Last Sunday, we had someone jump off the road and plow down the corner post to one of our pastures. I get a phone call around 7:30 in the morning, about the time I am starting to get dressed and start feeding. It’s my neighbor, she has three horses in a yard across the street from her. 

“Ok, Thanks, I’ll be down there in a few minutes”, I told her. I look out the window, and my truck is still gone, my daughter had borrowed it the night before to go out with some friends. Oh great! Okay, guess I’ll just have to use the lawn mower then, I think to myself. 

I called Nathan at work, just to let him know what is going on. I try to tell him to wait there until I can get a better accessment of the situation, and whether or not I will need him to come home to help me. 

There is a light mist on this morning, so I bundle up, put my cap on, and head up to the barn. Threw some halter and lead lines in the trailer for the lawn  mower, grab a couple of feed buckets with some grain, and down the road I head.

As I’m getting to the yard where our horses were happily grazing away, here comes Nathan. I turn the mower around, and start heading back to the house. I give a shout out to the horses, their feed call, they all lift their heads and, just as pretty as you please, start heading home. Now, mind you, the road is still a little busy with morning traffic, so I had Nathan get in his truck and block off the far side of the driveway so that no cars come down while we are heading the horses home. 

Down the road in a nice little running walk, three horses with their heads bobbing, and the 4-beat on the road in the early morning mist was just totally awesome! I could not help but smile at myself as I head the girls home.  As we get to the driveway, two turn in, and head for the barn. Oh great! I didn’t block off the barn aisle, our hay is down and they are going to make a mess! Well, no time to worry about them now, gotta get this third one in! 

Clutch completely bypassed the driveway, and went up the fence line in our neighbors yard. Since Nathan is home, and he is the one that can catch any horse at any time (or so it seems), I let him handle her, after I hand him a bucket of feed. After just a few minutes of coxing, loving and offering feed, Clutch comes to him and he is able to get the lead line on her. 

We get her tied up, while Nathan gets the tools and some wire to fix the fence, and I round up the other two. Lady is an easy catch, she loves attention, and will come to you at any given time. And since both her and Molly are just standing at the corner of the fence that connects the other two pastures where all the horses are, I get Clutch and lead her in first. Then I catch up Lady, and walk her back into her field. Now comes the next fun one,, Molly. 

Molly can be a real pain. She is very insecure, and does not want any human contact if she can get away with it. Even with a bucket of grain, she is not an easy catch. I set her bucket down, and step back a couple of steps, waiting for her to relax. As she relaxes, I move a little closer. Nathan is still fixing the fence when this process starts. He’s done before I have her caught. 

He slowly walks up to her, I back off, as she looks like she is ready to bolt in fear. Within minutes, he’s got her on line, and just smiles. I give him a kiss for thanks, and walk Molly into the field. She is a good girl once on line, but still very unsure. 

All were brought back without any real drama outside the property, which is always our biggest fear! What really ticks me off about the whole thing, is that whoever took the corner out, did not even bother to leave us some kind of note, or anything. And appereantly, they weren’t hurt, nobody else around to see it happen, so they are getting off scot-free! If one of the horses had been hit, or if someone had  hit one of them, we would have been liable. We would not have had a way to defend ourselves just because some jerk (and I’m sure he was drunk) doesn’t know when to stay off the road!

P.S. ~ My daughter came home late that morning, both her and the truck were fine, but she knew I was ticked and hid in her room the rest of the day (of course, the hang over she had probably was a big part of that). But, she knew she had pushed one of Mom’s buttons, and at 23, she is learning to stay away until I calm down lol