To Quiet the Little Voice - 11. Impossible Spots

Impossible Spots

Robs mind was racing. How was it he kept finding himself in these impossible situations? There was the time the ladder had fallen when he was attempting to prune the apple tree. Of course there was no within earshot to help. And the time he was trying to fish his keys out of the gap between the copier and the shredder. Damn shredder had eaten his favorite tie and tried to strangle him besides. And the day the awning poles fell over in the workshop and blocked him into the lavatory. He had been stuck in there for hours.

But nothing like this had ever happened before. Not to Robbie, king of the improbable situations. How the hell was he supposed to fix this one? His mind was racing.

The little girl kept crying and shouting for him to do something. Her mom was trying to stay cool about things, but it was obvious she was getting more and more wound up. And the twit with the camera certainly wasn't helping!

At least the horse wasn't panicking. Since he was the one at risk this time that’s a good thing Rob thought to himself. SOMEONE had to keep a cool head!

He walked once around the trailer, looking in from each door and window, studying things from every possible angle. He was trying to get a handle on just how to get this silly pony out of the impossible position he had put himself into.

Everything had gone so smoothly with this pick up until now. The horse had been sweet and cooperative, had walked right onto the trailer for Rob. Moving horses you are not familiar with can be a challenge. Some of them don’t like strangers handling them, some don’t like trailers, and others can be smart-asses who want to test your patience.

Then the twit with the camera came running out wanting one last picture before we left to bring him to his new home, her pack of unruly dogs running out of the house ahead of her raising holy hell at the sight of a stranger with a trailer in “their” farmyard. The horse had freaked at all the noise, and was just small enough he was able to rear in the warm blood trailer, both his front hooves coming down in front of the belly bar. Now he was standing quietly thank god, but with both front legs hanging in midair and a “help me human” look on his face.

Rob shook himself and then dropped down to one knee to talk to the little girl.

“Okay Suzie, I need your help here. Can you help me?”

The ten year old sniffled a time or two and nodded her head.

“Good girl. Now your new pony here has gone and gotten himself into a tight spot and it’s up to us to get him out of it. Can you run to the tack room and get me a handful of sweet feed in a little bucket and a carrot?”

The little girl turned on her heel and raced off, Rob sighed in relief. No more screaming could only help the situation and maybe now he could think.

He approached the escape door slowly. Last thing he needed was to spook the horse again. Talking quietly he moved into the doorway, all the time watching those sharp front hooves hanging at what was from the ground his head level.

“Okay little man; let’s see how we are going to get you down from there. That’s a good boy, stay nice and quiet. We don’t want you getting hurt now do we?”

Rob stroked the horse’s neck gently, trying to build trust in one hell of a hurry. He tugged experimentally on the belly bar latch, but with 1200 pounds of horse leaning on it there was no way to open it and let him down. Rob continued to run his hands over the frightened animal, trying to determine if he had any injuries that might complicate things.

When he reached the hooves it was a toss-up who was more shocked. As Rob ran his hands over the pastern the horse pulled his hoof back and up, almost like Rob had tickled him. The next thing Rob knew the pony had reared up slowly and just pulled himself back over the belly bar and was now standing quietly looking very proud of himself. He turned his head out of the trailer door and nuzzled Rob, as the little girl was running back with the treats for her new pony.