Thundering Hooves

This morning, shortly before six am, while I was in the twilight between a dream and waking, my slow progression to semi-alert was rudely accelerated by the sound of thundering hooves and Pistol calling.  We jumped out of bed and peered out our bedroom window, which overlooks the girls' pasture.  Pistol was running up and down the fence line, screaming her head off.  No Lucy.

Lucy, Lucy!  Come back!

I ran to Camille's room and looked out her window which faces the barn and the other pastures.  There was Lucy, running up and down Jackson's fence line.  She was ignoring Pistol and focused on Jackson, who was running with her on his side of the pasture fence.

Lucy has been in love with Jackson since she got here.  This photo was taken the summer that Lucy arrived.  Their ardor has not diminished.

Tex and Flash calmly watched from their gate.  She pretty much ignored them.

Brett got outside first and she came to him immediately, hoping for a cookie.  He didn't have one so she went back to Jackson.

Pistol was still upset.
Lucy get your butt back in here.  How dare you leave me for that boy.

Brett found the spot where Lucy escaped.  When he replaced part of the fence a few weeks back, the new fence and the old fence didn't line up (we are moving the fence a bit further from the creek, because the sides of the ditch are eroding).  He slid a couple boards between the new and the old fence as a temporary barrier.  Both boards were down, leaving a gap that Lucy squeezed through.  We think Pistol didn't follow because last time she squeezed through a fence she got stuck in deep mud -- which scared her quite a bit.

Brett got Lucy's halter from the barn and she came right over, pushing her face into it, happy to be rescued from the chaos she was creating.  I put her in her stall while Brett got to work fixing the fence.

Jackson wanted her to come back.

He looked at her and looked at her and looked at her.

I walked her back to the girls pasture where Brett was finishing securing the fence.

Pistol was busy supervising checking Brett's pockets for cookies.

With peace restored, and the fence fixed, we got down to the normal morning routine of feeding and cleaning pastures.