A few days after our horses got loose, we were talking with some friends and discovered that the little runaway scene the other night did actually cause some property damage. The friends that caught our horses for us had a suspicious break in their electric fence. Now there are other ways this can happen but it’s likely our horses ran into it, probably got the shock of their lives and scooted off, wide-eyed and wide awake. They ended up in the front lawn of the house and that was the beginning of them being captured. It’s a good thing our friend’s cows weren’t in that pasture or it could have been a bigger problem. We, of course, offered to pay for the fence repair and it caused no ill-will but it goes to show you horses getting loose can turn out to be a big deal. At least here in Tennessee property damage caused by loose animals in the responsibility of the animal owner. Even car insurance companies will sue animal owners to recoup damage expenses.
We have learned quite a lesson here. Of course we didn’t let them out intentionally and have always been concerned about leaving a gate open but now we triple check!
I’m glad they didn’t do anymore damage than that. Here in WA the horse owner is reponsible for any damage too.
I have more than one Houidini here so we have to have have double and triple latches on things. I really need to track down those New Zealand horse latches. I think they might work for escape artists now that I’ve seen them a couple of times.
Glad this all worked out well. We live well out in the country but the road by the house has heavy log truck traffic. We are always in fear of this happening to us and one of our horses wandering into the path of one of these hi speed monoliths. By the way, I had been reading your blog for some time and it inspired me to start one of our own. Hope we can do as good with it as you do with yours. Best of luck.
I too am glad it worked out. I’ve horses escape before. One morning while I was still at work, My Misty mare escaped and was barreling up and down the road as people pulled over and waved their arms at her. She became more frightened. And when my husband finally discovered it or should I say someone knocked on the door, he simply went out with a scoop od grain and she calmly followed him back in, just as the police arrived. We got lucky too. Not only did she come away from it without an injury, but because he had her already caught, we weren’t ticketed.