Spooked and Loose

This morning when I stepped out to do chores, there was a weird feeling in the air. I can't place it and no one was spooky except for me and Junior. After a year of fumbling around in the dark with a flashlight, you'd think Junior would be used to my antics. But he still spooks when I pull out the flashlight to check on something. Because I never get to do chores in the daylight.


The fog was rolling in so maybe that was it. Or maybe the coyotes were on the property. It's hard to tell the difference in tracks from the dogs versus a coyote. But I doubt they'd be brave enough to come up into the yard. So I have no idea what it was that set me on edge. None of the other horses were spooky or edgy. Just me and Junior.


Yesterday morning when I opened the door, I knew it was going to be a rough day. I wasn't more than two feet away from the front door and I saw Tommy racing from the barn up the hill to the red shed. Then I saw Skippy come racing out of the shadows to chase Tommy. They'd escaped...again. I KNEW when we put them in that pen, that  I should have secured the corral panels. But for some reason I turned an oblivious eye and pretended that they wouldn't try and push the panels out and escape.


They'd been out long enough to devour Junior's hay but not long enough to eat both Mayhem and Rabbit's morning hay. They both knew they were in trouble when I showed up. I was worried that there would be a lot of drama and chasing going on. It was almost 6am and I was going to be late for the paying job if they didn't cooperate AND it was still dark without even a hint of the morning sun yet. But they must have known that their escapade was in bad taste. So they let me coax them into a different pen with a small bucket of grain. Of course there was no halter involved, and I kept the lead rope out of sight. They didn't even want to take more than a mouthful of grain when I offered it after getting them in to the pen. I wonder if they knew they had been naughty.


I have no idea how long they'd been running loose. They could have done a LOT more damage.  Luckily, they didn't run off the property, hadn't gotten in to the hay shed where the hay is (or decided to go after the big rounds), and didn't take down any other fences (or get on the road). So I am super thankful for that.


It always seems that the ponies like to give me a run for my money at least a half dozen times a year. Guess my quota hadn't been reached yet this year.


Hopefully tonight, we can have a quiet night and tomorrow when I step out to do chores, there won't be any loose horses/ponies and nothing to spook Junior (or me).


Welcome back to the working world I guess.