Shortly after arriving here on our farm, the horses broke out of the paddock. This happened one night after dark when I was home by myself. For whatever reason, catastrophe always strikes when my husband is at the firehouse. This night, it was nearing bedtime and I heard a commotion from the dogs outside. It wasn't the normal, "let us in, you're 5 minutes behind schedule" barking. Rather, it was the high intensity alarm reserved for more serious situations.
I looked out the front window and scanned the paddock. I squinted in an attempt to improve my vision. This did not produce the desired results. The paddock was truly devoid of all equine life and no amount of squinting made the horses appear.
I hurriedly shoved my feet into my boots and stumbled out the front door. I nearly catapulted head-first down the front stairs as I tripped over myself in an effort to get to the paddock as fast as possible. As I neared the paddock, I noticed the back gate was wide open. My heart was pounding wildly as I fought a complete state of panic.
Where were the horses????!!! They were on our farm for less than a week and I had already lost them!
I spun around at the crunch of a twig and through the darkness saw two white stripes facing me from the other side of the paddock. Thankfully, the horses were in the yard eating our lush lawn grass. I retrieved two leads from the barn, opened the side gate and led them through the paddock into their stalls.
After buttoning them up in their stalls for the night, I collapsed on a bale of hay from the exhaustion of my adrenaline-infused panic attack. I took a few minutes to recover and then went to investigate the open gate. Our paddock gates are standard tubular field gates. To lock these gates, you simply pull the attached chain around the fence post and loop it back through a small tab. It's a very simple "lock" and, when we first purchased the gates, both my husband and I had doubts about its effectiveness. It turns out our doubts were realized that night. One or both of the horses pushed on the gate hard enough to snap the chain and open the gate.
I was thankful the dogs sounded the alarm before the horses went too far. However, I found evidence of their travels while doing barn chores the next day. The light of morning revealed their exact route from the night before. Upon closer inspection, I noted hoof prints leading from the gate and up towards the driveway. I found dirt from their hooves all the way at the end of the driveway near the road. The horses had walked down the entire length of the driveway, only to turn around at the road and return to our yard.
For whatever reason, the horses decided to forgo complete freedom in exchange for lawn grass. Although, I like to think they decided our farm wasn't such a bad place after all.
I looked out the front window and scanned the paddock. I squinted in an attempt to improve my vision. This did not produce the desired results. The paddock was truly devoid of all equine life and no amount of squinting made the horses appear.
I hurriedly shoved my feet into my boots and stumbled out the front door. I nearly catapulted head-first down the front stairs as I tripped over myself in an effort to get to the paddock as fast as possible. As I neared the paddock, I noticed the back gate was wide open. My heart was pounding wildly as I fought a complete state of panic.
Where were the horses????!!! They were on our farm for less than a week and I had already lost them!
I spun around at the crunch of a twig and through the darkness saw two white stripes facing me from the other side of the paddock. Thankfully, the horses were in the yard eating our lush lawn grass. I retrieved two leads from the barn, opened the side gate and led them through the paddock into their stalls.
After buttoning them up in their stalls for the night, I collapsed on a bale of hay from the exhaustion of my adrenaline-infused panic attack. I took a few minutes to recover and then went to investigate the open gate. Our paddock gates are standard tubular field gates. To lock these gates, you simply pull the attached chain around the fence post and loop it back through a small tab. It's a very simple "lock" and, when we first purchased the gates, both my husband and I had doubts about its effectiveness. It turns out our doubts were realized that night. One or both of the horses pushed on the gate hard enough to snap the chain and open the gate.
I was thankful the dogs sounded the alarm before the horses went too far. However, I found evidence of their travels while doing barn chores the next day. The light of morning revealed their exact route from the night before. Upon closer inspection, I noted hoof prints leading from the gate and up towards the driveway. I found dirt from their hooves all the way at the end of the driveway near the road. The horses had walked down the entire length of the driveway, only to turn around at the road and return to our yard.
For whatever reason, the horses decided to forgo complete freedom in exchange for lawn grass. Although, I like to think they decided our farm wasn't such a bad place after all.
(Note: We've since installed heavy duty latches on all of the gates, just in case the horses change their minds!)
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