Live like someone left the gate open!

March 20, 2021, Volume 16, Issue 11

Live like someone left the gate open…This is one of my favorite sayings. Well, this past week, the horses certainly did!

It is always amazing to see the frolic that happens, when the horses get somewhere they just know they

are not supposed to be. Late last week I got a radio call from Randy that some horses had crossed over the bridge into his pasture and were heading North. This is two pastures West of where the herd is supposed to be!

With everyone else out doing different things around the ranch, I rounded up Emily and the two of us headed down the county road to park at the closest gate we could find. It is impossible to drive through the pastures right now, as they are spring thawing, and deep in mud and water.

So we hoofed it on foot (no pun intended), running through the pastures all the way to Randy and Dori’s place. Emily was calf deep in swampiness at times (for me it was knee deep!) but we pressed on. Luckily by the time we arrived at Randy’s house, he had corralled them all into one of his pens. We went around to close the gates to the surrounding pastures, thinking about the best way to get them back to the West Pasture. Randy was kind enough to drive his Kubota around the North side to get those gates so we didn’t have to keep traversing through the muck. He did pretty well until the way back when we heard the radio call for Dori to come down with the backhoe :-).

With Dori to the rescue to get Randy’s Kubota unstuck, Emily and I let the horses out, me directing them with a flag and Em blocking, to keep them headed towards their destination. It all went very smooth, as we uncrossed our fingers, and got them tucked back into their pasture for the evening. We cannot be 100% sure but Taps is always on the suspect list when it comes to opening gates. I have never seen a horse before that can open a rollup garage door, then the latched gate, and then proceed to let all of his buddies in (or out), which such efficiency! Just to be certain, Chris now has all the gates sporting carabineers that I doubt even Taps will figure out. We all sure did get our exercise that day!

In other exciting news on the ranch, Tommy Kilgore is back to help Scott and Kevin continue their farrier

education. It is that time of year again when all the shoes need to go back on. Each day they work their way through the herd, while getting valuable feedback from Tommy. At the end of the day, everyone gets to share their stories from the day and listen to Tommy’s experiences that he has had throughout his career.

All in all, it was a pretty fun week!

Until next time,

Janice