Hide and Seek

Poplar Springs Farm is an exciting place.  With all the animals and living in the mountains, there is always something going on.  My mornings start out easy, about the time the sun comes up, with a cup of coffee and the internet, just in case something might have happened since I took my last peek before I went to bed the night before.  After I have had time to meet the morning, I start my chores with feeding the horses.  My very own horses first, and they are very eager for those morning morsels.  If they can, they will hurry and eat their portion and then mosey to the next stall to see if the other guys have anything left that they can mooch.  Let me introduce them to you:

The sorrel horse with the white blaze is Spirit, a very special horse, but that is a story for another day.  The Palomino with the dark main and tail is Marshal Dillon, a quarter horse cow pony, but boss gelding.  The black horse is Midnight Express, a Rocky Mountain Horse that was my retirement gift to myself.  Wonder why I chose him, huh?  The bay with the white diamond on his face is Sunny, my old Tennessee Walker.  Just by looking at these guys, you can tell that food is not a problem for any of them.  


This morning when I pulled into the barn to get their food, Midnight was in the hallway where horses are not supposed to be.  I thought I might not have latched the gate and Midnight is the curious one that knows how to open the gate.  He has orchestrated an escape before.  I got him back into the stall area with little problem, but two others were missing.  Sunny would never leave the barn and risk missing a meal, so he was the only one in the stall waiting.   


My first thought was that someone might have realized that I had the rescue horses and maybe as payback came and got my horses. Dillon has a bad eye and Spirit has a bad foot.  Not a lot of value to anyone except someone who loves them.


 Now I wondered if Charley and Speck were in their pasture.  Possibly Dillon and Spirit had gone visiting.  Maybe the logger that was cleaning up our storm timber had left a gate open although he has always been especially careful.  I drive down to feed Charley and Speck.  They are there to greet me with a welcoming whinny, but no horsey visitors were there.  I had no time with Charley and Speck this morning as my mind was on finding my other two.


Went home, changed vehicles, went the back road to find the logger and asked him if he had seen them this morning.  No, he had not, but oh by the way, he had never seen a horse gain weight like that white one up in the front pasture.  He told me that up until 10 years ago, he had used horses for his logging.  That is still done in some places as it is a very environmental friendly way to remove trees.  He said that he wished that he still had them so he could use them here at our place.  No time to talk, gotta go look for horses. 


By the time I had driven the Gator down to the bottom of the pasture, out of nowhere comes a flying Dillon. " What?  I can't be late for breakfast."  Dillon is never late for food.   Amazingly, he is on food restriction while I give as much as I can to Charley and Speck.   I was unable to close that gate in time, so into the wrong part of the barn he went.  Easy to fix, just walk him through.  But where is Spirit?


By the time I got back to the gate, Spirit was galloping at full speed to get  to breakfast.  I always have to stop and watch him run as he had a very serious leg injury and we were not sure he would even live, never mind run.   I was able to steer Spirit into the stall portion of the barn and all was well.  


Where were they?  Someplace hidden in the top pasture eating away at grass.  The logger had left that pasture gate open and closed the gate that goes into the barn.  Possibly they did not come as I was driving the truck instead of the Gator that I usually drive when I come to feed them.


Maybe they just wanted me to spend as much time with them as I have been the two guys up in the front pasture!