SWARMED!

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

Just returned from a greatly abbreviated training ride.

My niece finally got a horse to start endurance on.  She's leased Dave
Bennett's really nice horse Ben Amil.  She came down this weekend all
ready to go out on a big ride.

We made it one mile from the house and were crossing a large steel girder
bridge over Lookout Creek.  We always lead the horses across this bridge.
  I was leading Kaboot in front and he sort of leaped forward at one
point as if the sound of the boards had scared him.  That's unusual for
him but I didn't think anything about it.  Got to the other side and
heard Ashley scream.  Turned around to see her and Ben being SWARMED by
hornets!  I think that's the first time I've seen bees literally swarming
somebody.  I yelled "turn him loose" and she came running across the
bridge.  Fortunately, Ben trotted across just behind her (bless his heart
he didn't turn and run home!)  

I'm always careful this time of year to check the horsetrailer for wasp
nests that seem to get built overnight, and this is the second year we've
had to retire a helmet that wasn't used for a week and ended up with a
bird nest in it, but this gives me a whole new area to check out in the
spring.  We headed for home immediately.  I wasn't sure how many times
she'd been stung (probably turned out to be about 5) and I was afraid
she'd have a reaction or something. To get home we had to take down some
fencing and wade Lookout Creek.  Looking up from underneath we could see
a large hornet's nest built just under the support on a girder.  *shiver*

Fortunately, she said they quit hurting pretty quick so we did a few
spins around my little woods trail behind the house and she had a good
time.

Angie (who'll be very careful to check the TRAIL in the spring too!)

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