Don't forget to secure the gates!

Friday night, Chuck and I took Lauren and Sarah to see Up! It was great. But we got home a little later than usual. While I was putting Lauren and Sarah to bed, Chuck went out to the barn to do the last of the chores (feed the three horses who eat 3x a day instead of twice, put out a little more hay for any horse staying in his stall overnight). Just as I was getting ready to change for bed myself, Chuck ran into the house to get me. Someone (we have boarders and riders who often are at the farm till dusk or later) left the back gate to the paddock open. The paddock that is the current home of Vixen and baby Patty! It is attached to the barn, so they can get in and out of their stall at will. When Chuck went to give Vixen her grain, he noticed that she was not in her stall. He walked to the paddock and discovered the open gate and NO VIXEN OR PATTY!!! They had gone out into the big pasture with at least ten other horses! We had to find them and bring them back -- He was worried that they would run Patty too much and she might get hurt! And Vixen is very protective of the foal, so anything could happen out in that pasture. It was pitch dark, so Chuck had the idea that we would have to drive the truck into the pasture and use the headlights to find them. We grabbed grain (to attract the horses), a halter to get Vixen lead back to her stall (knowing Patty would follow) and headed out. Luckily, we quickly saw all the horses near Vixen in the middle of the pasture. Patty was resting and Vixen was standing guard over her. She is such a good mother! Now, our hope was that Vixen would easily let us catch her, and that Patty still had enough energy to get up and walk down to the barn. Vixen did let us approach her and Chuck got the halter on her while I fed her a little grain from my hand. The only problem was that grain attracted all the other horses! So, while Chuck lead Vixen and Patty to the barn (Caesar followed -- he is really protective of Vixen) I stood and fed the other horses grain from my hand. Have you ever been surrounded by 5 or six horses all wanting the little bit of Grain you have in your bucket? By the time the grain was gone, Chuck, Vixen, Patty and Caesar were far enough away that the other horses had forgotten about them. As I tried to get back in the pick up truck, Buck was sure I must have more grain and tried to get his head right in the truck! I finally got him backed off so I could close the door. By the time I drove back down to the barn, Chuck had Patty and Vixen safely back in their stall. Phew. Lots can happen on a farm! And it sure is a 24 hour a day job!