Mustang Saga

I recently read in a book about horse camping that mustangs make great mountain horses because of their sure-footed sturdiness, but don't let them loose or you won't see them again. That hasn't been my experience, although Tonka is the only one I've turned loose in camp in the mountains to graze without any restraints.

Tonight I headed out to feed and was turning right, toward the mares, when I glanced left and saw horses in my front yard. The boys were having a grand adventure, exploring, finding my empty feed buckets, and eating the long green grass under the trees. I laughed, walked over and grabbed a halter off the fence post, and caught them one by one. I started to get irritated with Scout for leaning his shoulder into me when I was haltering him, then realized that I could have a much worse mess on my hands if they were high-strung, naughty, hard to catch horses. But they aren't. I found where they got out, and of course it was my own fault. There was a short stretch of temporary fence not hooked up to the electric and I'd been hoping they wouldn't figure it out. Silly me. I'm glad it was right near the house and they didn't end up out down by the creek. So many things to be thankful for in life! Our place may not be fancy and our house may not be large, but we are fortunate to be a little distance from any roads, which keeps our animals and our kids safe from crazy drivers in the snow.

We're getting some pretty good snow out there right now. It's the kind where if you look really closely, you can study the individual complexity of each glittering snowflake. The night is so quiet and bright. Perfection. :)