Never a Dull Moment...Again

It could only happen around here...

I'd only had about four hours sleep last night, and not very good sleep at that, consequently I jumped on the computer at 5.00 am to do some work. Because of my interrupted night, I decided at about 11.30 am to have a bit of a snooze. I was woken a couple of hours later by thundering hooves and frantic neighing outside my window...which I actually thought I was dreaming, until I came properly awake to see a large black horse charging around our block.

"What the...?" was my reaction. I peered out the window to see Jane and Ken talking to a lady who had a feed bucket and a halter in her hands. So I dressed and wandered out to see what was going on.

It turns out that the equine in question (see photos below) is a mare in oestrus and had escaped from her place, two blocks down the road to come up to talk to Rex, the big show jumper who lives at the front neighbour's and Casper, the little miniature who lives at the back neighbour's place. Not that they would do her any good...they're both geldings. Anyway, she had galloped up our drive into the actual house property, so Jane had the presence of mind to shut the gate to prevent her charging back down the driveway and out onto the road (does all this seem familiar? Yes, we've had it all before, only with Fred getting steamed up that time).

So, we've got her here to keep her safe until her owner, who started a new job today, gets home. At this moment, the mare getting very frustrated and charging around the place neighing her head off...Rex had got fed up and wandered off to the other end of his paddock, about 100 metres away.

Things are rather difficult with this equine flu that's going around. The mare was supposed to go to stud but with the restrictions against moving horses out of one area into another, that isn't happening. However, although we can't move horses around...how do you prevent a frustrated mare from coming into your place for a bit of how's your father with the boys next door, hmmm?