Beautiful moments last night with one the quirkiest Mustangs we’ve had yet.
Last week I took Spur into town for the first time. We rode all around our tiny mountain town and into the school yard. He met the staff and a lot of the students, and was perfectly content sleeping and letting kids love on him while others were noisily playing basketball and on the swings.
Today I ponied him alongside Lacy to help Tay Martin find a wayward bull. Turns out 20 kids on a playground are fine. Riding on the road is fine. Traffic is fine. Dogs, water, group rides, loose horses, trailer loading in the dark: Fine.
Cattle, especially facing him? A death threat. I’ve never seen a horse have a meltdown of such epic proportions over a bovine. I can hold onto a horse and I hardly ever lose one, but Spur up and quit the scene on us today.
We had just gone from 1 problem – loose bull – to 2 – loose bull and loose horse – when our brand inspector texted me, wanting to know if he could come do Ruby’s brand inspection. I told him no can do, that I’d just hard released a horse while having a stand off with a bull and was going to be busy for a while yet.
“You’re not supposed to lose a horse while finding a cow.” was what came back. “Good to know.” I replied.
Ultimately and after much back and forth (Lacy is a tough and willing little wannabe cowpony), the bull found his girlfriends (the wrong ones) and Breanna Engle found Spur with barely a scratch and called me so we could meet. He ponied the last couple of miles back to Taylor’s house like he hadn’t just been on a big adventure.
Yay for living in the middle of nowhere where people know each other and who might be missing what horse, and are savvy enough to catch it.
Spur qualified for the cow camp of shame at the end of a long, eventful day. By the end of it he could not only breathe the same air as Taylor’s colorful herd of Scottish Highland cattle; he could also stand across the fence from them and even follow and *gasp* touch them.
On days like today I remind myself of moments like last night, when the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy herd had wandered off to graze and Spur watched the moonrise with me. And of what a ball of fire and chaos Lacy could be when she was younger.
I like to look for silver linings once the dust settles, the sweat dries and heart rates are within normal limits again. Everyone is in one piece. Important lessons were learned. Everyone was helpful, patient and kind.
Taylor is going to start bringing her show cows over to visit the Mustangs so the horses can see some cattle before they have chance encounters in the real world and the fluffs can get used to traveling. Win-win-win.
#horses#mountains#bettertogether#fullmoon#outdoors#makingmountainmustangmemories
