Stella and Millie didn’t show up for dinner on Friday night. I had seen them enough from my office window while I worked during the day to know that they were getting along well now that they shared the front pasture. And they had been standing at their self-appointed post by the gate—the easiest location for food delivery—in the late afternoon when Whiskey and Joshua were ready to go up to the barn for the night. But after we had shared an early dinner with our neighbor Theresa (who makes wonderful company and is so easy to be with), I went out as the shadows were getting long. By the time everyone else had been corralled, fed and watered, and bedded down for the night it was plain to me that our sweet spotted saddle horses were among the missing.I could not imagine where they might have gone. The fence around their pasture is intact, although flimsy in places, and the lot line along the neighbor’s hayfield is lined with not only old barb wire but also rusty field fence. Had the gate been open into Lucy’s pasture, the missing gals would surely have turned up for dinner. Now it was pitch black out and I was tired which meant I’m prone to stumbling and falling.
We have several very good flashlights around, somewhere. After a search I turned up one with an acceptable beam and headed out into the night. I was not eager to trek down the rocky hillside given the conditions, so I pulled the truck down the driveway and parked it in the far corner of the front acreage, with the high beams shining into the woods where I needed to search.
It didn’t take long to find where the mares had busted out. In a spot where the rusty border fencing had been pulled down long ago by a fallen tree, and where the high tensile fencing had never fully recovered after our winter logging fiasco, was a gap large enough for a horse to pass through. Beyond the lot line the grass was trodden into a path that deer likely use and our horses may have used.
A call to the neighbor who manages the field gained me permission to enter the Knowles property in the morning and provided a verbal description of the terrain where I might look. The conversation was quite reassuring to me, the newbie who knows little of the protocol for entering other’s property let alone for how to search for missing animals at night. Relieved that Jim said that I should wait until morning to look on the unfamiliar acres, I hung up my gear for the night. (Sleep did not come easily although I was weary, for I continued to think about the adventures our mares might be having.)
Come morning, as soon as I entered Lucy and Janet’s pasture to head down to the gate leading to the front pasture (from which the spotted horses had escaped) I saw Stella through the tree line. She was in the neighbor’s hayfield, as expected, and looking for me as well. Why she might be looking for her morning flake of hay eluded me because she was standing chest-deep in soon-to-be-mown fresh hay.
I took my time clearing the downed fence before pursuing the mares. Although they had wandered out over the rusted web of wire, I was not about to try to bring them back in over it. As it was, I was able to clear all but the heaviest top wire. It remained stretched across the path a bit about fetlock-height. Not two days earlier I had noticed the heavy wire-cutters I use for fences, considered that they were in an unusual location, and passed on by without moving them. They chose to refrain from reappearing that morning so the horses would simply have to step over the wire. (Later that day I borrowed a pair of bolt cutters from a neighbor to finish the job.)
Crossing into the hayfield, I located both mares not far along the fence line. Stella passed me, heading for home, but Millie allowed me to tie a halter on her. Together we walked back to the opening in companionable silence, then I removed the halter and crossed over the wire without the horses. Oddly enough, almost as soon as I shook the pans of grain I’d brought, both mares eagerly crossed back into their own pasture and settled to the task of eating.
Mending the break with just a couple of loose wires (that might be electrified if I had bothered to make that portion of fence hot), I smiled at the ease with which horses can be contained. They are much easier to manage than the adventuresome goats. After they had finished their grain, both mares cantered uphill to check for the flakes of hay they were due.
Mystery solved. End of story I thought, although I would be asking Jeff to extend the front perimeter fence all the way back along the old rusted wire now that the mares proved the work necessary.
Two days later, when two of Jeff’s brothers were here to help lay down the tubing for the radiant floor heating system going into the workshop-in-progress, I heard Jeff shout that we had a horse out. He had been leaving to cut hay after having dropped off Steve and Tommy, but when I got down to the gate I met him there—leading Millie using one of the halters I had left out on Saturday morning. Some way she had slipped through my poorly-mended fence; at least she had chosen to stay home this time.
Millie’s reward was a day on the grass within the round pen. She appeared less than wholly thrilled, though, as she paced about in the hot sun. In the late afternoon when I had time to investigate, I found that she had knocked down the lower wire and slipped out under the upper wire in her quest for improved grazing. I tightened up both wires without replacing any of the broken plastic braces designed to hold hot wire off of metal posts. Millie was glad to get back to her space with Stella that evening.
Not four days later, though, when I was finishing feeding the animals I again noticed the mares’ hay sitting untouched beside the fence. Irritated, I grabbed gloves and wire cutters and headed down the hill. Stella nickered at me when I got close. Again, a wire had been knocked down and the gals had slipped out under another wire. This time I simply held up the top wire. I did not even cross into the neighbor’s hayfield. The mares knew what to do and ducked under, came home, and hurried uphill to find their dinner.
I spider-webbed some twine between the top and bottom strands where they crossed the lot line. It is not much, but it may encourage the gals to stay at home until the fence goes up. After all, it’s prime haying season and the field next door will likely be cut and baled soon.
For now I’ll keep an eye out a bit more vigilantly.
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