Just my luck...

Most everyone knows that my husband Matt is an avid horseman. In fact, he grew up on a farm & has raised, broke, trained & has shown horses practically his whole life!

Matt riding our old horse Fancy

When I was young...all I ever wanted was my own horse. Just ask my parents...I had it all planned out just where we'd keep one & everything. Well, sometimes Matt travels out of town for work. On these occasions it is up to me to feed.

We recently got a new horse...meet Zeke.

He's very kind & gentle & he likes attention...something our old horse never liked..she was very ornery.

This past saturday, I had to feed because Matt was out of town. This was my first time to feed Zeke, but I did what I had always done before...I left the stall door unlatched but closed so I wouldn't have to juggle that & feed at the same time. The doors are heavy enough that the horses can kick them & they will stay closed.

However, Zeke is smart enough to fully open the door because that is exactly what he did. The next thing I knew Zeke was trotting out of the barn, out into the yard & of COURSE I would be the only one home to catch him! Just my luck....

Fortunately, since he is so calm, he didn't run into the neighborhood, or down the road & out the circle into oncoming traffic. That is what immediately flashed into my head! Even though we live in a subdivision, with land that allows us to have barns & horses, we are still inside the city limits!

*This* came to mind!

He had no halter on, so the first thing I grabbed was a lead line & headed out after him. Thankfully he was enjoying the grass so I could walk right up to him. Of course, he figured out what I was trying to do, so he would scamper off to another part of the yard while I'm calmly saying...whoa...whoooaaaaa.

OK skip to the part where I finally was able to loop the line around his neck & take charge. Otherwise the hopping around the yard lasted awhile. Once he knew who was boss...he slowly trudged across the yard, back into the stall...No more funny business.

After he was tucked safely back in his stall & I had the door secured & latched...he tried it ONE more time...just to see if I had remembered. Maybe his sore nose will teach him not to try that again! When I told Matt...his first words were...Oh yeah...he tries to do that all the time. Well...thanks for letting me in on that.

I'm just glad it wasn't our old horse or I would have NEVER caught her & all the fears from above would have come true!