Well, this is a not a pre-planned or expected blog, but it was too juicy not to share. My fiance, Mark, and I, were just headed back to the barn, where we are building a new house on the premises. We wanted to scope out the leveling they had done so far. Well, we are riding back on the golf cart, and notice a commotion. A horse is running loose. Get closer. THREE horses are running loose. Get closer, three BABIES, without halters, are running loose. Who are they? None other than Durango's three brothers and sisters/comrades/rivals. Get closer, begin panic on A. How in the WORLD are we going to round up these babies, and B. Where is Durango?
Approach other side of barn and front of the pasture the babies are usually in. There is the gate, wide open as it can be. Turns out our barn help deposited the big alfalfa hay bale in the pasture with the tractor, and forgot to latch the gate behind him? And, there is Durango, still in the pasture, "just chillin'". Horses are galloping all over the property, chaos and panic ensuing everywhere, pasture gate wide open, and there is Durango, casually meandering up to the big alfalfa block in the pasture, without a care in the world. That was just too good not to blog about.
We approach his pasture gate first and close it... not that he was going anywhere. Thankfully, we have perimeter fencing, so while an escape isn't an event of disastrous magnitude, it's still dangerous, as strange horses will fight through the fence, some might go over it, or through it, etc. Today was a more dangerous day in particular, with all the construction equipment out for the house, and the huge pit they dug. We problem solve, and herd the loose babies into an area that is just a driveway with two fences running alongside. We park the golf cart and four wheeler at the end as a barrier. There is a gate leading into one of the pastures on the fenceline, and the objective is to herd them in that gate. There is a grumpy old pregnant TB mare in that pasture, Maui, who I proceed to walk in and remove so that she doesn't beat up the babies if we get them in. Well, the babies start following Maui on the fenceline. Mark suggests we bring her out and see if they will follow her, and follow her on into the gate.
We bring her out, but they don't follow her, instead they run away, remembering all the times she's pinned her ears at them through the fence. So we try the opposite approach.. we lead Maui behind the babies, and use her to help chase the babies into the gate. Mission success, it was actually quite easy with these reasonable babies.
It could have been a whole lot worse, and more difficult, but our plan was successful and we got the babies back in their pasture within 15 minutes. And of course, they trot right over to poor Durango and chase him away from the hay bale. He got his 15 minutes of all-you-can-eat-with-no-harrassment, though, and his antics, or lack there of, turned what would have been an aggravation inducing incident into laughter and amusement that I couldn't wait to get back in here and share. You could literally see the look on his face, like, "screw those guys, now I can eat all by myself!". I wish I had been able to get video of all the galloping horses and chaos, gate wide open and freedom calling, pasture mates loose and gone, and our little freckled friend standing right in the middle of it, munching away, not a care in the world. Unfortunately I did not come equipped with a video camera, or even my camera phone... as it wasn't exactly an expected event!
I'm glad I decided to blog about this kid... he sure is something.
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