Eowyn Grows up

For those who don't know, Eowyn is my 4 1/2 yo half-arab filly. She just finished her first Limited Distance endurance ride this past weekend. All horses below are OK (thankfully Storm is a NICE boy as such. Chey could have really gotten seriously hurt or even Storm. Good thing the boys worked things out and only scrapes came out of it. But any of you considering keeping a stud where there might be mares, make sure your fences are REALLY secure as are ALL LATCHES to gates. I thought they were..now I am going DOUBLY secure, LOL... live and learn..first time at this "stallion adventure" thing, so there were bound to be some bobbles...

aka: Why Terri and I are Not Going to High Desert Classic This Weekend
Well, here is another story for ja...sigh...oh the joys of stallion boarding/ownership/training (note for all ja that are even thinking of it...even the "good boys" are still BOYS...). Terri and I were all set to go to the HDC ride this weekend. Leaving this afternoon actually. Well, we have two major bobbles that decided against it. The second and final clincher was her truck's clutch going out today as she went to finish up some last minute chores in town before we left. Won't be fixed til Monday sometime, but at least it didn't happen on the road with horses in tow...
The first bobble happened this morning though. Terri calls me up at about 9am and left me a mssg (was out dealing with chickens myself) and all I could do was shake my head and laugh. It's never a dull day at the Tinkham Ranch... turns out, when she made her way down to the pasture/barn area to feed this morning, she had a wonderful surprise. Let me give you the setup we have at her place.
She has a two-horse run in shelter with a small hay/grain storage attached to the back. This is at the "front" fence of the pasture area (bout 4 acres maybe). A bit further in, is our 60ft roundpen, then a little further is a 3-horse run in shelter near the "left side" fence of the pasture area. We took this 3-stall and closed off the last stall and with cross fencing (as seen on my blog back when I got Storm) we built Firestorm his own pasture and shelter area. Most of it is fairly high no-climb type fence with a line of hot tape on top and inside at chest height. The "gate" area is a corral pipe panel gate with the hot tape going across as a gate inside it as well. The only "weak" spot is in the shelter area. We split off his "stall" of the shelter from the other two with pipe corral panels that were already there (it used to be our "guest" and "quarantine" and otherwise separate a horse area...could leave gates open and work as run-ins or close off and work as stalls w/runs as needed). Near the head/food area they had built in plywood side walls that were pretty solid. So just the 2panel length from the plywood to Storms other fencing was only 5ft high with no hot fence (that has now been remedied...it has hot fence on top and inside all over today!). The 3 boys (Chey, Oli, and Storm) got along fine, so that seemed to work great. When one of the mares came by (before or after a ride to have em all in one place for trailering), the 3-stall area gates were all shut and that kept storm sequestered behind several fences.
Until today.
We had Eowyn at Terri's after the ride cause all three went in her trailer and I had the goats in mine. Normally she is with her mom and Jazz at my "mare pasture" in the next two towns over. She was, of course, in heat (like her mother, traveling ALWAYS brings her in heat...also like mom, she is a terrible slut...siiighhhh). Can you all see where this is going already??
Anyway, near as we can figure is this: Eowyn (who was kinda oogling poor Storm already) must have jiggled with the gate latch (she always plays with this stuff, tears stuff hanging on fences, opens doors, etc...) til it was open (it will get a snap lock as backup next too from now on), in the "pen" that adjoins Storms. Terri thought it was Storm, but I watched him this morning while he was in that stall (while I fixed up his nice and secure with more hot fencing and Eow was locked in the roundpen and both were yelling at each other like freaking Romeo and Juliet..sighhh) and he was hanging his head over the gate, pawing hte fence, etc...but didn't even TRY to mess with the latch system. Like he had no idea what it was for. Eow knows exactly what they are for....she was known as an escape artist at the trainers, who had similar latches to ours...So I think SHE opened it, went to the (single line of panels, no hot fence) fence adjoining Storm's pen, and teased him. Well, he got tired of the teasing and wanted to get some...and he did.There is a nice dent in the top of one panel, where he went over it.
What met Terri this morning: Eowyn and Storm playing snuggly, starry eyed lovers in one area of the pasture...Oliver minding his own darn business in another area of the pasture (he had not a mark on him. smart boy knew when to stay out of BIG MAN'S way and leave well enough alone). Cheyenne cowering in the 3-stall shelter with bite and kick scrapes all over him (luckily none bad and nothing worse than those, and a bit of a stiff gait from overexertion in the fight...) cause he was NOT smart enough to stay out of it and has always fancied himself "stud" of our herd.
So....per our call in to the vet: in three weeks we are doing a preg check on the filly (who is now TRULY "all grown up"...guess that is ONE way to celebrate your graduation...:P) and aborting if she took (which, if she is like her mom, she took. And I know that Storm usually shoots well on the first shot and they both had who knows how long last night to get it right...). Sighhhhhh...ah well. Guess neither Terri or I can complain of boredom, right??
nat