Wondering Horse

The other night about 8pm I heard the neighbors dogs barking and my mare, Star, whinnying so I went out to see what was going on. At first I didn't see anything then something nudged me in the back. I knew instantly it was a horse, I've been nudged like that so many times, but what was one doing in front of the garage? It was my Quarter Horse mare, Nita. Apparently hubby or I didn't get her gate shut good when we gave them their afternoon snack and filled water buckets. I'm not sure how long she was out but by the time I got to her she was ready to go back to her pen for the night feeding we do at about 9pm.

Since we still have mud from all the rain we have been having it was easy to follow her tracks the next day and see where she had been. First she went to the cottonwood tree right outside her pen that has a nice bunch of grass growing at the base of the truck and ate the grass. Next she sampled some of my roses near the tree and tip-toed through a pile of used lumber and sheets of tin that we had pulled of the hayshed roof last year to replace with better material so the roof didn't leak. We have slowly been using the lumber and tin for some other minor projects but it was a messy pile of junk that no horse should have been in. Next she visited the two ponies in their pen and went on by the kitchen window and into the back yard. To get there she had to go under the brase that helps hold up the gate that is usually left open. The brase is just over 6 feet tall, enough for hubby to walk under. Nita is 15 and a half hands tall so if she had her head up she would have smacked into the brase. (you can see it in the photo taken last week when it snowed) She made a trip around the back yard and walked right by the hole that the dogs had dug that morning (I think they were after one of the rats that tunnel under the garden). She then when back out the same gate and by the kitchen again to where she was by the garage when she and I found each other.

I couldn't find even a tiny scratch on her. I think she might be the kind of horse the cowboys called a 'night horse' because they can get around in the dark so well. I was just glad she didn't get hurt.