Well, That Was Interesting

Three on the Loose

I came home from school yesterday to find three horses loose on the back lawn, and both of the big gates open.

H-m-m-m-m. I am a bit confused about the gates. I did drive through them on Sunday to drop off the rubber mats I bought, but I know I at least closed them behind me as Tucker and Chance were VERY interested in what I was up to. Did I not completely chain them? Or, did someone else open them....that's a disturbing thought. For now, I will just chalk it up to my stupidity.

The good news is that the drive through bump gates across the driveways stopped the "Gang" from escaping to the road where there surely would have been some serious consequences as traffic is both bad and fast on my road. My Aunt, who lives next door said The Boys didn't even try the gates when she saw them, so that is a relief.

The other good news as that when my Aunt saw the horses out, she tried to convince them to stay in the back area, but all that happened was she was nearly licked and loved to death by, from what I can tell, Tucker and Chance. She said they came right over to her and just wanted to be hugged. Toby likes attention too, but he is not quite as nosy as the other two. So, that is kind of sweet.

The bad news is that since it was raining, my back lawn is now a mess of muddy hoofprints and depressions and "slide spots." I guess I will have to get that new drag put together asap so I can try to level out the worst of the messed up grass before it hardens/dries up, and plant some new seed. I do walk the horses over the lawn there when I trailer them places, so the area is not pristine, but three frolicking horses can do quite a bit of damage when they are tromping all over on a great adventure. This is not a big lawn area, perhaps, at most a quarter acre right behind the house. It will survive.

When I drove in, Tucker and Chance came right up to my car and tried to "hug" me too. I don't know if they were worried they were out or if they were just happy. I closed one gate and as soon as I went in the feed/tack room to get dinner, the whole little herd galloped across the grass and into the paddock through the other open gate, so getting them back in where they belonged was no trouble at all. Silly boys.

I am excited to find out that Gabriel, my trainer, loves long lining and in hand work. He seems pleased that I want to work Tucker in the lines at our next lesson. This is going to be fun. Tucker is not quite the "long line master" Toby is, but he still understands the concept and, as I've said before, does work pretty well in them. I will be very interested to see what Gabriel proposes we do and how Tucker will take to the training.

So, now I have even more to look forward to for our lesson on the 27th.

In the meantime, I did not work the horses yesterday as it was damp, raining, and downright unpleasant outside.

Besides, they'd had plenty of exercise mangling my lawn.