Those Dangerous Cows and the Gate

The other morning, Ginger and I were standing in the sun facing the gate, the bent gate. “I remember the day you bent that gate, Taco,” she said with a sigh. “I never saw a horse jump that high before.”

Indeed, that was quite a day. As I recall, it was a Sunday afternoon and I was enjoying the spring grass, when out of the corner of my eye I saw this mass of black monsters coming across the field next door. They were chomping and snorting. And the smell! It was horrific. I immediately fled for my life.

I galloped a couple laps around the field before my mom caught me. Since I was so distraught, Mom thought it was best to lock me in my little patio off the barn. The only problem was, it was the closest patio to the monsters. They were at the fence now, hundreds of them!!

I took one look at all those black monsters coming to eat me and that 4 and half foot gate at the end of the patio didn’t look so big. Who cared that I only had two strides to get going? This was a dire situation that called for drastic measures! I trotted two strides and leaped for my life. My front feet just grazed the gate, which thankfully bent.

I landed in a bit of a heap since, you know, I am old and broken, but I gathered myself up and made a beeline to the farthest edge of the dry lot and awaited my fate, shaking with fear. Mom, who was amazed at what she had just seen me do, collected me up and locked me in my stall until the monsters left and I settled down. I think I gave everyone a bit of a scare (including myself).

The Short One came out to see what the fuss was all about and she moved me to the stall and patio farthest away from the monsters. I felt better with Ginger and Mocha between me and those gruesome creatures.

Ginger told me later the monsters were cows, and that they were actually pretty friendly. It took me a while, but I finally warmed up to them. The Short One said the gate was a great “conversation piece” so there it stayed, a reminder of the day I showed off my eventing chops.