There’s something about a full moon that just throws everything out of whack, and this past weekend was no exception.
My plan was to go Roading on Saturday with Tammy, David and Jazzy. Roading is summer practice for Fox Hunting. None of the formal attire is required, and it’s a good opportunity for young horses and hounds to get back into shape before the rigors of Fall’s foxhunting season hit. I am glad I opted to ride Tammy’s husband, David’s, horse Ellie May – an easy going pinto draught cross. I believe the atmosphere would have been a bit much for Sudi!
Since we needed to leave early, I opted to stay the night in the apartment above the barn Friday night to save on gas and let me sleep in a little. So, after work on Friday, I went to the barn to start my preparations.
Upon getting to the barn, Tammy told me that Jazzy had gotten into a "tiff" with her mother and was in trouble - no longer going on the trip. I was bummed.
However, I still needed to work Sudi some and clean out his incision, so that was my first priority. He is doing so much better these days, and I think he will be glad to get out and do a cross-country school next weekend. I may have to opt out of using a nose band, however, as his nose is still a bit tender from the surgery and the subsequent draining which is congealing, crusting and wreaking havoc on the skin under his chin. After his medicinal work, we did a bit of lunge work, although we had a bit of a disagreement there. He thought it was time to graze, and I, of course, had other ideas.
I’ve found this very gentle hill that I like to do trot work on to help him build some muscle through his back. There’s a VERY tiny jump that one of the young girls at the barn is training on at the bottom of the hill, so I like having him go over that so that he learns (or is rather forced) to slow and collect somewhat as he’s running down the hill. After his somewhat short workout, I gave him a couple carrots and turned him happily out with the mares for the evening.
My next project was to clean up Miss Ellie-May. David is always calling the poor mare a “cow,” and I hate to admit it, but I can see the resemblance. She’s a BIG girl, rather out of shape at the moment, but also very stubborn and bossy when she wants to be. I ended up having to walk the entire length of her field, and then pretty much DRAG/TOW her back to the barn. (What a brat!)
Once back to the barn, I cross-tied her in the wash stall and proceeded to do a major scrub job on her. I was VERY proud of myself in the end. I had never seen her so clean! (I credit Sudi for my major grooming “Skillz” hehe – he gives me LOTS of practice).
After seeing how beautifully clean she was, I thought I might try clipping her whiskers to finish off the job. She however, was definitely NOT a fan of the clippers and despite Tammy’s and my best efforts, she bested us by rearing repeatedly until her halter finally gave way. At the first glimpse of freedom, she took off to run and play outside the barn. My heart sunk. All my hard cleaning was about to go to waste if she rolled!
Tammy and I attempted to follow her on foot, and I almost caught her, but she rammed me into the ring (smart BIG horse) and got a way. As I persistently followed, Tammy grabbed the John Deer Gator and picked me up and we took off after her. This was much easier and a LOT more fun! Tammy figured if she was going to run away from us, it might as well be OUR idea. So we chased her in the gator for about ten minutes around the farm until she finally gave up and ran back to the barn, trapping herself in a stall. To my relief, she really was no worse for the wear, except for a black streak across her butt where Tammy had smacked her with the lead rope.
After I cleaned up all my bathing supplies, Tammy and I both headed for bed – thoroughly spent and wanting a decent night’s rest before our ride in the morning. Sunshine, the yellow lab belonging to Tammy’s father, and I both headed up to the loft, watched a bit of tv, read some and then hopped in bed.
I unfortunately don’t sleep well when I’m not in my bed, so I found myself in and out of consciousness for the first couple hours. Around 11:30, I heard some hoof beats in the barn. This wasn’t anything unusual as Halara and T-Rex are allowed to roam the property freely at night. I tried to block out the noise and was desperately wishing I had opted to sleep in Tammy’s guest room rather than above the barn!
Then, around midnight, I heard cantering hoof beats through the barn – very loudly, and some of the horses were starting to whinny. This definitely woke me up, and I ran to one of the windows wondering if a bad storm was approaching that might explain their raucous behavior. However, there was no wind or rain. That was definitely VERY odd.
I walked towards the other end of the apartment, to the door where, thanks to the full moon, I could see SEVEN horses running the grounds freely. Sudi’s mare field was completely free, and they were joined up with Halara and T-Rex in galloping around the property.
Clad in pajamas, I threw on my boots, grabbed the first halter I found (a LARGE one – which made me say a quick prayer of thanks for that relief!) and nabbed my first victim – Chip – a Mogan gelding, who technically should have been in a stall that night – not sure why he was even out. Chip heaved a hugh sigh of relief to be caught as he clearly didn’t understand what on earth was going on! I quickly threw him in his stall and ran out the front of the barn.
I wanted to get Sudi next as I knew he would be fairly easy for me to grab, being my horse and also looking very confused. I spotted him almost immediately under one of the lights by the ring. His tail was flagged, and he was passaging (a big Dressage movement – one day we’ll do it under saddle! Hehe) beautifully, but looking around not sure why he was even out of his field. When he spotted me, he immediately walked up to me and let me halter him to take him to his stall. Unfortunately Fiona, the barn pot-bellied pig, was sound asleep in his stall, and was not at ALL thrilled to have Sudi there. “Oh well,” I thought. “They’ll have to make due for now!”
