Last week we had 2 inches of rain in 24 hours.This is an incredible amount of water
for southern California.I live on the side of PaintMountain and my
stable area is below the house and has a series of native stone retaining
walls. Of all the stalls, Lyric’s
was the driest until last week and the 2 inches in 24 hour storm.The mountain just could not hold anymore
water and the joints between the rocks started leaking water.
These turned into little rivulets and small streams flooding
Lyric’s stall.By 7am we found her standing in almost a
foot of water.Luckily a varmint
had made a hole under a rock that allowed us to drain the stall without having
to rent a jackhammer to dig a trench. So, happily the whole family went to work
digging small trenches to channel the water into the hole and drain the stall. Lyric found a small hoof deep patch and
went to work on her hay as the rain continued to come down and we worked around
her.
After about 5 minutes the varmint/drainage whole stopped and
daughter Danielle stuck her hand in the hole.I had no idea she had done this until she
started to shriek and jumped about 3 feet into the air.My first instinct is to try to become
one with the stall wall as I know Lyric will become unglued at Danielle’s
shrieking.
Danielle was yelling
because a rat the size of a small cat was crawling up her arm. And boy was he wet and scared.The almost drowned rat goes flying up in
the air, lands near hubby Jerry’s leg
and starts climbing up his pants.Jerry now is screaming
along with Danielle.I’m as
flat as I can get on the stall wall with my foot in a cast with a plastic bag
cover. I am now praying that Lyric
has forgotten she is a hot blooded purebred Arabian.I know we are all going to get hurt when
this horse explodes.
But Lyric looked at the rat, and kept eating. She didn’t even bat an
eyelash!She looked at me as if to say,
“Seen him before, what the big deal?”
My daughter learned several things that morning. First was not to put her hand in holes
and secondly Lyric is a whole lot smarter then we realize.We all found the humor in the rat that
made a miserable job totally funny and exciting.
Nancy Reed (now in bed with the flu), Lazy J Ranch, Elfin
Forest, CA (were someday I can trail ride again)
PSI have metal
trash cans with lids and bungee cords.
