I got the chance to look a bit daft earlier for a couple of hours. As a few colleagues and I tried to catch a horse that was loose and had been playing chicken with the cars on a dual carriageway.
We managed to corral it into a field and keep it there by sort of waving our arms about and shouting things like "whoa, horse, er....whoa". Robert Redford I'm not.
We waited for the "experts" to come. I've used speach marks because this chap from the Council who looked a bit like Grizzly Adams turned up in a big, red land rover. He rubbed his over hairy face and said something like, "it's a stallion".
Now, I'm no animal expert, but I could have told him that. It was obvious from the fact that the horse had five legs. One of which kept twitching every time it looked at me.
Apparently there was a "mare" "in season" in a nearby field and this had given the "stallion" the horn.
I couldn't be doing with all these technical terms. I mean, "in season???" I don't care if it's fashionable. I just want it caught!
But he couldn't catch it. Because he hadn't brought any rope or other, specialised horse catching equipment. Apparently he thought he'd better just come and take a look. OK. Cheers. Would you mind looking a bit more closely. Whilst grabbing the bugger! Before it decides that in the absence of a lady horse I'll do.
Er no. Apparently not. He needed to call the expert. (Yep, I know he was supposed to be the expert. I suppose this was an "expert, expert"?)
In the end we enticed it over to a corner of the field with some carrots (kindly donated by a local shop) and about half a dozen people from the Council we managed to get it caught and walked it back to it's field, fifth leg quickly disappearing in disappointment.
Still, a couple of hours in the Sun watching Grizzly and his mates run around in circles. There's worse ways to earn a living.
4 comments:
I used to spend so much of my duty time gathering up livestock that my better half bought me a head collar and lead (for a horse) which I kept in my grab bag in the car. I can heartily recommend the investment.
Grab bag also contained slim jims, assorted tools, dog biscuits, spare Yale lock barrels, packing tape, duck tape and para-cord. AND I was never a boy scout !
Hahahaha! That made me laugh, maybe it was those high heels that did it, the ones that need homes..... lol
I have the same problem with my horse (mare) or 'lady horse', she jumps out looking for stallions but can't quite get her head round the fact that geldings are of no use! I think she's a bit of a slapper to be honest! lol
On a serious side though, you were quite lucky because depending on the temprament of the animal some stallions can be very aggressive when in season mares are about.
Oh god that was so funny!! It reminded me of years ago when my shetland pony bashed down his stable door and happily galloped down onto the main road. I strolled along behind him (there's no point in running, the horse always wins anyway! lol) All traffic promptly came to a standstill and some poor bloke ended up chasing Pixie (the shetland) with a rope from the boot of his car...he caught him in the end and I thanked him etc and fitted a bolt on the stable door. Luckily he was a gelding though ;) My current horse has a habit of wandering out of her stable and somehow ending up in the feed room. Now I wonder why that is......
The horse whisperer is one of my favourite films actually. :D
Oh and by the way, I rated your blog as "the best" :D cos it is ;) Keep it up!!
Rachel
Thanks Rachel.
I'm really not that good with horses. I come from a city so horses were always something I saw on cowboy and indian films until I moved to this part of the UK.
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