Thomas decided to take on a gate a couple of mornings ago. Everything was normal, the big boys were scattered around in the vicinity of the gates to their pasture waiting for us to arrive with breakfast. Thomas was the only one actually near the gates. We missed what happened but somehow he managed to get one of his hind legs through two of the boards on the gate (between the top two boards no less). It was the ensuing struggle with the accompanying loud noises that got everyone's attention.
Thomas finally freed his leg and walked away while the rest of the boys just stood wherever they were watching the whole thing. We all rushed down there to assess the damage absolutely dreading what we would find, both with Thomas and the gate. Amazingly the gate sustained only minor damage, one broken board which Jason had replaced in about five minutes. Even more amazing was the fact that aside from a couple of minor scrapes Thomas' leg was perfectly fine as well.
I have no idea how Thomas managed to get a hind leg between the top two boards on the gate (the gates in many of the pastures are 4-board wood just like the fencing but mounted on a steel gate frame). It would be a lot easier to explain if he had gotten a leg between the bottom two boards. No one was near him, it appeared that one minute he was standing there quietly and the next minute he was in a fight with the gate. I think I could have cried when I realized Thomas was quite alright, it felt like a miracle since I was expecting a mangled leg of some sort.
Our only other disturbance was a loss of water pressure that same afternoon. Jason went to turn on the water to fill a trough while I was feeding horses, and he asked me if someone had left a handle up on one of the faucets since there was no water pressure. (Of course the underlying question was really something like "hey, there's no water pressure so where did you leave the water on??) We proceed to check all of the water spigots and the water had not been left on anywhere. Uh oh, not good. Jason proceeds to the well house to have a look at the well, and yet again we skated off easily. A clamp had come loose and a hose was no longer connected properly. Jason had this remedied in about 10 minutes and all was working properly again. Between the (thankfully) anti-climactic end to the gate drama and the easy fix to our water pressure problem we were both practically giddy by the end of the day. Two crisis situations handled in a combined time of about 15 minutes!
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3 comments:
I agree they are looking for a way to kill themselves. When I was working on a TB/STB breeding farm, I was taking morning temps. I took a temp mama and baby were fine. Went to the next stall, heard something fall but didn't think anything of it, finished in there. Walked out of the stall to see that that previous mare had worked a bar loose and promptly got her head stuck. Like a child, we couldn't get her out the way she got in so we had to cut a second bar out. She was a good girl though and just stood there looking bored.
Phew! So glad Thomas wasn't injured during his morning ballet exercises!
Oh my, poor Thomas! Unfortunately we had the same water pressure deal going on around here....come to find out I had sprung a leak in the hose. Then later that day two more leaks in the same hose!! Of course my husband's solution is duct tape for everything until we can get to the farm store to replace it. Funny my vet and farrier are always so careful not to run over the them when they drive in the barnyard....guess it finally caught up sooner or later. Hot temps do not help either seems they weaken! We had a huge storm during my student's lesson today. Popped up out of no where (I always check the weather before hand, nothing listed). The weather forecast was WAY off! LOL! Kind of interesting and scary! We were in the round pen (under roof) that is open on one side so I made her get off of Glory, unsaddle and we stood in a corner and prayed for safety! One of the worst storms yet this season....I was sure a tornado was nearby, lighting and thunder. The whole shabang! (No pun intended) She only got half of her lesson in! Glory just stood quietly the entire time with us. Every time we walked around to check the status of the other horses out in the pastures, she followed us just like a dog. My student got a real kick out of her doing that.....she was still getting a lesson on joining up! Fun! How's your riding going?
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