The mares were next. I found Onyx, the sixteen hand yearling (who, by the way, I KNOW was responsible for everyone’s escape), easily in the bright moonlight. I could tell she was a bit wary of me, so I approached her slowly. She shoved her nose quickly in the grass, so I lightly tossed the lead rope over her neck to make sure I had an anchor before attempting to halter her. She immediately was aware of my plan and attempted to walk off. I hung on to the rope has hard as I could, well aware that I would completely lose this fight if she were to get free. I gave a couple really hard tugs to get her attention and try to convince her to stop. (My back is still mad at me for that!) But – it worked!! She turned around, faced me, and let me halter her! YAY!
I ended up having to drag her back to her field – she was a VERY unwilling victim. But I got her in, and this time tightly secured the gate with a lead rope to make sure she couldn’t push her way out again. Bunny, and Willa were the only two others that I needed to put up for the night. I was desperately wanting to just throw them in stalls, but after a quick review, there weren’t enough since Ellie-May and Atticus were both in for the night to be ready for the Roading in the morning. At that moment, Halara came pounding through the barn, and I was able to corner her, toss a rope around her neck and force her into her stall. She screamed at me in defiance after she realized she was locked in. I rolled my eyes and just thought “bad MARE!”
Bunny and Willa still appeared to be enjoying their freedom, however. Both were trotting along happily to Tammy’s front yard. I really didn’t want to have to wake up Tammy and David, but neither Bunny nor Willa would let me anywhere near them. So, I resigned myself to attempting to wake them up. Their front door was locked and there was no door bell, so I knocked on the door as much as I forcibly could. Much to my dismay, NONE of the dogs barked. I couldn’t believe the silence! These are the dogs that bark at NOTHING, and now when I actually needed them – SILENCE. I knocked again, but realized that I probably wasn’t going to be able to wake them up. I sighed and left the house trying desperately to come up with a plan to catch Bunny and Willa. Maybe feed?
At that moment, Tammy walked out the front door asking me if something was wrong. I tried, as quickly as possible, to explain what happened. It took her a few moments to finally awake from sleep, but she started running across the lawn with me to grab the final two. Thankfully we were able to corner the mares in the “chute” created between their field and the arena. We were then able to just herd both mares back into their field.
Relief overcame me. All my worries of the large herd of horses running through the woods to the road were dismissed. Tammy thanked me for my help, and we both dragged ourselves back to bed. However, as I was about to ascend the stairs back to the apartment, I heard Fiona screaming at Sudi, so I had to go do something. When I approached the stall, Sudi turned back to look at me like “I really don’t know what her problem is, but she won’t shut up!” I attempted to move Fiona, but she was viscously bound and determined NOT to move from her corner. I chose the lesser of to evils and decided to just put Sudi in Kehbir’s stall for the night – it would at least be something different.
Once back up in the apartment, it was hard not to notice the complete mess that I was. I was covered in sweat, my pajamas were completely wet and sandy from the dew on the ground and I had dirt all up and down my legs. I felt gross and desperately needed a shower. I figured since I was now completely wide awake, I would shower and then throw a small load of clothes in the laundry so I could at least have something to sleep in. I kicked myself for under-packing. I ALWAYS over pack, but I was trying to break that habit this time. Oh well – that just figures.
After my shower, I started a small load of clothes, went back to my bed to stay warm and watch some TV, and thank the Lord that I heard the horses escape, and that nothing bad happened to them. Who knew if they would have been there in the morning?
After about fifteen minutes of flipping channels between watching Friends and the Olympics, I went back to the laundry room figuring that my clothes should be about ready to throw in the dryer. To my COMPLETE and ultimate HORROR, there was a huge puddle creeping across the kitchen floor originating from the laundry room. “You’ve got to be KIDDING me!” I thought in a panic. The washer was over flowing and warm water was seeping everywhere. I ran to the bathroom and found a VERY limited supply of towels. Upon dropping them on the floor, they became completely drenched and useless. I sighed. I put the washer on the rinse cycle immediately, and to much of my relief, the water started draining out of it. That still left me with the gallons of water all over the floor. I decided to go downstairs to raid the barn for towels.
When I got down to the barn, everything seemed nice and peaceful. As I headed towards the tack room, however, I could hear what sounded like water going everywhere. My first reaction was that one of the horses had pulled out the hose to their automatic waterer. But then I saw it. It was raining in the barn. Right underneath where the washer was upstairs, massive amounts of water were falling through some cracks in the ceiling.
All of a sudden I was VERY tired. I felt a knot sitting in the bottom of my stomach. I was going to have to go tell Tammy and David. I found myself reluctantly walking to their front door again. I knocked and then heard the dogs barking. I felt so tired – How could this have happened? The washer LOOKED like it had been previously used. There was plenty of laundry soap and softener. Why now? Tammy made it to the door, looking tired as ever, and I gushed out, (most likely incoherently) that the washer had overflowed. She laughed and said not to worry about it. It had happened before. She said just to clean up the water as much as I could, and David would take a look at it later. Again, relief flooded over me as I walked back to the barn.
I grabbed towels out of the tack room and headed upstairs. When I got there, much of the water had receded (most likely by going down to the barn), and I was able to easily clean everything up. I threw my still unclean clothes, and the many sopping towels in the dryer and figured I would just go to bed. Unfortunately, the drier decided it didn’t want to work anymore, and after a couple failed attempts to start, just stopped. I didn’t even care anymore. The time I finally made it back into the bed was 3:30. Ugh.
The rest of the night I didn’t sleep a bit. Every noise I heard was cause for me to jump up and wonder if I needed to go downstairs to check on the horses. I restrained myself to only going downstairs twice, however. Six thirty, when I needed to wake up, was coming all to fast, and I was wondering if I’d even be able to ride the next day. Sleep finally overtook me around 5 am, and I easily gave in to it...
