Pony Hauling, Horse Fencing, and Free-range Tragedy

I'm going to tell you about an adventure...a REAL adventure involving a mom, 3 kids, a pony named Polly, and a good samaritan named Fernando (who is probably just an angel in human form). Remember last week how I joked that I might need to stuff Chelsea's pony in the back of my Expedition? Let's just say it was funnier when I wrote it rather than when I ACTUALLY considered doing it! Last Friday was Black Beauty's (aka our hillbilly deluxe horse trailer) maiden voyage to pick up Polly the pony. We set out early in the afternoon and it was pretty smooth sailing for the 2.5 hour trip to meet the pony. I had to stop once to bungee strap a loose door shut but otherwise the trip was reasonably uneventful. This is where the story really begins...Polly was in heat, apparently had still been nursing her 1 year old foal (which should have been weaned about 3-ish months ago) so she still had milk, and was pretty irritated that she'd been separated from her baby a few days before our arrival. She was nippy and 10 shades of annoyed. Chelsea tried to clean her feet and I wasn't totally convinced she wasn't going to try and kick her. To say this wasn't what we were expecting would be an understatement. The person we bought her from was so incredibly kind and knew our present situation with Sparky and reassured me this was TOTALLY uncharacteristic of her. I wanted to see Chelsea ride Polly to make sure she wasn't insane. Chelsea had never ridden bareback or bitless before so it was a lot of new all at once for her. Chelsea lost her balance while riding (not Polly's fault) and fell. This pony stopped cold turkey and looked at Chelsea like "hey kid, what happened?" That's when I knew this was the RIGHT pony. That's a pony that will take care of your kid. That's a SAFE pony. That pony, at her worst, took care of my unbalanced child. So, Chelsea loaded Polly into the trailer, I ratchet strapped the doors shut (again, this trailer is a real thing of beauty), and off we went. We were about an hour into our trip home when I heard a loud bang. I asked David if that was the horse kicking the trailer and he said yes (like a 4 year old would know 🤦🏼‍♀️) but my gut knew it was a tire. Sure enough, I look back and see a piece of rubber on the trailer tire spinning around...and about a mile later the entire tire completely fell off.

Luckily for me, I was stranded at a truck break check area. I did in fact have a spare tire with me but of course it wasn't aired up properly...I also don't know how to change a trailer tire (I know, I know, I need to learn). Dave was coming to my rescue but he was over an hour away and it was starting to get dark so I started asking anyone and everyone if they could help me. After the 6th trucker said no, I unhooked the trailer from the car and proceeded to look at how I could load my 375 pound horse into the back of my SUV. The trailer was too low and I didn't have ramps otherwise Polly was going for a car ride. In one last act of desperation, I jumped out of my car and flagged down a personal transportation truck and that was when God sent us Fernando. This guy had an air compressor and a jack and spent over an hour helping me change the trailer tire. What a miracle! I had brought a bag of hay along and strung it up in the horse trailer for sweet little Polly who stood patiently waiting for us to get on the move again (miracle #2 given her attitude an hour before this event). Just as he finished with the fire and I was forcing him to accept some gift cards (I don't carry cash) for being so kind, a scantily clad woman rounded the back of my trailer and asked to pet our horse! I still needed to ratchet strap the doors shut 😣 and I shot Fernando a look as if to say "please don't leave." Then here comes a man around the corner that was "with her" and he starts ratchet strapping my trailer for me (I didn't need any help with that). I was REALLY uncomfortable at this point...and they were REALLY lingering. Fernando the Saint helped distract them so I could get in my car and get moving. I swear you can't make this stuff up. Thank God good people in this world still exist and thank God Fernando stopped to help me. Dave was able to find me along my journey home and followed us the rest of the way. Polly arrived to Roberts Family Farm safely around 10 pm and has been "Polly the Perfect Pony" ever since.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0430e8_86ece1bf2da64911856f2e1ec5ade6d9/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Chelsea spends every waking minute with her and has made great progress bareback riding. Chelsea has big plans for Polly and my mama heart is full watching this little girl's dreams come true... especially after the trials of Sparky.

We officially have 4 strands of high tensile fence up and are working on burying an underground wire to electrify it. Solar is an option but Dave was concerned about it being reliable enough in the winter. We still need to add some high visibility strands but Polly the Perfect Pony doesn't desire to test our fence so we've actually been turning her out in the pasture while we are home without any electric to it. This project has taught me how to chain and pull out wood fence posts, set t-posts, hammer in post insulators, and run high tensile fencing. I've gained a lot of new skills...and finished every day utterly exhausted. I'm really proud of what Dave and I have been able to do so quickly and it looks really darn nice.

One last farm tale before I wrap up this week. We let our chickens out to free range like we usually do and as I was crossing the street to gather supplies, two of our white leghorns followed me across (white leghorns can be super friendly despite their flighty reputation). In my rush, I hadn't noticed they'd followed me and as I was waiting at the bottom of the driveway to cross again, I WATCHED a white lifted truck run over one of them. He barely slowed down enough to even acknowledge he hit it, looked at me, and sped off. Now, the chicken shouldn't have been on the road but thank goodness it was a chicken and not one of my kids. This guy lives somewhere near us because I've seen him many times and he knows our kids and chickens are always out. He could have at least stopped and apologized for running it over IN FRONT OF ME AND MY KIDS but instead he did the cowardly thing and ignored that it happened. What a jagoff (I don't use that word often but this guy sure fits the bill). I guess I can finally answer "why did the chicken cross the road"...because she followed her mama to the other side 😭

That's a wrap for this week! I sincerely hope some things settle down around here but Dave mentioned this morning that our garden has enough beans for me to start canning 🤪 Stay tuned for canning season which is right around the corner! See yinz next time for more adventures on Roberts Family Farm!

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