Early this morning (about 6 am), I let Mr. Darcy out on our back deck, and he exploded to the edge, barking fiercely. That's because there was a horse in our driveway.
Ho-hum. There's a horse in our driveway. It was too early to call the neighbors to whom I suspected the horse belonged, so I went back to drinking my tea.
When Don got up, he glanced out the window and said, "Huh. There's a horse in our driveway." Yeah, ho-hum. He started drinking his coffee.
Around 7:30 am, before we had a chance to call, the neighbors came by on their ATV, went up our lower driveway, and put a halter and lead rope on their escaped animal.
We chatted over the edge of the deck and the husband explained he'd forgotten to close a critical gate last night. (They had to round up their escaped cows, too, who were exploring another neighbor's property.)
That's the nice thing about escaped animals in our little valley. While it's annoying when it happens and necessitates rounding up the critters, at least they're not in any danger. They just ... hang around.
Ho-hum.
I and my siblings were raised on a 60 acre farm. There is no alarm clock in the world as effective as hearing, "The cows/horses (pick one) (or both) are out!" Feet jammed into rubber boots and a coat pulled over pajamas and out the door we went. Good times.
ReplyDeleteOh yes!! The good old "cows are out" alarm! Heard it many times before we stopped farming when I was around 13.
DeleteI wish I could have a horse. it's just sooooo expensive here.
ReplyDeleteThat reminded me about last year. My neighbor is doing the dairy cow thing and one of the cows had a bull calf. Because she separated him from his mamma she got him a goat pal. So the 2 of them would wander around when they got out and come over to visit. They were very friendly and would let me pet them, it is certainly different to have such animals wander by your back door. They would eventually wander back home, I loved it, it was fun to yell out to the hubby that Parker had come over. One time I was doing some yard work very close to my corral fence and experienced what would be called a stampede. About 4-5 cows were running down the street, I climbed under the fence and startled them to turn around and they did as I saw said neighbor trying to corral them home. I helped a bit and between us got them back in. As it turns out her 4 year old did not latch the gate enough to lock it and thus the stampede. Another day in rural America. Can it get any better?
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