The importance of good fencing...

I went out Friday Dec. 10 after work and as I drove down the driveway, I noticed Snapper was chowing down at the round bale, but Sport was hanging out quite far away from Snapper, facing the fence and facing away from Snapper (they are good buddies, so they generally hang out fairly near each other). As I walk up, Snapper eagerly greeted me, snuffling for treats, but Sport stayed where he was... Hmmm... VERY unusual, as Sport almost always comes up to greet me too (sometimes he'll even trot over!). I looked over and called his name, but Sport just looked over his right shoulder at me as I call, then looked at me over his left shoulder, but didn't turn around to meet me or move much else besides his head/neck... UH OH!

So, I walked over to Sport, talking calmly, asking him what's wrong, what'd he get himself into, etc. I get closer and realize that Sport had BOTH front feet on the wrong side of the bottom fence wire (the fence is a smooth wire post and rail)! Gack!! Both front feet were outside the pasture, while the rest of him is inside! He was standing there patiently, waiting... The wire was somewhat slack, not super tight... So, I carefully picked up his left front foot and put it back inside the pasture where it belonged... he stood quietly as I walked around his backside and then picked up his right front foot and put it back inside the pasture too... He looked at me, put his head down, let me rub his forehead and in between his ears for a short bit, licked his lips, then turned around and walked back towards Snapper... As he walked away, Sport gave a few "tension" snorts a few times, as if to say "that was scary!"  

I can't tell you how proud I was/am of my fairly calm, good-brained Sport! But felt abit chagrined that he got himself in that trouble in the first place! :-) He's perfectly fine, by the way, no cuts, no scrapes, no swellings... we even had a light lunging session afterwards (where there was a small buck and a few "woohoo" leaps!) and he was completely sound and normal.

Oh, and I should add that the fence DOES have a hot wire to keep Sport from grabbing the best grass on the other side of the fence (which is how that day's incident happened I'm fairly sure), but the hot wire had been broken the last week or so... but it was fixed that weekend (as well as tightening of the fence wire).

Big *sigh* of relief from this horse owner!