A Misunderstanding

"Alright.  Which one of you guys tore the fence apart again . . . Jesse?"  The fence gets 'dismantled' a lot, right where the feeder hooks on to it.  Jesse is notorious for destroying the cross buck pieces when she gets bored from being in the pen; not getting to work.  She hasn't been worked much at all this year as we are trying to get her back and hip healed.  Apparently her back is too long to carry weight well, so carrying me around for long days for the last 12.5 years has taken its toll on her lower lumbar region and she has developed arthritis in her left hip, to the point of making her lame on that side.  It was very noticeable when we brought them up from winter pasture last spring and we have spent the summer with massage, anti-inflamatories, and supposed rest.  Well, now she feels better and nothing is safe.  One of our vets said I might be able to work her up to 2 - 3 hr. rides 'now-and-then', but no more of the tough six hour rides we like to get to our mountain lakes.

Alas, I digress.  All this to explain why I would blame my mare for further destruction. I put boards back as best I could in the dark and tied their slow feed hay net to the feeder.  Then I climbed inside the pen to tie the other end and the horses went crazy.  Even Ranger - the old man - demonstrated his famous all four feet in the air bucking style.  They jumped, kicked, bucked and ran around like fools; not their normal feeding frenzy at all.  They finally quit and came up to me to get fed, but were still quite hyper.  I put it down to being cool out and dark.

Fast forward to bedtime.  Bill goes out each night to check the cars (bears, you know) just before locking the front door for the night.  He came back in and asked if I had seen the moose when it walked across our parking lot.  What moose?  The one that left the huge tracks in the sand just behind the cars.  There were no moose tracks there when I had crossed to feed the horses a couple hours earlier, but the tracks he showed me were definitely moose.

Bill then suggested that maybe it was not my mare, but a moose who broke up the fence, trying to get at the horses' hay - and they were just telling me the story of all the excitement.  That makes a much better story, don't you think?

Bionic Cowgirl