Things Are Never Boring



“I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.”  

- J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Oh Gem. You sure do make life interesting. I am very glad I am not hung up on numbers or training programs or else I would spend a whole lot of time frustrated and stressed and who needs that?

Sunday morning was family barn day and my long riding day. We got to the barn and off I went to get Gem out of her pasture. As I walked up her hill I noticed something odd. There were only 3 horses visible. Gem has hid behind a tree from me before, poking her nose out to watch me scramble around looking for her, so I wasn't overly concerned. There are two wooded areas that I have seen her in, so I headed to the nearest one. No signs of Gem. That meant I had to climb up the hill to the other set of trees. I was calling for her, but still saw no signs of her. By this time the hubs was wondering why on earth such a simple task was taking me so long and came on over. (You can't see Gem's pasture from the main barnyard because there is another pasture between the two with a row of trees). I yelled down to him that I couldn't find my horse. He laughed and started to help look for her.

When I got to the trees I noticed that there were no horse tracks, so obviously she wasn't in there. Still, I poked around a little. Sure enough, no horse. Now I was a little worried. I headed back down the hill and the hubs called out that he found her. I should have taken pictures, but forgot my camera at home. For some unknown reason, the silly mare had decided to head down the narrowest little deer trail that wound between the back of the adjacent pasture's run in shed and some trees. She hadn't made it very far before she had gotten her wide load princessy butt wedged between the trees and the electric fence running between the two pastures. To make matters worse she had several thick briar vines tangled around her torso and front right leg. The good news is that she isn't a fighter and when in a bad situation, she will just stand quietly while you get her out of the mess she got herself into. I have no clue how long the girl had been stuck like that, but it had been a little while. Or why on earth she needed to go back there in the first place.

The hubs managed to get the briars broken and the thorns removed from her and then convinced her to squeeze through and turn around and out to the pasture. She was very happy to be free. Darn mare.

I put her halter on and brought her to the barnyard to look her over. She had a pretty good scratch to her left belly that was swollen, but not actively bleeding and not that deep. There were also several smaller, but very tender, scratches from the thorns to her right front leg and in the girth area. There was no way I was going to ride her like that. I was a little concerned that her legs might be swollen if she was standing there for a long time.

Instead of riding, the hubs, W and I all took Gem for a nice walk along the "trails". I jogged some with her, but wanted to make sure we didn't leave the boys too far behind, so we walked a lot and she ate a lot of grass. The good news is that I figured out where to cross the stream. I jumped across and she stopped for a good, long drink. Made me think she was stuck for a good while in those trees. Poor thing.

At the far end of the property we ran into the neighbor's angus beef cattle across the fence. I don't know if Gem has met a cow before or not. She wasn't too sure of them and hid behind me, poking around my shoulder to check them out. Silly girl! All in all it was a nice walk and she was very calm through the entire thing, even when jogging, but we only got 1 mile in and it was sloooow.

At least Monday is a holiday (Labor day) and I have the day off, so as long as she is okay I can get my long ride in for the week still. Horses are never boring.