Sunday Stills- fences

OK, Ed, this one I'm blaming on you! Fences, huh? Well, I have a little story to go with today's chosen subject. Every horse owner knows, or should know, the importance of safe fences for their equine partners. And we are also well versed in Murphy's Law: If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. I have always thought of corral panels as one of the sturdiest, safest fences available for horses. It took Chickory to bring my attention to the fact that all panel fences are not created equal. The existing fence here is built of panels, as it is a gathering and sorting pen for a herd of cattle. Beamer had no problems with it. However, Miss Chickory decided that she could stick her head through it for those lovely tempting weeds on the other side, only to find that getting her head back in was not so easy! I use Two W panels, which are built for horses, and the panels here are narrower in their spacing as you can see in the above photo- the grey ones are mine.

Sparkle demonstrates the proper way for a girl to reach through a panel:

Chickory ended up panicking and pulling back so hard that she brought two panels back and they came apart- probably a good thing. This, of course, allowed them to get into the hayfield. We were alerted by the dogs barking and Beamer hollering as his girls went out of sight onto the gravel road. I quickly got dressed- this was about 7 AM! -and grabbed a halter and a pail of grain; the mares were just passing the driveway when Coyote Belle homed in on the rattling grain and made a bee-line for me, followed by the other two hooligans. So it ended well, but I was sure thinking of Lisa's story about Rojo!

I brought out the solar fencer and up went the electric fence- the surest way I know of to keep horses from pushing on a fence.

Chickory really needs a visit from the horse Chiropractor now, but I'll have to wait till the swelling goes down .

Swellings above her eyes;

and just in front of the halter her axis is visibly swollen- you can see her forehead swelling in this shot too.

Her lovely profile now is marred by the swelling above her nostrils. This should all go away soon, with the help of my essential oils, but I bet it's a long time before Chickory sticks her head through panels again! The moral of this story is, never assume that fences are safe just because they look safe! Horses will find ways of getting in wrecks in just about any environment. I am just fortunate that there was no vet bills, or worse yet, a horse getting hit on the road.