Carol Moncado

So, we’re in the field. Horses all around. Food between my feet. Four kids under my “wings”. Big, huge horse right behind me.

Breathing in my ear.

And I prayed.

Aloud.

Like I said yesterday, I was never scared. Not at all. Scared my kids were scared, but not actually scared.

But I prayed, in a nice, calm voice. “Dear Jesus, please send your angels to stand around us [the horse behind me never moved] and to make the horses back off some.”

Sure enough. Within thirty seconds, several of the horses had started to amble away.

I prayed again. And again. With less immediate results but soon enough there was a bit of breathing room.

Except for that sucker right behind us.

Who sniffed my 11yo’s rear end.

Or so she said.

She said it was weird ;).

There was a clear path toward the “road” leading back to the fence/gate and the van. By road, I mean tracks in the grass [see the satellite picture for our egress route].

I don’t know if I did the right thing or not, but here’s what we did.

My older two girls are very responsible. They don’t generally scare easily and, especially in a situation like this, they do what they’re told.

So, I told them to stay together, walk back the way we came, slowly, calmly and… go. They did just that. One or two of the horses took a few steps after them, but ultimately, they weren’t followed.

My plan had been for the other three of us to follow a minute later, but as soon as we started moving the rest of the horses did, too.

Including the big fellow behind me. [Yes, a fellow. There was… visual evidence of that later.]

So we stopped. I kept my arms around the kids. Decided to tell them to try to go, just like my other two, but after they got about ten feet, I had them stop. The horses were a bit too interested. If the two of them had been left completely alone, they would have been fine, but I didn’t trust them enough not to scare.

[As I write this, an hour or so after we got home, I’m sore. My legs hurt [I’d injured one over the weekend anyway], my shoulders are carrying tension in them still, and my arms and legs are sore [or more so] from being still and tense the whole time.]

We ended up near this tree. I’d been hoping the horses wouldn’t follow us there, but they did [there was a path there too but I couldn’t see it until after we got over there]. That big horse? Yep, right next to me still. Or in front of me. Depending on the moment. Other horses all around. After a few minutes, me and the two littles ended up back to the tree, big horse right in front of us.

I saw my older two girls coming back a couple of times [we really weren’t FAR from the fence/van, but far enough and out of the line of sight]. Firmly and loudly enough they could hear, I told them to go back. Over the fence. Stay put. We won’t mention how many times I had to say that. I even heard a bit of “Marco! Polo!” going on…

My 7yo LOVES horses. The girl is all about them. Last year, she even got a horseback riding lesson for her birthday.

7yo at her first [and only, to date] riding lesson a year or so ago.

She was pretty calm the whole time. She had her cowgirl hat with her and the horses were a bit too interested in that at times. My 5yo wasn’t scared, but I think he was born with ants in his pants. In that moment, however, he stayed still. Mostly.

Tomorrow: Angel With Hooves