True story.  Sometimes you can make all the plans in the world, but if the stars align just right and the moon is in a funny position, pigs can suddenly fly but unicorns are stabbing them out of the sky and all kinds of other freaky crap happens.  I have a story to share with you, and it’s a story about how some days you should just listen to the first sign and stay the hell home! Lesson learned, universe!

It was a nice day outside, sunny, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect for the trail riding I had planned with Mary Jo.  Yeah… little did I know, life had some more lessons to teach me.

First of all, I am not sure I shared here the story of Fiz’s”game” with not wanting to come in from the field? Well, he wore a halter for nearly 2 months (until he broke it into several pieces) because at one point this year he decided it was fun to run away at the sight of us, presumably just to laugh at us chasing him down. Since he broke the halter, he hasn’t worn another one and he has been fine to catch, no issues whatsoever for over a month. I decide I’d like to take him trail riding, and arrange to meet Mary Jo for a nice little ride at McNeely Lake Park.  Fiz decides that’s the day to begin another round of the “game” with the running away in the field.  Hilarious, I tell ya (note the sarcasm here).

I go to his field the day of the ride, about 30 minutes before I needed to leave the barn to meet her.  He runs away like a bat out of hell. So, I run him and run him and run him until he’s tired enough to let me catch him. Then, I realized that he’d nicked his front heel with his back foot, and pulled the shoe off his front right hoof. Despite that, it barely bled and he seemed fine, so I decided to load up anyway…. NOTED UNIVERSE, I SHOULD HAVE JUST STAYED HOME.  I get it.  Really, I do.  Note to readers:  It’s all downhill from here.

Fiz and I got to McNeely about 30 minutes late and unload. Well, Mary Jo dropped the butt bar before I unhooked the trailer tie (totally not her fault, I should have had this done) and he tried to fly out of the trailer, getting STUCK by the trailer tie, and then tearing off a piece of the rubber on the side of the trailer by flailing around before I could get him loose. The tie is supposed to be one of those emergency release things, which did not work as intended. EPIC FAIL.

Get him out of the trailer, finally, and again, he’s fine. He seems in good spirits, looking around, acting nice and calm, eating grass, etc. So we decide to see if he would tie. We tied him to her trailer, on the opposite side of her horse, and stood there with him about 10 minutes while he was again, calm, and being good. I decide to go back to the trailer and get his bridle. Well, AS SOON as I walk away, he ran backwards BREAKING the damn lead and GOT LOOSE. At McNeely! REALLY??? He begins running away down the road we came in. At this point I’m thinking “Well, I hope whoever finds you will give you a good home, because obviously I’m never gonna catch you out here in the open.” At this point, I also wanted to cry, felt like I was about to have a heart attack, but didn’t have it in me to give up.  I guess that’s just not in my DNA, as I keep coming back time and again for more, no matter what!

Luckily, I had some grain in a bucket in the trailer, so I go retrieve it to try and coax him back to me. Finally catch him about 10 or so minutes later. At this point it’s like “REALLY, this day is cursed” but we’re already there so might as well keep going.  Finally get saddled up and on the trail… he’s again going along fine and happy like no big deal. Until we hit some places with rocks on the trail, then he proceeds to act as though he is completely crippled on the foot with no shoe. Well that’s terrific. (Again, note the sarcasm here).

So we turn around and head back to the trailers. We were out a little over an hour. He loads FINE. Like no issues at all. Then, Mary Jo’s horse wouldn’t load, and he NEVER has issues! So we finally get both horses loaded and all is right with the world. So I thought.

I get back to the barn, and now he’s managed to get cut up on one of his back legs also. So that’s bleeding everywhere.  I say everywhere, but in all reality it really wasn’t THAT bad.   WHAT THE HELLLLLLL????? And then he won’t back OFF of the trailer! I assume afraid because of what happened at McNeely. Dear sweet baby Jesus please help me! It took about 10 minutes to convince him he could go backwards and step down. The wall of the trailer looks as though all he did was kick at it the entire ride back home. So much for having a sane, normal horse. Or wait, did we ever?  Anyway, I doctored his leg, turned him out, and went home.

I fully expected the next day for him to be super sore, but NOPE!  He was just fine.  His cuts healed in less than 3 whole days and he is perfectly fine now, but we have not since been off the farm.  We have also purchased a set of shipping boots to protect him from those type of cuts in the future.  Hopefully the next adventure is not as… adventurous!  As always, stay tuned for more adventures of Fizzy!