I have missed penning a word or two for you to read, but this time of year is extremely busy around our house with recreation and D2 soccer, Middle School baseball and USSSA (youth) baseball games and practice. It has been busy and we are staying in the road between athletic events...and I would not change it for anything. I simply wish there were more hours in the day. I told someone the other day...or maybe I tweeted it, rest enough to move on to the next thing you want to do. There will be plenty of time for napping at the end of our time here.
I was going to tell you a little story that while it was in the making took a great deal of my time over the four days of last weekend. Our horses and our donkey got out of the back pasture when a tree fell across the fence. Actually two trees fell across two different places on the back fence line. Ok, that has happened before and will happen again but, this time they found their way into a huge are of pine forrest and simply put wandered around until they found trouble. I followed their tracks for almost nine miles, back and forth as, I can only assume, they were looking for trouble. Within twenty four hours they found it in the form of a stud horse and a couple of mares. Remember that our little horse is a stud and so is the donkey. We also have a wonderful mare that usually keeps the other two out of trouble. It didn't work this time.
To cut to the chase of this story, my ass got arrested along with the little stud and his mother. When I finally got to the scene of the crime I ran into Mr. Lewis. Mr. Lewis is an extremely nice man whom I have known for some time. He didn't know where I lived and I didn't know where he lived but it was his pasture that our "gang" began to terrorize. Mr. Lewis has served on our Zoning Board and me being an alderman in town worked closely with them for a short while at in our first term. Anyway, when my "gang" of horses arrived at his place he didn't know where they came from and didn't know they were ours. He tried to control them but when you get two studs together nothing good is going to come from that. Well one thing led to another and he had to call Animal Control, which in our county is the Sheriff's department. The short of it is, "MY ASS WAS ARRESTED." Along with my ass, the mare and the little stud were all arrested by the Sheriff.
They were taken to Animal Jail and I had to make arrangements to get the home. I found that I was going to have to bail them out and go and get them. I don't own a horse trailer so I had to find one to rent and that is not as easy as it might sound. So a week ago Friday, I had to take a day off of work, walk 9 miles through woods I didn't know, talk to an old friend, got my ass along with my ass's entire gang arrested. I had to bail my ass and the gang out. I rented a trailer and went to bail them out. When I got there to bail them out I found out that the little stud had resisted arrest and didn't want to leave the jail. I made a trip back to our place and returned the two that wanted to put this whole bad ordeal behind them. They both seemed to be ashamed of their actions and humbly loaded into the trailer and then had to quickly return to animal jail before they were closed for the weekend. I made it back right at closing time and the "warden" graciously agreed to help me load my hoodlum horse after hours. The hoodlum, however, was not happy to get out. He obviously was enjoying the company of the other jail-bound horses. So, after 45 minutes of struggling I took my exhausted butt home.
Once home Dre' went north to Oxford with Logan where he competed all weekend in a soccer tourament and I stayed home with Holden who had a baseball tournament that lasted all weekend. The whole weekend, I worried about how I was going to load the little horse in the trailer that he didn't want to get in. As I usually do, I searched the web for answer to my problem. And as usual, I found a good site that gave me the answer I searched for.
Sunday night I stayed up watching this Australian cowboy's videos and learned a lot about how to gain the trust of a frightened horse. I took that combined with what I had learned from the Wild Horse Ministries out of Louisiana a few years back and I was able to load the horse with a little time and patience and headed home on Monday morning. He, by the way was not humble. I got him home and my ass, who is the disciplinarian in the pasture, chastised him for his poor behavior over the past few days.
It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. I don't want my ass arrested again anytime soon. In these times when the economy is not very good, having a surprise cost of several hundred dollars thrown at you is not a good or fun surprise. I guess the good news is, they didn't hurt themselves or anyone else and they are home safe.
What a weekend. I hope to be back at the computer on a more regular basis now. Thank you for your patience with me.
I have added a few photos I have taken around the house in the last couple of days. I hope you enjoy them.
