering a friendly, gentle greeting, I eased my way directly toward the barn, scanning the fences for some clue as to how they had gotten out.

A gate in the larger paddock on the other side of the barn was open and in the moment that caught my eye, Light and Mia showed up behind me, just as I hoped they would. In the split second of trying to decide if I should go shut that gate or stay with the horses at the gate right in front of us, Asher came running up.

Our animal sitter’s boyfriend, Tyler was on duty, and seeing Asher led me to believe Tyler would be showing up right behind him. I’d hardly finished that thought when Tyler did appear. He looked more surprised than I was to discover what was happening.

I sent Tyler to go close that far gate and began the tricky process of opening the gate in front of me to let Light walk back into the paddock while struggling to convince Mix and Swings to not come out. As that exercise was succeeding, I glanced around to see if Mia would immediately follow.

I should be so lucky. It looked like Asher was trying to do some herding of his own, only in the wrong direction with her. Luckily, Mia didn’t overreact to the dog and promptly made her way around, showing interest in getting back in with the other three.

This was no easy feat. Now three horses were wanting to come out the gate I was trying to hold open for Mia and she is the most intimidated by the other three so she had no intention of stepping forward until they got out of the way.

Swings must have felt for me because she saved the day and turned away which helped direct Light and Mix to follow her and create a window of opportunity that Mia accepted. Somehow I pulled off all that without getting stepped on in my non-horse-wrangling shoes.

Tyler learned the fundamental lesson of NEVER leaving a gate unlatched thinking you will get right back to it. There is always a possibility of something distracting you from returning as planned. He had taken out a wheelbarrow of manure and was tending to Asher and thinking about getting laundry and dishes done before my return. All noble goals to keep owners happy with your service, but losing a couple of horses would have tarnished any sparkle of all the other deeds he and Anna are so conscientious about doing.

Thankfully, in this case, the horses helped to keep this from becoming a much bigger problem.

.

.