The Saga of Lilly's Escape

This is a bad, BAD mare.

I got up this morning and looked out the window to do the quick scan to see if everyone still had 4 legs and a tail and no Lilly Frost. So I put on my boots and went out to her pen (she is dry-lotted currently) and no Lilly Frost. The gate was shut, the fence was up but no Lilly Frost. I called her name, assuming she had escaped but was wandering around the farm enjoying her time on the fresh grass. But again, NO LILLY FROST.

I left Evie with Nathan and got in the car, thinking if she was out that she wouldn't have wandered far--maybe just on the far side of the shelterbelt. I drove around the mile section of road and still, no Lilly Frost.

In my experience, horses rarely wander too far from their "herd' and when they do, it is usually just to the next closest farm with horses. There is only one farm within 3 miles of our house that has horses, so I headed there. Nope, no Lilly Frost.

Now I was worried.

I called the Sheriff's office and started going more slowly down the roads. A mile or so away, I spotted something big and white and somewhat horse shaped. As I sped towards the white object, I was breathing a sigh of relief because what else could be that big, white and standing off in the grass?

You know what it could be?

A damned propane tank, that's what. (and I can't even feel that dumb because, well, Lilly IS rather propane-tank shaped).

But now I had no Lilly anywhere I could see. The neighbors with horses came over, offering his tracking experience to start solving the mystery of at least which way she headed. It became very obvious she had JUMPED the 4-foot gate and left towards the northwest.

We engaged another neighbor, who took me out in his ATV to check the creek bottom. Now a mile and a half way from home, we picked up her trail. She was on a mission to the north--trotting and cantering, carefully hunting out creek crossing and heading north-northwest. WHY? Why would a fat old mare run off like a coon dog on a trail?

We lost her trail at the blacktop and realized that with her pace, she could have picked up several miles of distance, so we expanded our search. Every white old stump, white dog, white cow and yes, more white propane tanks caught our eye. We stopped everywhere and told them to be on the lookout. But four HOURS later and we still couldn't find that mare!

Finally, our neighbor Myron randomly stopped in at cattle feed yard 6 MILES away and they walked up and said "Bet you're looking for a white horse, huh?" Lilly had entered the feedyard and marched right up to them about an hour before. They had her corralled, figuring someone would be looking for her.

When I got there, she was not only NOT tired, she was bouncy and all full of herself after her adventure. We put her on the trailer and took her home and she is now in jail in the barn. Because what the heck am I going to do with a fat, little old Paint mare that figured out she is a pretty good jumper?

On the bright side, hunting high and low for Lilly was a good way to meet all the neighbors. After all the amazing help I had this morning, I think a big BBQ is in the offing soon!