Locking Down

The other day we noticed that the Filly was inside the middle of our pasture paradise. At first I had to stop and make sure no other horses were in there and once I realized it was just her, I was confused. My first thought was that they’d pulled down a section of fence or it had torn in the wind.

Tia later told me she’d seen Filly go under the ribbon, apparently unaffected by the shocks. I walked out there and tested it and it seemed to be working, so we were confused a little, but decided that she’s insulated enough now that it doesn’t bother her.

This morning Tia asked if we could string a line low on the poles to keep her out. Since her legs are less wooly, they likely aren’t insulated that well and she would stop. So Delaney and I went out there, him driving the ATV with the electric string on it and my slipping it into the posts. They have a bracket, so it went pretty well until Delaney went too far and we snapped a piece.

Not a big deal, we took it off the ATV, grabbed plastic brackets for the corners and stuffed our pockets (Delaney pretended they were grenades) and then started stringing again. I tied the pieces together and kept pushing string in the brackets, Delaney walked backwards feeding it out. In about 10 minutes we were 3/4 of the way around and ran out of string.

My plan was to go to Big R, but since the ATV belt light was on, I wanted to drop that off before I left for my trip. Delaney agreed to help, though he didn’t want to go to Big R. So I drove the 2 miles to the has station and strip mall, Delaney following on the ATV. He put on his snow helmet and goggles, so he was protected, and we made it up there and dropped it off. Then I brought him home for more play time and I went and got more string.

My return trip picked up Delaney, drove him up there and he rode the ATV back. A little over 1/2 way he was feeling confident and passed me and I then followed him. We did this early in the spring and he was nervous. He actually rode Kendall home with the ATV, but they went about 12-15mph the whole time, which is slow. This time he was pretty comfortable and he looked like he was in control about 25mph, which is what I paced him at most of the time.

We got home, he abandoned me, and I went to finish stringing the low line. I had more plans, but it’s getting late, Kendall has soccer, and we have errands to run, so I decided to knock off for now. Likely more metal tomorrow if the weather is OK and then some football and I’d like to try and make 4-5 pens this week to take to PASS.