MISSING HORSES!

MISSING HORSES

I guess it was probably in January; it’s all hazy now.  I was quite traumatized by the ice storm of 2013.  Let me start at the beginning and tell you how I came to such trauma.

It was early in the morning when a client came to pick up her horse from training, I was in a hurry to get my son to school and get to work.  I cheerfully waved at my client and her horses as I scurried away.  I finished work at a very late hour; it was quite dark outside.  I noted that the horses were happily eating in the big pasture as made my way down the drive on my way to weedy flats.

I stayed the weekend at Weedy Flats getting some packing and cleaning done there.  I arrived back at Windy Hill Sunday night, in the dark, during an ice storm.  No surprise there.  What was surprising is that when I pulled into the drive I did not see any horses in the big pasture. 

No horses photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbnunley/with/6939424308/

 I made my way slowly up the drive, peering into the sleet that was hitting my windshield with glee.  Hmm no horses… perhaps they are all in the corner covered in the darkness and sleet ~ which is getting heavier.

After slipping and falling on my porch not once, but twice, I managed to get the key in the door, let the dogs in and turn off the alarm system.  I put on my snowsuit, hat, gloves and scarf and went to look for the horses with spot light in hand.  I took my trusty mastiff as well.  I searched the property in vain, hoping against hope I would see the horses.  I didn't....

I called the neighbors to see if they had gotten any calls.  He tells me they hadn't gotten any phone calls about missing horses, but mine are there at his place.  (whew) 

He proceeds to tell me that he “tried to catch them” but he wasn't able to.  This man is a professional trainer and he was trying to “catch” the three most in your pocket horses I have ever had..?  

Neighbor:  So, I just left them where they were, you can go on over and turn on the lights if you want and find them.

sleet

Me: Okay great, thank you so much for your help.

It is now around 10:30 at night, pitch black and the hail is producing a steady tick, tick, tick sound on my windows and doors.  I gather the mastiff, forget the spot light and go to my car.  I open the rear driver side door to let the mastiff in the back seat and when I close the door, it won’t close.  What?  Why won’t the door close?  The darn latch is stuck!  NO amount of poking, prodding, praying, whining or pleading will get the latch un-stuck.  So, fine, the door doesn't shut.  Whatever, I tell the dog to stay put.   Dog stays.  I get half-way down the road to on the way to the neighbors house when I realized that I had forgotten the spotlight.  I console myself with the fact that he said I could turn on his lights to find the horses in the darkness.  I drove very slowly due to the door issues and the fact that I was basically sliding on ice the entire way there.

frozen light switch!

I get to the neighbors, find the outside light he told me about, only to discover that the switch is ice-covered and frozen in the “off” position.  I am afraid to force it as I do not want to break the neighbors lightswitch.  I can see NOTHING.  Even with my car headlights shining forth highlighting the hail that is pelting me from the sky.  I take note of what the horses located there are doing.  Half of them are eyeing me curiously from their shelters.  The other half are looking in another direction.  AHHA!  My horses must be that way.  I shuffle hesitantly further into the darkness, trusty mastiff by my side, halter and leadrope clutched firmly in a gloved hand.   I briefly wonder if the neighbor has dogs…

Shivering against the cold despite my snowsuit getup, I call out “Liiibbby”  and I am rewarded with an answering whinny!  Oh!  My wonderful Libby, always so faithful.  I turn towards the sound and begin walking that way with my hand resting on the mastiff who seems to be leading the way. 
”Lib ~ you sill there?”  I ask into the darkness…

The reply is a soft nicker and the sound of  shuffling feet.   Soon enough I see the dark outlines of three shapes.  There they are!  Libby steps forward to greet me, practically putting the halter on herself when I show it to her.  The freezing rain has already covering the halter and leadrope in a thin sheet of ice, and I felt very bad placing frozen halter over her head.  She didn't seem to mind ~ this is the same horse that normally stresses over her ears being touched!

Dark and icy!

 I gazed at the environment the horses had chosen to place themselves in.  They were in a little “cubby” behind and between my neighbors very lovely barn.  It was something close to “snug” in that location.  No wind, so shelter from the hail and sleet.  For a brief moment I considered letting them stay right there…maybe they were better off? Safer?  No wind and all.  I decided against it.

