It’s been awhile since I’m written a “Life in the Country” post. When I first moved out to this wide open space, there were so many new things to experience and I tried to document them here.
I’m still experiencing new things but haven’t been as diligent about putting them into words. So here’s the first of three “Life in the Country” updates.
It’s been almost a year ago since this particular event but I’ll never forget it. It was my day off and I had spent most of the morning in the basement refinishing some furniture. I had worked straight through lunch and finally stopped sanding and staining around 2:00. I settled down in the living room with my soup and sandwich for a little break.
Just as I sat down, I caught a glimpse of a large figure running through our backyard. It’s not alarming to have dogs or rabbits or a squirrel scampering through the yard, but what I saw was definitely bigger than a dog. I got up to check.
I walked through the patio doors to see four horses munching on grass in our backyard. There aren’t any wild horses out here so it was obvious that these particular horses had escaped from wherever they belong.
I didn’t know what to do. I thought I could leave them and maybe they would just wander onto the next yummy yard or get homesick. Our horse, who was locked up safe and sound in our field, was getting agitated (probably jealous), which made the four escapees jumpy and agitated too.
One of our neighbors has four horses who have run away from home before, so I figured that’s where they came from. I knew the neighbors weren’t home during the day, and I was worried the horses would wander off even farther away from home. I took a deep breath and told myself, “It’s up to you. You have to do this!”
I went into our barn (yes my dear college friends I have a barn), for what - I didn’t know. I just figured I couldn’t use my persuasive personality to get them home. I had to use some horse accessory or country-living tool and what better place to find that than in a barn.
I found a rope looped up on a hook and grabbed it. I walked into the yard with my rope and just started laughing. Who did I think I was? What in the world was I going to do with this rope? What about my life experience up to this point gives me any idea what to do with a horse and a rope? Did I think I would suddenly garner the ability to lasso, and if I did – then what? Any one of those horses could have dragged me to Michigan if they wanted to.
I reassessed the situation and returned to the barn. In a moment of inspiration I had it. I grabbed a rusty old coffee can and dipped it into the bucket of sweet feed (that’s horse food for those of you like me who are “country clueless”).
I walked out of the barn shaking my coffee can to entice those four massive beasts to me. It worked. They suddenly were willing to see things my way.
I was able to coax three of them through the yard, up our drive, down the dirt road, down the neighbor’s drive and into their own backyard. The fourth horse was the most stubborn and powerful and remained in our front field. I couldn’t worry about him at the moment though. I was too busy sweet talkin’ these three.
I had seen John’s mom scare a cow back into a field once by waving her arms up and down like a big bird and squealing like a pig. I tried it and turns out it works on horses too. I got all three horses corralled and locked up.
The fourth one decided he didn’t want to roam the countryside all alone so he came home on his own. I opened the gate and let him join his friends.
And then I took a deep breath. I was filthy, scared, hungry, and gosh darn proud of myself (you have to say “gosh darn” when you’ve accomplished a country-living feat of this magnitude).
And then I called John to have him guess how I spent my afternoon. He didn’t guess but when I told him, he was gosh darn proud of me too.
Next up on "Life in the Country" - The Possum Trap
