Our Horses Got Loose Tonight!
Posted by Mikki on Jul 27 2007 at 11:33 pm | Tagged as: General
Talk about an exciting evening! We stayed up late tonight because it’s Friday and we’re night owls. At 11:21 someone pulled into our driveway. Someone coming by unexpectedly that late at night is rarely good news, and this was no exception. It was the father of our horse friends, the Watsons, wondering if we were missing a couple of horses. Bill, who answered the door, said no, of course not. Why would we be missing any horses? “Say…what color are they?” “Black,” replied Mr. Watson. Uh oh. It suddenly occurred to Bill that we had put our goats out in the pasture earlier and when we brought them back through the gate to return them to their pen, we might, just possibly, have forgotten to close the gate.
So Bill came back in to tell me that the police had our horses rounded up down by the road. He ran up to the barn to get their halters while I changed out of my jammies (hey, it was coming up on midnight!) and ran down the road after him. You would not believe the sight that greeted us! About a quarter mile down the road from our house, in our church parking lot, were flashing lights (the police), a half dozen cars, and about a dozen people. As I got closer, a wildlife officer, who had also responded, drove by and said out his window, “Y’all lose some horses?” (Duh!) And there, about 25 yards from the busy highway, were our two fugitive horses, tied to a telephone pole.
Oh, and if all this weren’t embarrassing enough, let me remind you that we live in a small town. In addition to Mr. Watson, there were at least three other people from our church that we know well, in addition to our other neighbor, Mr. Raper, watching from his porch. Ack!
Amusing as this all was - and since it turned out okay, it is really quite amusing - it was also quite a scare. Those horses may have been out for more than two hours. They wandered a good half mile from our house, and ended up right next to a very busy highway. No one but Mr. Watson and Mr. Raper even knew we had horses; I’m not sure how Mr. Watson ended up in the mix, but thank goodness he did, otherwise who knows where Valentine and Moonshine would have ended up? (Do they have a horse “pound?”) And that’s the least scary outcome. Several people there commented on how good-looking our horses are - some less reputable person could have come along and decided they wanted them for their own. And the worst possible scenario, of course, would have been if they actually walked out on the highway and got hit.
Let me tell you, we were thanking the good Lord the whole time we were walking our runaways home. And we probably won’t forget to close that gate from now on.
How scary for the two of you. Have you thought about placing a microchip in each of the animals you have for easy identification? Also, I bet they thought they had gotten away with murder.
Just glad NO ONE was hurt, including them.
Thanks and that seems like a good idea. Maybe we’ll look into that now.
Our horses would have to be BLACK. This happened at 11:30 PM, so they were pretty much invisible. One of the motorists that stopped to help said she almost hit one of them. This could have easily ended in tragedy. I’m also glad no one was hurt - horse or human. We’re thankful there was no property damage as well.
Whew, what an exciting evening!
Wow! Glad nobody was hurt. Maybe you’ll make the local paper.
Oooh, I hope not, Laura! We boogied out of there as fast as we could, fearing that the local reporter was going to show up any minute.
If there is one rule in horsekeeping that should always be followed, it is to never leave a gate unlatched. Even for a minute. Distractions occur too often which make us lose focus. The curious and observant nature of horses (and grass being greener on the other side) will lure them through the open gates. We just had a tragedy in our area when a gate was left open and two horses went onto a very fast road (at night). One or both were hit and one was severely injured, requiring hours of treatment and he may never be sound for riding. No doubt a lawsuit against the facility will be filed. We have “walk throughs” (sometimes called stiles) at our barn which allow a human to pass through and days go by where I don’t need to even open a gate to access the horse. You are so lucky that nobody was injured.
Sal, you are so right. We had put our goats out in a mini-pen in the pasture. We’re leading them in and out by leash, and they are not exactly good on a leash. They kind of drag you out through the gate, not allowing you to stop to latch it. But these days, we’re yanking them to a stop there to latch it. That was too close a call! We never leave the big barn gates open, for even a minute, unless the horses are in their stall. And the other pasture gate, a big one, we even lock for fear of someone coming by and opening it up (it’s not where we can see it from the house).
Boy, I’ll bet that got your adrenaline pumping and made it hard to go to sleep. Glad that everything turned out ok.
Thank you for sharing your harrowing experience with everyone online. It’s a good reminder to double check…and then re-check all gates before walking away from a pasture or barn.
So relieved to hear that both of your hoofed babies are safe, too.
Lisa
I’m so glad that everything turned out ok. You are lucky that someone found them so soon - by morning they could have wandered much further. The microchip idea is probably a good one, I keep thinking about doing that too. As the owner of a horse who lives for the chance to lead everyone on a merry chase (who once actually ran down a busy street between lanes of oncoming traffic - I thought my heart would stop beating), I can tell you that I have learned to latch gates and check knots. Even if I think I’m only going to be a minute…..
Oh, my gosh, Lynda - two lanes of oncoming traffic. Scary!! It sounds like this horse has escaped more than once. Is he (or she) one of those that has learned to open a gate without your help?
Thank you all for your good wishes. We are very, very grateful that they were returned to us unscathed, and glad that a few strands of electric fence were the only casualties.