Freedom!!!

The day started out with some rain and hail but by 1pm it had cleared up  and was in the low 60’s, perfect for working outside. With the help of my husband, mom, Tom, aunt, and son, I started walking the fence armed with supplies to reinforce the loose spots and downed rails.

I took us about an hour (those heavy duty fencing zip ties are wonderful!) to get it all done. Most of it wasn’t too bad. I only tried to rip off one fingernail, Ty only got one little cut, and Henry only hit himself with the hammer a few times. We blocked off the opening to the second half of the pasture, there’s plenty of room and grass in the main part. During all of this Alex was throwing a fit because she wanted her grain but once we got up close to the corral she kept helping by scratching our backs when we bent over to put a rail up and by trying to eat any nails that got dropped. She also took a few swipes at the dogs when they got too close. Fortunately she never connected but she came close. At one point she reached through the fence and tried to grab one of them by the back.

Once everything was done I put her halter on   Henry opened up the panels. I could feel the tension in her body, she really wanted to go, but she was a good girl and never fought me. I led her clear around the perimeter of the pasture stopping once in a while so she could grab bites of grass. While I was doing that Henry and Tom moved the fence panels to block off the area behind the lean-to since there are some spare rails and stuff back there. I’m really glad I bought them, they ended up being perfect for this too.

As soon as he got the panels into place I led her put into the middle of the pasture and took off her halter. She had calmed down a lot while we were walking so I wasn’t sure if she’d run or not. She pulled her head a little to get out of the halter but as soon as it was off she got right down to the business of eating! Even when I brought her grain out (today was her last day of medication) she took a few bites and then went back to the grass so I’m hoping she’ll eat it later. She didn’t give me any problems when I walked back up to her so I have no doubts that she’ll be easy to catch when I need to. We watched for a while and took some pictures but then it was time to come home and let our dogs out since they’d been locked up all afternoon.

Here are some of the photos of her first day of freedom. The rest can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/sunsetmeadowlark/alex