Torri called around five this afternoon and said, "Where's Duke?" OMG. My heart just dropped. She'd gone over to feed her horses and he wasn't around anywhere so she called me to check. I jumped in the truck and headed over there, having absolutely no idea what to do to find him. Torri had already walked the fence line and didn't see any breaks in the fence anywhere. But even if he'd gone through the fence somewhere I was sure if he was all right he would have still been there at the gate at 5 waiting to be fed.
But he wasn't.
I called the Sheriff, and they said no one had called about a loose horse. I was so scared. I was afraid he'd either been stolen, or that he had gotten into the back pasture and gotten stuck or hurt himself out there in the woods somewhere where we would never be able to find him. Al has a hundred and fifty acres or so of solid woods that gradually become swamp that drains into a huge lake. Deer hunters go deep into those woods on their four-wheelers during deer season, but right now it's so wet back there that no one would be able to go back there in any kind of vehicle. So many horrible scenarios went through my head.
Finally, as we were walking from the barn toward Al's house, Torri caught sight of someone across the field in the distance leading a horse down the road. Yep. It turned out it was Duke. From what the woman who was leading him said, she first saw him race by her window around noon. She found out later that another woman caught him and put him in her paddock with her horse for a little while, but when Duke kicked at her horse she turned him out again instead of reporting a loose horse! Grrr!
Since at that time we didn't know yet how he had gotten loose, I had to lead him home by way of the road -- about a mile! Whew! And as we walked down the road, I saw more than one pile of horse poo, so apparently he had passed that way before! Scary!
When we finally got back to the barn, I put him in his stall and fed him then went to get some fresh shavings. When I got back to his stall, he was sound asleep! So he must have had a looooong day out there! Guess I don't have to worry about getting him started on a spring shape-up program this weekend.
Oh, Al found the place in the fence where he had pushed through - probably trying to get to the tall clover on the other side - and then the fence sprang back into place so it wasn't obvious that it was broken. There is only about a five-foot length of fence where he could have gotten through and not just ended up in the larger pasture instead of out in the neighborhood. And of course, that's where he pushed through. It's fixed now. Al fastened a length of metal fencing to those posts. But I think tomorrow I'll recheck every INCH of that fencing before I turn him out again.
As for me, after I got everyone tucked in for the night, I came home and sat down and started to shake. Then I threw up. Now I'm almost back to normal. BUT I WANT THOSE HORSES HOME!!
1 comment:
Very scary. Good he's back where he belongs.
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