Our horses are turned out into big pastures; some pastures as small as 300 acres and sometimes the pasture is as large as 2000 acres. Generally, we do not feed them hay. They find their own food just like the cows do.
And they have a great life. They run together as a herd, can be on the move for miles each day, and get to select the diet that they choose. We’ve been here on this ranch for nearly 60 years and it’s always been that way.
However, sometimes things don’t go so well. (This story ends well, so no worries)
I monitor the horses daily during the summer as it is critical they have access to water every day. During the summer they come in for water just once a day and in the winter time, it can be 2 to 3 days before they come in for water.
Anyway, I watch them pretty closely to make sure that everybody shows up, because sometimes something happens and a horse gets left behind or they find an open gate and end up in the wrong pasture.
Just the other day, I counted eight horses instead of nine.
Star was the missing horse and figuring she was back in the brush somewhere I scouted around, but I couldn’t find her. I looked for her tracks and narrowed down the area where we should find her.
Then I got Karl to help me as she is his partner. We each caught another horse, took them out in the brush and waited for them to whinny, which they happily did so but… still no Star. When Josiah and Stefan showed up, I sent them to a different part of the pasture and we all crawled through the brush and searched for Star.
After several hours of searching, we still couldn’t find her and I was becoming very concerned. I knew she had to be in the Mesquite Bosque which encompasses about a 50 acre area. If she wasn’t answering the other horses, and we couldn’t find her in the brush, then I feared she was either seriously ill or dead.
In thick Mesquite Bosque it can be very difficult to find animals, especially if they’re standing really still. Finally, Stefan to the rescue! We found Star! She was up against some field fencing and completely surrounded by Mesquite.
There was only one way into this tiny little enclosure and she had to have ducked down at least a foot to get in underneath the branches. Something must’ve spooked her pretty badly or she would never have gone in there. (We have lots of mountain lion around here and one could’ve easily startled her enough that she looked for a safe place.) She must’ve really wanted to get in there and once she got there, she couldn’t figure out how to get back out again because she would’ve had to be almost on her knees in order to get through the brush.
Often times when horses get scared, they go crazy and will run through fences or do something else that will get them seriously hurt. Fortunately, for us and for Star, she was very levelheaded and waited for us to come to her rescue. My guess is she was there a minimum of 12 hours before we found her. We had to get the chainsaw out to cut some branches so we could lead her out and she stood calmly for the entire process.
She was not hurt other than a few scratches and was very happy to see her buddy Karl come to her rescue. Thank goodness for that happy ending!
Karl and Star
Happy trails,
Kimberley
Commentaires