I'm typing this with eyes propped open with matchsticks.

Daughter went out last night to celebrate her birthday, 3.30 this morning my phone rang!!! Panic set in before answering it as you can imagine. :-(

It is her, she is about 2 miles from here on a main A road and has come across two loose horses!!!  She has called the police but could her father and I come out and help as these horses are all over the road and she thought we might have some ropes in the car. We didn't have any halters here our horses are kept at our yard.  But now we were awake so thought we better go an help.

Got there to find one police car, two policeman, who have spooked the horses onto the fields at side of road, with their blue flashing lights, no fences round here as it is agricultural.

The horses shot across field onto small minor road, police car followed, we went round in car to head them off, as this road leads back to main road again.  Eventually caught them and decided as no rope, best we had were coats!! put the coats round horses necks to lead them.

Next question where do we put them?  Police remember there is a field about 1/2 mile away that is fenced, so off we go.  Police car in front, daughter and husband leading them (by this time daugher has removed her ridiculously high heeled boots) and is walking barefoot LOL.  I follow behind in case they get loose again, freezing cold with no coat on!!!

We reach field, police open gate, put them in field, out of an adjoining meadow comes the resident of the field small pony with rug on.  So a bit of careering around but the start to settle, so police say they'll be OK in there for the rest of the night and give us a lift back to our car which is parked 1/2 mile away with hazard lights on but nobody thought to lock it.  It was stil there thank god. lol

Got home at 5.00. cup of tea and back to bed for a couple of hours.

There is going to be a very surprised person this morning when they go to feed their pony, it's gained two friends, but at least they were safe.  God knows what would have happened if a car had hit them, as these were 16hh middle weight types.

I feel absolutely shattered. But pleased that we managed to catch them.

Had never thought about it before but if your horses get out at night no-one would know who they belonged to, and unless there is someone about who knows horses they are in a tremendous amount of danger.  There is no way that the police could have caught them on their own.

I just hope their owners would do the same thing for us in similar circumstances.

That is definitely the sort of thing I would do. I keep planning on keeping a couple of spare headcollars in the boot of my car, and then forgetting. I am going to put them in today just incase (you hear of this quite a lot here). Good on you :)

Did make me smile Jayne.

A while back my boss and I were coming back along the lane when we were waved down by panicking drivers.  I get out to see a horse in the middle of the lane NOT budging!  He was about 16hh too, black and white cob type, with a neck collar and chain hanging that had been cut.  I caught him fairly easily and walked him back to the kennels, to which my boss (OH) was astounded to see our 30 inch miniature Shetland had transformed into this giant brute! 

We put him in the empty paddock and to cut a long story short was claimed by a very grateful owner later in the day.

One thing we always think of is the look on the Vets face when he arrived to geld our mini Shetland and was greeted by this humongous beast careering round the field, both black and white, both entire, he was pleasantly relieved when we put him out of his misery. :D
Dawn.

I was driving home the other day, came round the corner and nearly ran into a flock of sheep who were in the road, I stopped whilst they crossed expecting to see a sheep dog, but no, the sheep had escaped from their field and were crossing into a field of crops   knowing full well I wouldnt be able to herd them back in on my own I popped down to the farm office and had to describe to the farmer which field of sheep it was (there are loads of them round my way) in the end I showed him on his map - I think he was greatful, he said thanks over his shoulder as he ran off towards his landrover :D :D :D

Well done, Lady Dazzle, excellent night's work ! :)

Perhaps horses should wear a collar and disc with their owners contact details :)

Well done you! :)

  This got me thinking, not long ago some horses were stolen in our area & there was nothibg the police could do. Is there no way to identify them if they do go astray?

Freezemarking, microchipping and hoofmarking are the only failsafe identifiers.

Forutnately my beast is freezemarked so hopefully they would be able to contact me.  Not that he would go wandering off in the middle of the night though :) What come out of his stable - into the cold! Couldn't possibly entertain that idea.

It could of been worse though sis - they might have breathalised you ;)

My greys are freezemarked - but you can't see it. Might have to go for hoof marking.

Somebody should be thannking their lucky stars that your daughter came along last night - it could have been such a different ending to this story!

Margot

Makes you think doesn't it Chloe, it would have been impossible to see freezemarking in the dark, or for that matter hoof marking, their hooves were thick with mud.

I can't imagine many police carrying a microchip scanner with them.

Aah but Sis I wasn't driving so got away with it this time. lol lol

I knew it wouldn't be your mollycoddled lad, now way, no how, would he leave his warm stable in the middle of the night. ;-)

Have to say though considering the circumstances they were very calm and well behaved.  Not many horses that would stand a coat slung round their necks and being led along a road in the dark, with cars in front and behind.

OOh you made me smile, moaning at helping out horses, when many parents would be thanking their lucky stars it wasnt the police/hospital or even a teenager too pissed/broke to get home :)

I wasn't aware that I was moaning!! I would certainly do the same again in the same circumstances and can only be pleased that instead of what a lot of people would do, which is to just drive past, she was responsible enough to both contact the police and ring us for help.

If you read my post you will see that I said that when the phone rang panic set in.

But fortunately I have three children that very rarely give me cause for concern as regards drink etc.  My panic was the possibilities of an accident.

I just hope that someone like us would do the same if ever our horses got loose.

Sorry I did not mean to  offend you. I for one would certainly moan a little at being woken earlier than expected. But it also made me smile that there are sensible caring young people around, when if you believe the press they are all drunken louts.  Unfortunately it is the few who do silly things that every one talks about.

No offence taken :-D

I do agree the sensible youngsters do seem to be in the minority these days.

I went down to the supermarket to do my shopping today, and like nearly everytime recently, found I had to bite my tongue!!!  The youngsters and by that I mean anything from 10 upwards, have no manners whatsoever, you have to walk round THEM, and if you don't they will bump into you.  I'm sure its not deliberate,  just lack of thought and manners.  Usually its because they have a mobile either stuck their ear or texting.

Last sunday  had a knock on the door your cow is on road (we dont have a cow) I had to get a bullock out of the road and put him in a barn accross the road  then someone knocked on the door two days later said your lambs are on the road I politely said we dont have any lambs we are the labrador rescue :) but Sam and I set off to put the lambs back in feild ended up cut to ribbons with trying to retrieve baby lambs from behind hawthorn bushes and then safely in filed when we got back we had a thought hope we put Lambs back in right feilds with right mums :)
The joys of living in the country LOL then one night Sam jumped up OMG a car has just gone through hedging accross the road ended up with upset lady on settee drinking tea till police came.
Oh the joys of peaceful country life ;)

Sounds a bit busy in your part of the country :) Still we live in a village and we seem to be top of the list to contact for lost cats/ dogs/ children/ cattle etc. Trouble is once you have sorted out one problem word gets round. Most people seem incapable of even looking up the local farmer in the phone book. I do get called to the odd deer carcas as well :)

Unfortunately its not just youngsters with the mobile phones. I am sick to death of people wandering about when Im in a hurry and stopping dead just 'cause they are having a phone conversation. I have no idea what they find to talk about all day long, most people that I know are far too busy getting on with life to spend all day talking about it. Mind you we have too many 40 tonne trucks through our village and at one point they cannot pass without driving on the pavement, there was I walking along minding my own when a lorry comes right up on the pavement, why because the driver has one hand on his mobile phone :( Wish I had the presence of mind to stop swearing long enough to get his registration.