Bill and Juanita, owners of Allenspark Lodge B&B, are living their dream...

running a successful business and riding as often as possible.



Saturday, June 4, 2011

A Continuation: Stuck!

Bill and I are happily fixing breakfast for the guests when one of them comes into the kitchen announcing, "Juanita, I think you horse needs another backing lesson."  Huh?  I stare at him blankly as he further announces that Jesse appears to be stuck in the fence.  Bill drops everything and shoots out the door; I look around to get a measure of how we stand in breakfast prep, throw some stuff in the oven and dive out the door, too.  Sure enough, when I get to the corral Bill and guest are standing beside a horse halfway through the fence and very, very stuck!  I think the only one NOT upset by the situation I saw was the horse.  Jesse was so focused on the nice green grass she found - outside the fence - that she had just munched her way through, one little foot at a time, ducking under the top rail.  Unfortunately, she hadn't paid much attention to where she was and had climbed through a small opening between the big metal feeder and the fence post!  That meant there was zero flex in the rails and the hole was smaller than the hips (have any of us had that feeling?).  She was perfectly willing to lower her head when asked, but her position was such that her withers were still too high to back out of the hole and she couldn't wiggle from side to side because of the feeder and posts.  Bill took his leatherman and unscrewed the bolt that held the rail on the post, which just gave her enough room to hop her back feet through; a less agile horse would have still been stuck.  She was non-plussed....and guess who's electric fencing is now up and running.  It's such a tiny shock, I'm amazed it's a deterant, but they hear the clicking and keep clear.

I have been very careful to give her some outside time each day since, just to keep her thinking, and she has been good about staying in.  And yes, Mr. Daddy, that horse needs a definite 'talking to'.
Juanita

8 comments:

  1. That is one calm horse. I was nervous just reading about the mishap. Glad it all came out ok.

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  2. well just talk to her then. We will save the whip for my quad....LOL

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  3. Ha! I totally second the first comment! I was more nervous than Jesse was, and I wasn't even there!

    GAH - don't get me started about Mr. Daddy comparing horses to his beloved quad. His QUAD doesn't play tug-of-war quite like the gelding does... *raspberry*

    Glad it all turned out okay - thanks to Bill the Horse Rescuer!

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  4. Jesse can be ornery as snot and mean and tenacious (chased a bear THROUGH the corral fence a couple summers ago), but she always stays calm doing it. Go figure; guess I got lucky on that part. Let's not forget her idea of justice and right (the bear did not belong in HER fence)...a quad has to go a long way to beat that.
    Juanita

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  5. Egad! I've heard the grass is greener, but this takes the cake for getting to it.

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  6. Glad you got her freed easily. And what a good girl she was to remain so calm.

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  7. Aww..glad she got out of there. Getting stuck is the pits. Obviously, she just waited for you instead of panicking. What a good woman!

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  8. Wow--I've seen horses do crazy things to get to grass, that's for sure--or get to buddies, as in Beautiful's case when she scaled her run. There have been times I haven't found how they did get out, but just woke to see Cowboy or Red standing in our backyard. I'm glad she was able to back herself out of it okay!

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