A Romp to Brighten a Dull Day

Trust our animals not to let a dull, gray, boring day go by if there's anything they can do about it!  I finished some work upstairs in Narnia and came down to wash my brushes in the kitchen sink.  As I stood looking out the window scrubbing brushes, suddenly Siobhan galloped through the back yard followed by Hero, barking loudly.  Oops!  Just like Miss Clavell in the middle of the night, I said, "Something is not right!"

So I called Hero and Misty into the house and headed out with Zephyr to try to help Herb.

Siobhan had gone plowing down the hill through the trees behind the house, so Herb sent me in the other direction to close the top gate.  By the time I got it closed, Siobhan had gone through the lower gate into Kara's Pasture.

She still wasn't with T-Bone in the Lower Pasture, thanks to her own bull-headedness (can a heifer be bull-headed?), and they were both bellowing loudly.  The neighbor at the other end of the road, seven tenths of a mile away, heard them!

I strolled along the fence between the two pastures toward the gate that Herb had open and ready.  Done frolicking, Siobhan followed quietly along.   Herb went into the pasture to keep T-Bone from heading out again, but when Siobhan saw him through the brush, she stopped dead.  So I called Zephyr to me, and she came, followed by Siobhan.  She just needed to be encouraged to behave!

Siobhan and T-Bone were happily reunited, for the time being.  Herb moved them into the Lower Pasture because it's got plenty of stockpiled grass, and T-Bone is there to be fattened up.  Herb put a hay bale in the run-in shed (in the background) because a freeze is coming in the next few days, so we want to supplement the grass and make sure T-Bone can eat to his heart's content.

Meanwhile, the horses had served their purpose of leading the cattle into the Lower Pasture, so we caught them to move them out--no competition allowed for T-Bone's grass!  Luckily, "catching" them just involves walking up to them.  If there wasn't so much nice grass, they probably would have come to us.

As I led Brandy out, Siobhan looked at me as if to say, " Do I LOOK like I want to cooperate?"

Julie didn't even need catching.  When her buddies left, she came galloping.

While Herb maneuvered the electric fence (which keeps the horses off their favorite part of the Back Pasture so they won't eat it to death), I turned Brandy loose.  She and Julie took off running before settling down to graze.

Unfortunately, Herb fumbled the electric gate, and both he and Angel got shocked.  Poor Angel!  As soon as he turned her loose, she took off indignantly, re-igniting Brandy and Julie into motion.  I don't know if you can see Herb's face in this photo, but he was laughing at poor Angel's reaction.

So except for Angel's nose . . .

a good time was had by all!

Zephyr was waiting for us at the house, all proud of herself for having helped with Siobhan.  Any romp is well that ends well!