So one of our neighbor's horses got loose in our yard today. It was super weird because rather than there being a fence down, her going through it, or her jumping over...it turned out that she'd gone UNDER the fence. Yeah. Under it. Huge horse.
There is a portion of our fence that only has one string of barbed wire (just a few feet of fence) but the neighbors have the white electric cord type fence around their whole property (they never turn it on, it just helps the horses see where the fences are because they have a lot of land and they take in retired horses so they don't want any new horse running around and ending up running into a fence because they can't see it) so that does the trick keeping them in. Apparently, at some point, one of the poles for the white fence came up a bit and took the cords with it. My mom and I are assuming that the mare was eating (as they usually do when they are out) and was able to get under easily with her head down. Since the neighbors weren't home...we had to find a way to get her to go BACK under. Have you ever tried to wrestle a stubborn horse away from food without a halter and only yourself? It's impossible.
Ski rope! We have a speed boat so my mom went and got one of the soft ropes for skiing and I wrapped it around her neck, somehow managed to get her to lift her head with my mom's help, then wrapped another portion around her nose and held it all together under her chin as a makeshift halter. Like magic, she was suddenly ready to do whatever I asked her to. Thank the heavens she was halter trained so well.
The adventure was now getting her to go under the fence again which meant trying to keep her head down. She did at first but after I went under, she decided to lift her head some and the one bit of wire brushed against the top of her head. Obviously...this was terrifying. She panicked and bolted but thankfully it meant she made it through to her own field with only a few hairs on the wire to show she'd ever been there and the rope, since I was the only thing holding it together, easily slid off as she galloped away. She only went a few yards before stopping and going right back to eating. She was traumatized only until she remembered that she was eating.
I was standing to the side (just to be safe) so she didn't even brush me in her wild escape but all that wrestling with her before has left my arms a little sore. A reminder of the interesting adventure that began my day. My mom and I tried to fix the fence some...we're just hoping it doesn't happen again. I think we got lucky getting her through this time, next time may be more difficult now that the fence claimed some of her mane.
