A Horsey Adventure

Dear Readers,

This is Jessie.

And guess what?

I've got news.

My parents decided that they were going to let me have a "sleepover" at my cousin's house.

OK, so my cousin lives in Indiana on this farm where they have all of these horses and animals and whatnot.

I suppose it's because they didn't like me freaking out about the baby.

Urgh.

Anyway, so I got my things together and got shipped off.

My cousin, Adriane, happens to be kind of a horse-whisperer. She's the one who takes care of the horses and is kind of like their lead mare.

And guess what happened this morning?

So I was playing in their barn with the kittens that they have with my younger cousin, Lilly, when all of a sudden Adriane comes running in.

"Jessie!" she yelled. "I need your help--RIGHT NOW!"

So I jumped down from the loft (OK, OK, I used the ladder... ;D) and she yelled at me to grab one of the horses' halter (which the leadrope attached) and another leadrope, explaining that one of the horses had gone and jumped the fence. (OH GREAT!) Then she took off running, a bucket of grain in hand. I came stumbling after her.

She was already with the horse, letting it fill its stomach greedily with the grain. Blood oozed from this really nasty cut on its leg. She told me to put the leadrope around the horse's neck, which I did. Then she slowly pulled away the mostly-empty bucket and put the horse's halter on. Then she told me to walk ahead with the empty feed bucket and get the other horses into the corral.

At first, I was kind of freaked out. Me? Horses? They hadn't mixed. EVER. We'd have to see if I survived...

So I went ahead, not running, and got the other horses into the corral while she got the horse she pulled along into the corral. Then she told me to go and get some healing salve and a bucket full of warm water and a soft cloth. I managed to find all of them, and quickly got them back out to her.

Now I could really see all of the damage that the horse had gone and done to herself. Other than the oozing cut on her leg, there was a kind of chunk/cut taken out just above that leg (not that much...). She also had a small cut on the other leg. Adriane told me she was lucky. Apparently some horses look like Joey in War Horse after trying to jump a fence. (Though our horsey friend actually HAD jumped the fence...)

Yeah, so that's my adventure.

Pretty crazy, huh?

Love,
Jessie

Based on real-life events.