Loose Horse(s)

I spent the weekend at the farm. Some of you may recall my youthful friend Robbie. He and I decided to forgo the formal Hunt Club trail ride this morning and just ride leisurely around in the farm early in the morning to beat the heat.

Dale took advantage of this by leaving him and me in charge of bringing in the 6 horses that live in field 7, including my Kona, Sully the baby, the master's horse Agua, and various others. We decide it's too hot to fool around too long bringing horses in so in our wisdom we decide to bring them all in on the gator together. Six horses leading off one gator. "Ever done that many on one trip?" I ask Robbie. "There's a first time for everything," he said. I was responsible for Kona and the baby and an unidentified black horse. (Lots of new horses at the farm so this wasn't too surprising).

We set off in some chaos -- Agua had decided he didn't need to be led so we just let him follow the gator. Sully decided he didn't need to be led either but instead of following he charged off in front of the gator. He didn't get very far though because he kept stepping on his lead line and bringing himself temporarily to a complete stop with a look of shock on his baby horse face. Eventually he picked up speed and held his head high to keep the lead line out of his way and vamoosed off in a puff of smoke into a paddock that had its gate open.

Aha! I jump off the Gator and try to steer Kona and the other black horse after Sully to close him in the paddock. But Kona and the black horse really wanted their breakfast so they tried to drag me the other way. We had a three way tug of war contest with my little human arms as one point of a triangle with two big black horses on the other ends. They would both peered at me intently and then turn their humongous heads away from me and I'd fall flat on my face in the dust. (they're strong) I start to grunt and yell. I wonder where Robbie is. He was supposed to be RIGHT THERE ON THE GATOR. Pulling on the horses with my body at a 45 degree angle to the ground, I eventually inch them over close enough to the paddock to shut Sully in. Sully is running madly in lunatic circles. I figure that it the end of that.

I turn back to the barn just in time to see Agua disappear off into the sunset.... I assume Robbie will handle.

I go put Kona in his stall and I think something about his morning feed looks suspicious to me.

I go put the unidentified horse in the aisle and go into the feed room to look at the board and try to figure out who on earth the horse is.

And I notice on the board that Dale has moved Kona to a new stall which means he's in there happily eating someone else's breakfast. Which is no big deal except it means he's not eating HIS breakfast which means he's not eating the medicine he's supposed to get every morning for his underactive pituitary gland (big horse, no pituitary). THIS IS BAD.

So I race back to the other barn and drag Kona away from his full plate of food and put him where he now belongs with his little breakfast and his medicine.

Then I have to go get Sully out of the paddock that I had locked him in. In the few moments I'd been gone dealing with Kona, Sully had managed to remove his halter and lead line from his head entirely. So I tramped all over the paddock looking for it -- in the 90 degree sun -- as he galloped madly around me in giant circles. Little baby horses look so funny galloping. I eventually found it and he eventually galloped to the gate and because he's so little, I was able to literally put my arms around his little baby back and belly and hold on to him while he panted and sweated from running so much. I put his halter back on and give him a carrot. He's not coordinated enough yet to eat a carrot and walk (much less run) at the same time, so this worked pretty well.

As I'm leading the panting Sully back to his stall for his breakfast, I see Agua amble around the side of the barn, totally unattached to anything still and no Robbie in sight. Agua has apparently been going in and out of all the empty stalls eating everyone else's breakfast. And presumably a nice variety of medicine too. He sauntered out of the barn in a full, satisfied way.

Just then, I see Robbie tearing down the driveway in the Gator -- he had been off catching his own horse so that we could ride, the original plan, after all. He sees Aqua patrolling around and sings out, "Now that's funny! I totally forgot about him!"

So once we put Agua in his stall we turn our attention to the mysterious black horse in the aisle waiting to be identified. "Who's this anyway?" I say to Robbie. We look at the horse. "No idea," Robbie says. "Dale ever say anything about a new dark bay coming to the farm?" "Not to me," he says. "Could be anyone, really." We turn away. We look at the board. We come running back out in the aisle. "IT'S MANNY!" we say in unison. Manny -- the horse Robbie hunted for a year and steeplechased on and won the Founder's Cup on. MANNY! We know Manny! We have pictures up the ying yang of me and Dale and Robbie and Manny at various places! We didn't recognize him because he was so bleached out and skinny from being away in a field for the summer.

So all in all, it's a good thing Dale wasn't there. She would want to know why we decided to bring in all six at once, why we decided to let the master's horse wander freely around, why we chased the baby into a paddock and watched him race wildly, why we fed Kona someone else's breakfast, and why we didn't recognize one of our favorite race horses.

Instead, when she got back, all she had to say to us was, "Who left Agua's halter on?"