mkevent
Feb. 2, 2009, 01:42 PM
This morning I decide to maybe sleep in a little later after I feed and turnout the horses, so I just put my winter gear over my pjs and go outside. I feed and notice the horses on one side of the barn are riled up about something but it's still dark outside so I can't tell what it is. The mare starts getting pretty excited (she's 20 and lazy, so I know something odd is up) running up and down the fenceline between her pasture and the property next door. There is a huge line of pines between the two properties so I still can't see what's going on. I walk over and in the trees trying to make sweet love to my mare is my neighbors Quarter Horse stallion! This is the second time in 6 months that he's gotten loose and I know the reason-his fencing consists of some sort of cord that is the size and flexibility of an extension cord "reinforced" with intermittently working electric fencing. Frickin great.
I don't consider myself enough of a horseman to handle stallions, especially one ready to go(so to speak) so now what do I do? Run back to barn, get halter, rope and bucket of grain and hope this works. Back to stallion, who by this time has determined that my mare is in heat(mare also wildly confirming this)-there's no way he's gonna let me halter him. He also decides it would be a great idea to pasture breed my mare-never mind that my pvc fence is between them! Sh$t Sh$t Sh$t what to do- this is going south in a hurry. Run into the mare's pasture and decide to halter her and lock her back in the barn. Well, this is the closest chance for a "date" since her last foal 7 years ago(and it was AI, so does that even count as a date?) and she's not letting this hot young stud out of her sight. After much discussion, I finally lock her in the barn. She's now screaming her displeasure at my decision and I still have a loose stud to contend with. I finallly get him haltered(did I mention I don't handle stallions?) and now have to get him back to the neighbors. I can't walk him along the road because the traffic is horrible so I have to bring him through 3 gates on my property to get to the fields to lead him back. He's not too happy that I ruined his romantic interlude but at least he's not acting dangerous. Get him through the fields to the neighbor's, mentally rehearsing what I'm going call her for her poor horsekeeping skills. Get through 2 more gates on her property and decide to put him in a stall in her big center aisle barn because at least I know that is well built. Open the sliding door a bit and it looks like she has some sort of equipment in the aisle- ok, maybe we can walk around it-open the door more...it's a frickin HUGE FIRE TRUCK!!! WTF???!!! Great,just great. Walk through 2 more gates to get to the other barn but it has crappy electric fencing and it looked like another nightmare to get him in by myself so I walk to her front door. Of course, she has a concrete front porch too wide to safely hold the horse and simultaneously ring the doorbell. But then, I have no other option. So now I am straddling the porch, holding a stallion in one hand and trying to ring the doorbell with the other, all the while fully knowing that this horse could spin and I'd be SOL. Luckily, he was well behaved and the neighbor answers the door acting all shocked that her horse got loose-c'mon lady-have you seen your fencing?!! "Oh, the electric fence must not be working"-thanks for that, Captain Obvious-what gave it away? Told her how she REALLY needs better fencing and I walk back to my farm, still thinking at least the stud had a good mind..but God, what would the foal be like-mare evented, stallion did reining. Great- I'd have a small muscle bound (both parents on the more muscled side) horse that could stop and spin on a dime when it refused a fence!!!Geez...
I don't consider myself enough of a horseman to handle stallions, especially one ready to go(so to speak) so now what do I do? Run back to barn, get halter, rope and bucket of grain and hope this works. Back to stallion, who by this time has determined that my mare is in heat(mare also wildly confirming this)-there's no way he's gonna let me halter him. He also decides it would be a great idea to pasture breed my mare-never mind that my pvc fence is between them! Sh$t Sh$t Sh$t what to do- this is going south in a hurry. Run into the mare's pasture and decide to halter her and lock her back in the barn. Well, this is the closest chance for a "date" since her last foal 7 years ago(and it was AI, so does that even count as a date?) and she's not letting this hot young stud out of her sight. After much discussion, I finally lock her in the barn. She's now screaming her displeasure at my decision and I still have a loose stud to contend with. I finallly get him haltered(did I mention I don't handle stallions?) and now have to get him back to the neighbors. I can't walk him along the road because the traffic is horrible so I have to bring him through 3 gates on my property to get to the fields to lead him back. He's not too happy that I ruined his romantic interlude but at least he's not acting dangerous. Get him through the fields to the neighbor's, mentally rehearsing what I'm going call her for her poor horsekeeping skills. Get through 2 more gates on her property and decide to put him in a stall in her big center aisle barn because at least I know that is well built. Open the sliding door a bit and it looks like she has some sort of equipment in the aisle- ok, maybe we can walk around it-open the door more...it's a frickin HUGE FIRE TRUCK!!! WTF???!!! Great,just great. Walk through 2 more gates to get to the other barn but it has crappy electric fencing and it looked like another nightmare to get him in by myself so I walk to her front door. Of course, she has a concrete front porch too wide to safely hold the horse and simultaneously ring the doorbell. But then, I have no other option. So now I am straddling the porch, holding a stallion in one hand and trying to ring the doorbell with the other, all the while fully knowing that this horse could spin and I'd be SOL. Luckily, he was well behaved and the neighbor answers the door acting all shocked that her horse got loose-c'mon lady-have you seen your fencing?!! "Oh, the electric fence must not be working"-thanks for that, Captain Obvious-what gave it away? Told her how she REALLY needs better fencing and I walk back to my farm, still thinking at least the stud had a good mind..but God, what would the foal be like-mare evented, stallion did reining. Great- I'd have a small muscle bound (both parents on the more muscled side) horse that could stop and spin on a dime when it refused a fence!!!Geez...