Party Central (well if you're an equine anyway)

...since it's been awhile since I've told an amusing equine tail (err tale)...I thought I'd take a small trip down memory lane, since something similar happened to me earlier this week...

Now as many of you know, K and I own/operate a horse training business and since I'm the first one out of the bed in the a.m., I just, in pj's and all, go straight to the barn and feed first thing in the a.m.

Now yesterday morning I am GREETED at the doorway by a horse on the loose...SHE's easy enough to catch, go back to her stall, figure out WHY she was loose (worked the latch) and fed...although she had already had her "pre-breakfast", but this brings me back to the time where there were SEVERAL loose!

It was one of the mornings where I woke up on the wrong side of bed, now in the a.m. the hounds of hades come with me...little extra time to potty and they just enjoy going out in the a.m. to sniff and mark their territory, so as I open the door to the stall area and the hounds romp in, I hear barking...more so than usual, THEN I hear scuffling....sigh.... and running .... another sigh... and then banging.... really BIG SIGH... and then I turn the corner and my eyes POP out of my head and I think my jaw dropped open. I had not one, not two, not THREE, BUT FOUR, YES FOUR horses running amock down our aisleway (it's 12' wide and about 60' long) and the hounds of hades hot on their heals...they were "helping" don't ya know...

Now while they are running amock, I'm assessing the situation, I have stall doors in the middle of the aisleway (we just use simple pipe gates that are fairly light, but large for one person to maneuver), manure and urine EVERYWHERE and squeeling horses in stalls....

So I grab the closest halters and try to corner one of the wayward equines...to no avail...they have gone into "herd mentality" and ALL run into the closest stall (4 horses in a 10X10 stall does not a pretty picture make)...so I make my way into the stall trying not to get trampled, pushed and attempted to grab one...to no avail, they all head OUT of the stall, with the hounds helping...sigh... this goes on for "awhile" and I somehow manage to get all 4 halters on the wayward horses into stalls.

...and there I stand, with all the horses hungry (and pawing and whinnying), trying to figure out HOW to fix the gates, feed and how I'm going to clean up the wall to wall manure.

Now this is one of those times where it's awesome that my in-laws live next door, although I usually don't take my cell phone with me, I did that morning and called in for help...my FIL was there lickity split and helped me with the gates...

And from the mess that I cleaned up and the detective work I saw, the horses had been out at least 2 hours and it all started with one horse that scratched itself on the gate and lifted it off...then moved onto the next horse and they pushed that gate over, and so on and so on...kind of like a domino effect... the aisleway pretty much looked like a horse New Years Eve party...only manure instead of confetti...but hey, one must make do with what one has....right?