Tuesday morning I couldn't take it anymore. Those stray horses were begging me for food when I went out to feed breakfast to the boys. They had done so Monday night as well. I had noticed that no lights had been on in that house since Sunday as well (the day they got locked in to the paddock). So, I decided to walk over to our fence line and do my best to search for evidence of water.
None.
At this point the horses were begging for hay, so I felt fairly certain that they hadn't been feed at all either. Their only source of food has been digging through 10" of snow for the grass on the edge of the barn driveway. I guess it was a good thing for the snow, or they wouldn't have had any source of water at all. The whole situation seemed just bizarre to me. Why lock horses into a paddock and not feed/water them? At least if the gate was open they would have eventually wandered home in search of food.
I decided the best thing to do was to call the person who I suspected of being their owner, the lady caddy corner to us down the hill. I dug through the christmas rush project mess that had accumulated on what I would normally call my desk, and found the list of home owners in our neighborhood.
Taking a deep breath and reminding myself to stay switzerland-esque, I called the gal's number and was sent directly to voicemail. I left a really nice message letting her know that I thought they were her horses, where they are if she was looking for them, lack of food and water being my concern, and to call me if she needed help with anything. I received no call back.
However, within fifteen minutes she was at the paddock and the horses were gone. Yea for those horses. If they were still there this afternoon with no return call from the gal my next call was going to be to the sheriff to notify them of the lack of water/food issue. It was really hard for me not to throw them hay...but I know that is the last thing you want to do if you plan on calling the authorities over animal neglect.
Now, here is the deal.
You can see her house from the paddock those horses have been in, so I assume you can see the horses from her house. Also, you can see the horses from the road as you drive by. Has she seriously not noticed that her horses had been missing for going on three days? Do people that feed round bales seriously never do a daily horse check?
Weird.
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•
Some people seriously suck... I hope things look up for those ponies soon.
ReplyDeleteyikes... doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in the care those guys are getting :/
ReplyDeleteSo weird. I'm glad you called her and hope they are okay!
ReplyDeleteGood grief, sounds like she just doesn't give a flip. And then when you finally called she thought, well crap, guess I better go get them, SIGH. Geeze.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the case. About a month or two ago when they got out (they get out every week btw) they ended up at another neighbor's house. That neighbor started feeding them, put up signs about stray horses and where they were located...on the post...by the owner's house...and she didn't go get them for 10 days! I found out that little nugget last night at our HOA meeting. Now I'm really glad I didn't feed them...now she knows they won't get fed if she leaves them up here. But who the heck locked them in that paddock? It's all so weird.
DeleteWe had 5 horses die where I live because a gate got closed blocking them from water during a very hot summer. It was someone on the freeway that looked over and got worried that found out what had happened. There are houses right there. So sad. Glad the horses are at least OK.
ReplyDeleteWow that's not right.... I hope she's feeding them. How did she not know they were gone? I feed round bales to my horse, but I check on him a minimum of twice a day.
ReplyDeleteYep. Aside from this gal, everyone I know that feeds round bales checks their horses at least once a day(or at least I assume they do given that my friends tend to know the location and health of their horses). But she must not. Otherwise she would know they were gone, right? But then....she locks them out of the paddock that the round bale is in. So assuming she's doing that several times a day to control their intake....she would have noticed them missing. I am at a loss.
DeleteMy horses have a round bale. I go see them daily, and there's a barn owner who lives on the property and keeps an eye on them. I cannot imagine.
ReplyDelete