Can't blame you! Had the reverse scenario
here a few weeks ago, though--had three loose horses here (two mares and a
gelding) running amok around our place, teasing the stallions, eating hay left
out to feed, etc. I called all the neighbors I could think of, called the
sheriff's department, put an ad on the radio, and put up fliers at the local
store that constitutes our "town." No response. These horses
wandered in and out--sometimes here, sometimes over sloppy barbed wire onto the
BLM from the parts of the place where we don't have our own horses. To top
it off, I couldn't catch them. Came home on the 3rd day, to find that one
of the mares had come in heat--and had gotten up against the fence where one of
our young stallions is and the result was a trashed fence and all four out
loose together. Thank God no one hurt, and furthermore, thank God
they had all gone down into the hay fields and hadn't come up to feud with the
other stallions! Ironically, the gelding wouldn't allow the stallion close
enough to the hot mare to breed--defending his herd, and all that. So I
caught my stallion, and the three dutifully trooped into his paddock with
him. (He's in about 3 acres, so they had plenty of room.) Figured at
least that way nobody would get hurt. Came home the next day to find
the three horses gone, no note, no nothing. Got a call later that evening
from an irate woman calling me all manner of names for putting her "valuable"
Quarter Horses in with that "IGnerent Ay-rab Stud" and cussing me up one wall
and down the other. I could hardly get a word in edgewise, but finally DID
convey the message to her that the next time her "valuable" Quarter Horses are
up here traipsing through the barbed wire (BTW, they had to come through at
least two barbed wire range fences just to GET here) and jeopardizing the
welfare of MY horses, if no one cares enough to come claim them
post-haste, I'll just solve the whole problem with my 30-06. I hated
to get goaded into losing my temper, but HONESTLY, where does an idiot like this
get off, if she doesn't even know where her horses ARE for the better part of 4
days? <sigh>
