Well, it didn't take long........but .............it was a real nice fall day late August. I had just gone to work for the afternoon when I got a call from my husband: "the fence is down, the horse is loose and the ducks are out!"
In a panic, I called my neighbors for help getting Cochise. I was not concerned so much for the ducks (though I should have). I raced home (I am not kidding here, at least 90 mph!). When I arrived, my husband and 3 neighbors were trying to calm down Cochise to get him back in the barn.
Cochise had managed to take down 100 feet of electric fence AND the duck pen! (more later)
Cochise can be a stinker, so I knew it would be trouble if they tried to rush him. I arrived and calmly walked over to Cochise. As I approached I was thinking, "OK, he doesn't have his halter on (my fault) and I don't have a rope or lead....."
A billion, no.... trillion things flashed in my brain. Then, somehow, I realized I had on a belt! So I took off my belt and put it around Cochise's neck. Just in time too because a car was whipping up the road like no tomorrow. Thankfully the neighbors, who were helping, flagged the driver to slow down.
Just as the car went by Cochise bolted and he was off an running again! DAMN! I couldn't hold my belt tight enough to lead him back home. Not be be discouraged, because by now my blood pressure was probably off the map, I pursued the wild *#$(%^ mustang.
We finally, after 2 and 1/2 hours of baiting , talking, herding, pleading with Cochise to behave, I got him to follow me to the back of the barn. He was hesitant of the downed fence, so on neighbor moved it aside to allow a path for me and Cochise to cross without fear.
Cochise was pretty tired ( and so were we), and he followed me into the barn and then into his stall. WHEW!!!!!!!!!!! Cochise was as glad as we were to be back "home".
In the meantime, the ducks, (remember the ducks?) had flown in all directions because Cochise, in his frantic mania, getting caught in the electric fence, drug it around, trashed the duck pen and finally escaped. Poor guy was zapped probably 10 or more times before he broke loose.
Anyway, 2 ducks vanished, so all that remain are: Bill, Jill, and Sally. I am hoping for a return, but it's been 4 days now and not a sighting.
I looked at the yard were the fence WAS and noticed that there were "skid" marks heading toward the fence. So probably what happened was that Cochise was merrily being a yearling colt and decided to run up and down the hill around the tree and lost footing in the soft ground, slide into the electric fence......and now you know the rest of it.
Only on The Big Sky Ranch.......
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