Little booger

With a new boarder comes the fun of herd integration.  On Sunday and Monday I turned pony out with Daisy in the electric as the owner had said he can be a bit of a Houdini.  I wanted him to respect my fences since they are not as solid as I would like and at 12,000 volts on a low amperage fence I figured he would respect it fairly quick!  Those two got along fine and when I brought the boys in Monday night, Pony threw a fit whinnying and running around even though he had been separated from them by a fence and he still had his donkey in the pasture.  On Tuesday we were to get severe storms so at lunch I opened the fences and let Pony introduce himself to the boys, this way if storms came everyone could go into shelter instead of just the boys.  It was extremely boring.  No squealing, no kicking, no ears, just "Oh, okay, hi.  Let's eat".  I ate lunch outside to watch them and got bored and went back to work.  I checked on them at 1, 2 and 3p and everyone was quiet and happy.


At 545p I finished work and went downstairs to make dinner.  I saw the boys and the donkey in the electric part of the fence and figured Pony was in the arena.  I picked up a pan off of the stove and put it in the sink to wash and thought to myself "I should check on the pony".  I followed that thought by "He is fine, he isn't getting out of the pasture".  I turned the water on to wash the pan and thought "I really need to check on the pony".  I threw some shoes on and went to the arena and as I was approaching the arena I had the pit in my stomach.  I already knew he wasn't there and it turns out I was right.  I now have a brand new pony that has escaped after being in my care only 48 hours, he has been gone up to 2.75 hours and I have no idea where he is.

I called my immediate neighbors and no one had seen him, I grabbed a feed bucket and walked the pasture and (still, to this day) could not find where he got out or find tracks to try to track him.  I then called his owner and then the police to report a missing pony and walked across the street to the huge field, no pony.  Just by luck someone pulled into my neighbors drive and said yes they had seen a pony down the road in a neighbors back field.  Picture me trotting my out of running shape butt down the road with a halter and lead in one hand and an orange halloween bucket in the other.  I am sure it was a sight.  It just so happened another neighbor was checking her mail on her golf cart as I was running by and she offered to drive me down the road to get the pony, thank goodness!!!  Nothing like already being out of breath and being offered a ride after someone has spotted your lost pony to make your day look better.  Did I mention it was misting/raining during this?  Of course it was.

Thankfully we saw the pony near one of the semi-major roads and when I called him he looked at me.  When I rattled the (orange with black pumpkins and bats) bucket with oats he trotted over to me with a whinny.  I was very relieved I didn't have to chase him all over creation, thanked the neighbor and walked home.  Pony has some impressive scrapes and scratches, I am not sure if they are from the App beating up on him or scrapes from him getting out or scrapes from running through the brush.  I cleaned him up by the time his owner arrived and gave him a half gram of bute and called it a night. 

Neither the owner nor I can find any indication of where he may of gotten out. There are no signs in the ground anywhere in the pasture of a scuffle, no signs in the grass of footprints or rustling, no fence is out of place, it is very baffling.  My only conclusion is that he squeezed between the Electrobraid and got zapped but he still kept going.  I am keeping him separated from the boys until this weekend in case it was the App being a bully.  I can't think of any other reason of why Pony got out on the only day he was with the boys and hasn't gotten out before or since.  Hopefully things settle down else I will put a hobble and muzzle on the App.  Not sure what else I can do with the PIA if he won't stop being a bully, darn horse.