And A High Time Was Had By 5

"Hi, this is Animal Control.  Are your horses there?"

This was the call that r-ster got the other morning as she was cleaning stalls, thinking she was ahead of time and would be able to get some things done before afternoon lessons and camp.

"Ummm, let me check....???"

Of course they weren't there, why else would Animal Control call?

The snow pushed down the electric fence ribbon, and curious as they are every time they go into this one particular corner, one of the 5 in the big field discovered the security breach.

JAIL BREAK!!!!!!!!!!

Off the 5 of them went, through the woods and onto a road, stopping traffic and causing a ruckus.  Wearing blankets, which is a dead giveaway that these are not "wild horses".

That and the fact that we don't have "wild horses" here in New England.

By the time Animal Control arrived, 2 had disappeared but Jackson, Tucker and Quinn were still horsing around.

Behind the barn we're at now, there is another good sized barn with a lot of paddocks and it's empty in the winter.  Somehow, someone convinced these 3 to go into one of the paddocks and wait until they could decide what to do with them.

Danny and Rita, on the other hand, were nowhere to be found.

R-ster got there amid flashing lights and feared that one of them must have been hit.  Instead, she was greeted by her own 3 horses and told that the other two were gone.  She figured they went back to their own barn, which they did, so she put them in the barn while she went back to get the other 3.

There wasn't a trailer available for the 3 of them and it's really like 1/4 mile from the barn, so with a police escort, the 3 horses were walked back up the street to their barn.

The fence was put back up.

And everyone was safe and sound.

But not in control of themselves.  By the time I got there for a ride, they were still high as kites and just silly.  They were still in the corner where the fence had been down, eyeballing it in hopes it would magically fall down again.

They were pretending eat  out of the trees.

And when they saw me, they all took off, banging into each other, just being silly.  Pulling each other's halters, running into each other, pawing at the ground and frolicking.

All in 8 inches of snow that had a crust on top and then I'd sink down as I was walking.  It was like walking on the moon.

And Jackson was the leader in all of this, avoiding being caught by me.

For like 10 minutes.

Eventually, he gave in and reluctantly took a peppermint and then we had to walk all the way back to the barn for a ride.  He grumbled the whole way like it was really tough for him to walk through the snow, all the way across the field.  After running through it all afternoon!

The culprits:

Jackson

Tucker

Rita- she's a 2 year old filly and I suspect she was the ring leader on this.  She is turning out to be a very friendly horse, and she's cute, but she can hold her own with her "brothers" and I think there's a little mischievous streak in her.

 Danny

Quinn

If only we could get into their heads, to know what they really think about when they get loose.  They certainly seem like they are having fun, being very bad and running away.  Just like middle schoolers.  And with the security of all 5 of them together, they kept that herd mentality and went as far as they could without being caught.

When I first started riding, Tucker got out of his paddock a few times (at a different barn) but was by himself and that's kind of rare.

Horses will usually stick together and if they do get out, they will usually go to other horses, either those they  know or those they don't, because they don't want to be alone.

Which is why Rita and Danny stayed together to go back and the other 3 went into the paddock that was offered to them, without much resistance.

For large animals that have a lot of power, they really are a bunch of wimps!

But don't tell them.  We don't want them to get the upper hand!

Linking here:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/02/clever-chicks-blog-hop-73-with-three.html#