catastophy at silver Sage

Horses to take care of and feed! One of my favorite jobs. My in-laws who have 14 beautiful Quarter Horses and Paints plus three that belong to one of their adopted daughters were going on family vacation to Arizona for Thanksgiving. I and my two and five year old were to stay at their place and take care of the horses, dogs, fish and cats. I have known most of their horses since birth so was not worried about it. I love horses and two weeks living with them looked good to me.
The first week went on mostly uneventfully. Foxy their beautiful Paint mare got out once but didn't cause any trouble. I simply put her back in and went on with feeding and caring for the horses. I had to come back on Sunday and take care of my own horses so feed Sunday morning and left, all was well.
When I got back on Monday afternoon three horses meet me on the driveway as the dusk. More were milling about in the hay and I could hear the stallions somewhere in the back. Mares squealing and horses rushing about. I felt blessed that at least the boys were tuckered out and asleep in the truck. I knew I needed help and there was none near that I could think of. I first needed to figure out where the stallions were and get them into safe places. I could have used a hitching post or some trees but my in laws place is dreadfully bare of anything but sagebrush.
My father in Law suggested I put Dunny their good tempered line back dun in the horse trailer. First I had to get corals to that I could at least start to put some of the worst trouble makers out of my way. Copper the gelding seemed determined to run though everyone's pen. I was afraid to tie any of the mares up until I had the stallions where they could not be hurt or hurt the mares.
I drug pieces of the panel round corral around to make it into two pens one against the solid round corral and one free standing. By then Tanya was on the way to help and I had a couple of horses in and was working on finding halters and lead ropes. I could hear the stallions but did not see any fighting. Gunner the wonderful young paint stallion was still in his pen though part of his fence had been laid down on the ground by the mares. Copper the gelding was pestering him and trying to take mares to some other spot. Bless his heart he stayed right where he belonged. He is very nice to work with all the time and was pretty shy when they got him as a weanling colt.
Tonya arrived about the time with Brandon so we were able to get all the horses put away for the night with the stallions where they needed to be. By midnight we were all pretty exhausted and cold. I was happy that at least I had good warm winder clothes and had not suffered from the cold to much. Besides I had been working up a pretty good amount of body heat. We were all thankful that at least the snow had stopped coming about 10:00 PM. Our gloves had started to stick to everything metal before we were though and that was a new experience for me.
Sometimes I feel a lot like some of the horses acted. Going around in circles wondering where I am supposed to be headed. The world seems to be full of distractions with very little real sense of direction. I Peter 2:25 NKJV For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
It reminds me of the mares that night wondering around from one place to the other flirting with one stallion then another. Some of the younger mares were sticking close to the older mares and trying to stay away from both stallions and the gelding.
The gelding reminded me of Satan always pulling the mares away from the stallions or driving them through the fence, or breaking down the fences and letting mares out. The text about wicked men in Proverbs 6:14 where it says Perversity is in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord.
The next day my favorite mare Foxy was stuck in a small corral with Copper the gelding and who kept kicking and biting at her. She is one they have raised from a baby and she is wonderful with people. She is one of those pretty 50/50 colored paints with beautiful markings and a personality to match. She did something I would not have believed if I had not seen it with my own eyes. She managed to take the panels with her down a small embankment and flip the other panels up over Coppers head and down after her. It didn't do much for the panels and two of them were considerably shortened and twisted on one end. Foxy was lucky to only have a largely bruised knee. It reminds me of when people get caught in the devils trap and he torments them though addictions. It takes a lot to get out of that kind of situation and people always come though with emotional scares if not physical ones.

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