Outside the Office Window

My office has three windows.

To the west, I see tree leaves and pine needles. To the north is our front pasture that no animals are grazing now. To the east are the sheep pastures.

I paused this morning when my peripheral vision caught a Haflinger trotting outside the east window. The horses were supposed to be in the south pasture. Last night, when I fed them, they were in the south pasture.

So much for my relaxing reading and coffee in the early dawn hours of a Sunday morning.

I venture outside to assess the mayhem.

The sheep and llama, who usually stay in the barn until 6:30 a.m., are grazing on the pasture. The two Haflingers are standing in the sheep paddock.

Had a gate been left open? I check one, two, three, four gates, and they are all closed and latched. So are all stall doors.

The caffeine is working slowly this morning.

I stand in the horse pasture trying to figure out how the horses escaped.

Then I see it.

A six-foot hog panel that separates the horse pasture from the sheep pasture is no longer in place. Had the bugs and heat driven the horses to scratching on the panel and, eventually, pushing it over?

Sighing, I grab a halter, put it on Lily and walk her back to the barn. Jet follows.

Then, I grab the muck bucket and pick up horse piles from the sheep paddock. Horses are not stealth animals. They leave horse prints and poo where ever they go.