Another "Duke emergency" . . .

or maybe today I should call it "another Duke crime."  The police WERE involved. 

  

When I got home tonight, I was shocked to see that the front gate was locked!  What the heck?  Mark is at work and no one was here working anymore so who on earth would have closed that front gate???  And then I saw DUKE come walking out from behind the van parked over by the garage!  Good Lord!   What the heck was he doing out of the pasture??!

 

I looked over at his paddock but the gate from there out into the front yard was still locked.  Then it occurred to me to look at the double gates that we never use over by the garage.  No one can open those except Mark because he has the key to the padlock on the chain holding them closed.  But sure enough . . .  one of those gates was definitely BROKEN open.   Duke, Duke, Duke . . . 

 

 

Look at the size of those screws that fasten those gates to those horrendous posts.  It looks like he just pushed hard enough against them to pull those screws right out of there.  Now THAT was really frightening! 

   

Well I put on his halter and led him back into his paddock and locked him in there, then I came inside to begin soaking beet pulp for their dinner.  But then I heard the dogs throwing fits and when I looked out, there was a truck parked outside the locked front gate. 

 

I went out there, and it was Shelley, our next-door neighbor.  He said when he drove out this morning he saw Duke grazing out in the front yard and saw that the front gate was open, but he figured he was tied out there so he didn't stop.  But later on when he came home, he found Duke over in HIS yard!!  Now, let me tell you that he has a yard that he keeps absolutely PERFECT.  They even play golf on that place.  Well that's probably not going to happen this spring, that's for sure.  It's going to take him a while to level the place out again after the giant hoof prints Duke left all OVER the place there in that super-wet ground!   (His place floods even worse than ours does when the canal overflows so his ground is REALLY soft.  Not good.)
 

Below are some hoof prints here at our place where he walked along next to the stepping stones we have going out to the barn from the house.  But since he actually RAN over at Shelley's place, I'm sure the hoof prints over there are even deeper.

 

 



 

 

Look at the size of those screw holes!



While I was talking to Shelley, he happened to mention (ahem) that "someone" called the police about a loose horse.  He said though that by the time the police came, there was a fairly large group of people out there and when they started over toward Duke, he took off and raced back over to our house and the police then closed and locked that front gate. 

  

Well, I can't tell you how relieved I am that he didn't get hit by a car -- or for that matter, that he didn't cause anyone else to get hurt trying not to hit HIM!!!

 

Oh - and he also pulled the rope out that ran between the garage and the outside fence to keep Lizzie away from that area.  That screw ring is way smaller than the one holding up that gate though, so I guess I shouldn't be the least bit surprised about that, should I?  Sigh.

 

I'll tell you what, I think it would be much safer if Mark could add an electric wire to ALL the fences.  We bought Duke from a place up in north Louisiana where he was separated from lots of race horses with just a SINGLE electric wire.  So adding an electric wire or two to the vinyl strip fence (and the GATES) would actually be sufficient to convince Duke that he should not try to escape . . . AGAIN!!  

 

Gees!

 

But in the meantime, until Mark adds those additional electric wires, I'm going to buy more chain and put a couple  chains around the post AND the gate on every gate so that even if Duke manages to break the gate hinge, the gate will STILL be attached to the post - no matter what.  (I hope!)