Continued next time. 

House on Windy Hill STILL Standing!

The House on Windy Hill is still standing!

Not too long ago, I was on the phone with my manager and I warned him that we might be disconnected as we had a tornado warning going on.  My manager kindly asked if it was a question of safety and should we continue later.  I assured him it was fine….

Not two minutes after I hung up with said kind manager I heard the wind take on a strange new howl and things hitting the window right near my office desk.  I leaped up from my chair and raced towards the basement scooping up annoyed cats as I went and calling the dogs.   The house Dobby rolled his eyes at me while munching on the last piece of bread in the house telling me “It’s fiiine.” With that southern drawl of his that is more pronounced when he is trying to be in command of a situation.  Command or not, by the time the cats were scooped and the dogs had stopped running in circles…everything went silent. 

I though to myself “This is the eye of the storm, we are about to get plowed.”

 Dobby, finishing his bread wonders directly in front of the biggest window in the house to say…”Hmmm, you should see the round pen.” 

Stupidly, still holding now struggling cats I go to the window to peer outside into the darkness to see that my round pen was no longer round…more of a squashed semi circle at best.  Great.  The panels were quite mangled as well.  Perfect. 

squashed round pen March 31 2013

It seems that the wind was really gone for good, despite my staying in the basement for what seemed like a long time with the cats and dogs.  Dobby stayed upstairs and rummaged through the kitchen for more snacks, hollering down at me every so often things like  “Those cats are going to get very dirty, and I am not helping you bathe them. The dogs are going to have footprints all over the house from that dirty floor down there.”  And “Where is the syrup?!”

Admitting defeat and climbing up the stairs with filthy cats in hand and dogs awkwardly following me trying to get back up the stairs, I was greeting by a smirking Dobby at the landing. 

“That big old dead tree lost a limb and that is what crushed the round pen.” He informs me.

“Looked more like the wind blew it to me.”  I argued.

“Nope, it was a really big limb, and I am going to have to drag it out of there, and it’s going to be a pain, I am going to have to hook a chain up to it and pull it out with the truck probably.”

I countered with “Well, I didn't see a big limb and leave my dead tree alone.”

Old Dead Tree near my "used to be round pen"

“Lets go outside and look” he suggests.  I gamely agreed to go outside in the now drizzling rain and check it out.

The horses were looking at us glumly from beside the barn; having steadfastly refused to go inside of it during the entire ruckus I’m sure.  After a complete checking over, we surmised that the horses were in fine shape albeit wet and somewhat moody. 

The “BIG LIMB” was about 3 inches around and maybe two feet long at best.  That was the extent of the “big limb.”  I refrained from making any jokes about how men over estimate the size of things like that and pulled the limb out of what used to be the middle of my round pen ~ no truck and chain needed ~ ! The wind in fact had effectively smooshed the round pen together. 

On the other side of the house we saw more siding had come off. Several things were blown off the porch and in disarray as well.   This would explain the great tearing sound I had heard in my semi-mad dash down the stairs to the basement.  The burn pit had been squashed in similar fashion to the round pen. 

More Siding had come off and many things blown off porch.

While Dobby listed of all that he would have to do to repair the round pen and burn pit and how much time it would take and how difficult it would be and how he would really like a sock now, I lamented the loss of more siding.  We also noted that much of it had blown merrily into the farmers field along with the large water trough that had been standing in the pasture. 

Farmers field with my water trough and siding

  The smaller water trough was nowhere to be seen.  We have now lost three small water troughs to the whims of Windy Hill Windy-ness.   Maybe heavy rocks at the bottom of the smaller trough to hold it down on such occasions?  Is there some neighboring farmer scratching his head saying to his wife “Mabel, I surely don’t understand why someone keeps dumping these perfectly good livestock troughs here in the yard.”  I’m pretty sure ‘Mabel’ will have a very inspiring “flowering tub garden” made out of them this spring. 

credit:  twomenandalittlefarm.blogspot.com

One day I am going to build a windmill and have all of my energy free on Windy Hill.  I have to admit, I feel very Blessed that the house is still standing, I still have my roof and all the animals and ourselves are quite fine.  It seems the wind chose to be strongest on both sides of the house, but not over the house itself.  Maybe that constant rain cloud is protecting us:)