Found: Shetland pony

Every day I think I am going to get a certain amount of work done.  I never seem to get everything planned done.  Something always comes up.  Today for example, I had the simple task of hanging another gate which should have taken a half day or less, then I would be on to other things.

The gate took longer than expected as the bolts only had one nut each, not two each.   No washers either.  I found nuts and washers fairly quickly but one bolt was damaged at the end.  I think the previous owner hammered the bolt out of the post.  It took a while to fix the bolt's threads.

Also, I had trouble removing the the plug at the top of the "L" on one bolt.  It took a bit of hammering with a punch to get the plug out so I could get the bolt off the gate.  I wanted the bolt off the gate as it is much easier to figure out where to drill in the railroad tie for the bolt when holding the bolt and not the gate.  Especially as it is only me working on the gate and I don't have my uncles here to help hold the gate and mark the location to drill.  Also, this bolt was the one with the bad threads at its end and it was easier to fix without having to hold on to the gate.

Toss in:

• the horses unplugging the electric cord for the drill, 
• one bolt location going through fence boards in addition to the railroad tie, 
• having to go back and forth to the tool shed lots of times for more or different tools, 
• the ground where a post went being in a gravel area (gravel and rocks started less than a foot under the top dirt),
• one handle on the post hole digger breaking, and 
• miscellaneous other glitches.

And you can see why the gate was taking longer than expected.

The biggest glitch during the day was when I was drilling the holes for the bolts.  All of a sudden I heard a whinny from the pasture.  I thought the horses were in the front yard.  I looked to find an unknown pony in the middle pasture.

The pony was standing near the gate between the middle and north pasture so I open the gate and it walked into the north pasture and headed for the corral.  The corral gate was closed and, as this was a male pony, there was no way I was letting that pony into the same area as the female horses I have currently.  The pony appears to be a gelding, but I am not taking any chances.

I called several of my neighbors and no one was missing a horse.  I got on my bicycle and started to visit other neighbors with horses and for whom I did not have a phone number.  No one was missing a horse but they would refer me to someone else, who also were not missing any horses.  I went north two miles.  I went south 1.5 miles.  I went east a half mile.

I had taken photos of the pony and would show people the photos on my camera.  No one recognized the pony.

Ten miles, over two hours, and talking to many neighbors, I gave up.  I called the Sheriff's department and  left a message with the animal control agent, Paul.  He came when I was in the hayfield checking my pocket gopher traps.  While he said he has been called for a number of horse problems along my road, he didn't recognize this pony.

We think the pony's brand is: J (Heart) (over) a rocker.    Paul called the brand in and in their old brand book they found a name for this brand.  Neither Paul or I recognized wither the man's name or the road he lived on.

Paul is still trying to pursue who the owner is and will call me when he finds out who that is.  For now the pony is in my NE and north pastures.  I hung the gate on the fence line between the two pastures and later will rebuild the fence completely.  I left the gate open so the pony could access the river for water.  For now it wants to be close to my other horses.  When those horses are in the front yard the pony goes into the NE pasture near them.  When the horses are in back of the corral the pony goes in the north pasture.

Another mystery is how the pony got into the middle pasture.    The middle pasture.  The pasture with the cattle.  The middle pasture, where the pony had to go through two fences to get there: my property line fence and then the fence that went around the middle pasture except for the river.  And the river is still running very high and fast.  If the pony swam across the river without drowning it would be a miracle.

The immediate four pastures to my north are fenced and have horses in each of them, so it is doubtful this pony came from that direction.  The field to my south is not fenced.  I checked my fences and nothing is broken.

Otherwise I don't know how this pony got into my middle pasture.  Maybe God picked it up and placed it there?