Curiosity Is Apparently Gunning For The Gelding....

We all have that one horse in the barn - the one you love with all of your heart, but one that you just want to strangle when it gets itself into the most precarious situations. As the old saying goes, 'Curiosity killed the cat'. However, in my barn, curiosity has apparently left the barn cat alone (she's living just fine) - it's apparently gunning for my 4-year-old Paint gelding, Reggie.


Reggie has always been a curious horse. I've had him since the day he was born, and he has gotten himself into some pretty weird and stupid situations (like the time he hung his blanket up on a bucket hook and apparently stood there all night with one leg dangling in the air by his blanket strap, waiting for me to untangle him in the morning - he limped around for a whole day, I have pictures).

The other night I braved the bitter cold to feed the horses. I had three of them turned loose in my indoor arena, so they could move around to keep warm (plus, no stalls to do for a while - hooray!). They were unusually quiet at feeding time, and as I rounded the corner to fill the second bucket I got that 'something just isn't right' feeling. I hadn't turned the arena lights on (the light from the aisleway dimly illuminated most of the arena anyway, and I could feed them in the dark if I had to), and I suddenly found myself tripping over a large board on the floor. Which is strange, because usually the boards are happily living where they belong - on the wall.

I forced myself to look up and around. There, scattered all over the usually-clear arena floor, were 12 rough-sawn boards (complete with nails sticking straight up in the air, of course!), and the huge corner post. On the arena floor. On a bitter cold night.

My first reaction was to finish putting grain in the buckets along the non-destroyed walls, and I ran to switch on the arena lights. The whole way there I'm thinking 'This just isn't possible - horses cannot pull entire walls down. You're hallucinating. And it's cold out here - you're done feeding, get back in the house where the warm people belong. The Super Bowl is on for pity's sake - there's cheese dip!'

As I switched on the overhead arena lights, it was apparent what had happened. Coincidentally, at the same time, if horses could point fingers at one another for blame, the two mares would have been pointing directly at Reggie, screaming "HE DID IT! I SAW HIM!".... Like a bunch of little 2nd-grade girls.

We had a nylon rope attached to the big corner post in the arena (up high). It was used to help wrangle round bales of hay out of the backs of pick-up trucks, and then tucked behind the wall when not in use. Like a CSI investigator, I pieced together the course of events that had to have taken place....

Reggie is a very curious animal. He's bred to be a barrel horse (his mom was my World-level hunt seat horse), and his brain is just constantly working. Due to a major leg injury on my part (6 surgeries), he hasn't been broke yet. So his little 4-year-old mind has not been put to use yet, at least not put to use for anything good. He's fairly tall, and can get into things my other horses can't reach. Apparently he found the nylon rope behind the wall, fished it out, chewed on it for a while, and then somehow managed to take off running with it, pulling the entire wall down with it. Fun, huh? I love horses.

I am stunned that none of the horses in that arena were hurt. With all of the nails sticking up (he pulled the boards straight out of the wall, leaving the nails at the ends sticking straight out - he only bent a few), I'm shocked that there wasn't a single puncture wound, scratch, or gash on any of them. I cannot imagine the amount of force it must have took to get that wall down, or what it must have sounded like. And I had only left them alone in there for a few hours!

I've included a photo to show the damage done. It's repairable, and could have been so much worse, but geez - that gelding is going to get himself in some serious trouble someday! I still love him, of course (I'm a horse owner, after all - my 'children' can rarely 'do wrong') but, wow....

As for the barn cat, her curiosity only allowed her to peer around the corner as we dragged all of those boards out of the arena and did a nail-count to make sure we got them all. If I'm correct, I think she would have pointed a grey paw of blame at Reggie, too. ;)

~ Deb