Angie, I so agree with your idea about having
someone check the campsite to make sure horses are secure.
But while you may think you know how to secure
horses........
Million Pines. My daughter's first ride and a ride
from hell. Oh, we laugh now. Ha, ha. It had nothing to do with Wesley or the
ride itself. It was all about us. Anyway, Sunday morning a guy is shaking our
tent and yelling, "Your horses are loose!". No one wants to hear that and it
will spike your heart rate up to 240 in 3 seconds. I guess my battery died in
the middle of the night and mouthy Rowdy, who can unlock any latch known to
mankind, pulled out a stake or two and told the others, "Come on! She won't be
up for hours, let's go!". They were just meandering around looking for
breakfast. I guess I wasn't serving at the hour they were use to. So I asked
Rowdy, "Do you want breakfast or what?". He whinnied to the others, "She's up,
she says she will feed us, come on back!" and they did.
I took one of those horses, (the mare) to Oconee
one year. During the middle of the night, twenty-something horses got loose and
ran within 2 feet of her electric fence. As they ran by, she lifted her head
from her hay, looking as if to say, "Hey! We don't start for another 4 hours!
What's wrong with you guys?". She put her head back down in disgust. I know she
was thinking, "Isn't it enough that we have to ride forever in the morning, why
in the world are they starting now??". She may be a little lazy, but she stayed
right where she was suppose to. They didn't find some of those horses until
after noon the next day. There were pieces of fence, wires, batteries, and
blankets all in a single line, right down the trail.
Sometimes in the cold weather, the blankets protect
the horses from the electric shock and they can just walk right through a fence.
The smart ones know that. You know that little head swing Arabians do? That is
practice so that when they are tied up with a halter, they can swing their heads
and shake loose. Don't you ever hear them playing that music, "Born free,
as free as the wind blows, as free as the grass grows, born free to follow all
the other horses when they take off!".
And let's not forget, if a group of horses are
running, the ones left behind are screaming, "Why are you running? Am I gonna
die if I stay here? I don't wanna die, wait for me!!!". You can teach them to
stand quietly no matter what 99% of the time, but that 1% of the time when
instinct kicks in, look out.
One year we took 3 horses to Far Out Forest in
Ocala. One of those 3 horses was Loony Lance. We didn't call him Loony then, we
had no idea. Showtime and Rowdy (aka Dough Boy) had lots of camping experience.
Showtime hated the electric fence because he couldn't crib on it. I didn't know
if Lance had ever been in an electric fence. In the beginning all was fine. But
the first morning told a different story. I woke up to find the fence all on the
ground. It was still working and not one of the horses stepped over the wire. I
couldn't figure out how the hell that happened. Stakes were all up, wire on the
ground. Poor Showtime was shaking and had all of his feet practically touching
each other so he wouldn't touch the wire.
I fixed the fence. Later that afternoon I saw what
happened. That Loony Lance was taking the wire (ribbon) in his mouth and holding
it. Every time it zapped, he would shake a little and he had this look on his
face like, "Ooooo, I like that!" and then he would pull it off the stake. I
couldn't believe it! His very first lobotomy and he did it himself! I made him
get some water on his lips and then he touched the fence again. Well, I guess
that didn't feel so good. So now, instead of taking the fence down, he just
takes a running start and tries to jump it! The last time I took him camping, I
had to park my truck in front of the fence so he wouldn't try to jump it.
Although he could have.
Odd Todd never does anything wrong. He is soooo
sweet. He won't tear up the fence or even try to jump it. He will however, sneak
underneath. He likes the Mambo music playing so he can see just how low he can
go. He went under a very low rail, in between the post and a huge water tank
just to get into the pen with a friend. Not a hair out of place.
I certainly don't want to minimize the danger of
loose horses, but let's not forget what we are dealing with here. Animals who
are a lot smarter than we give them credit for, and people who are
sometimes not very bright. We can't help always help the educationally
challenged. I had a lady get so pissed off at me at my ride one year
because her horses escaped twice during the night and I wouldn't get
them for her the second time.
Go figure.
Loony Lance will not be camping for a couple of
more years. Maybe that is what he had planned all along?
