You know you live in the country when….

Posted on April 14, 2006
Filed Under Uncategorized |

It’s sort of odd saying that we live ‘in the country’ or in a ‘rural area’ because well.. while we do technically live in a rural area (ie it is outside metropolitan Melbourne and we have an STD phone number) we are actually closer to Melbourne CBD than a lot of suburbs are. So while yes one of our neighbors is a heard of cows and our fences are made of post and wire and I have views of the Macedon Ranges, mostly it just doesn’t ‘feel’ like we moved away from the city because we don’t seem far enough away from anything!

But you really know you live in the country when instead of stray dogs wandering in to your yard you get stray horses!

Yesterday morning I had taken my two VERY cranky children out the back to let the chickens out while my equally cranky husband went to pick up our friend from the train station. Izzy howled the whole 5 minutes it took me to open the gate, check if there was an egg (yes ‘egg’ singular, as those damn small hens are STILL not laying!) and let the chooks out then suddenly stopped and said ‘look at the horseys’. So I look up expecting to see horses in the neighbors paddock, and I saw horses all right.. but in our vegie garden, two of them!

I am not sure who got more of a fright me or them but they certainly left my vegie garden in a hurry and headed around the front. I dumped the girls inside and ran for the front gate, hoping I could beat the horses, shut the gate and at least keep them safe on our property until we could figure out where they had come from. After exhausting myself with a run down the drive (yes I am unfit but hey we have a looooong drive!) I realised I didn’t need to rush as the horses had found the green grass growing around the bore water tank and were happily gorging themselves and would probably never leave!

So anyway with the gate safely closed I called Si and told him to stop by our back neighbors on his way home to see if they were missing some horses… thinking that a back fence must be down. After showing the girls the horses I wandered up the back of the paddock to see if I could see where they had come in, but all the fences were fine, and it seemed like they had come in our front gate. Sure enough Si calls to say they don’t belong to the horse stud behind us and he was stopping at another neighbor’s who has horses to see if they had any ideas. He came home still with no clues as to where they had come from but at least the word was out now and they were safe.

They were both very friendly, came right up to you when you walked near by and happily ate from your hand and were very pleased to see a bucker of water each. The girls thought they were great, until one of them snorted and they both decided they’d rather look from a distance!

I was a bit worried that being the Thursday before the long weekend that whoever they belonged to might have gone away for Easter and we could be stuck with them until Tuesday… a disaster since we have no clue how to look after horses, let alone safe fencing or food! But thankfully come 5ish their owners turned up… someone from our street who had come home from work/school and searched an hour for the horses until finally asking the other neighbors. Needless to say they were very grateful we had kept them safe as they said recently someone else’s horse had gotten loose and ended up in a car accident up on the main road!

So that was out excitement for the day but I have had to wait until now for the batteries in the camera to charge so I could download the photos!. In other news….

Snot.

That is the only other news there is and I wish it would go away already.

share the love... These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Comments

14 Responses to “You know you live in the country when….”

Leah on April 14th, 2006 9:05 pm

Oh was hanging to hear how your stray horse story finished :) What a way to meet the neighbours :) Did you find out the horses’ names?? Lucky they didn’t do what our nearly horse sized stary did to us last week, run INSIDE the house LOL Found out a few days later his name was Max, since he was so huge, it fits!
fazzbech on April 15th, 2006 1:37 am

Oh, wow, stray horses, you don’t hear that every day! Too funny, and glad it all turned out ok. I so hope everyone gets well for you soon - you’ve been through the mill lately!
Lis on April 15th, 2006 5:01 am

Oh what exciting visitors! I LOVE horses!

Hope the snot monster disappears soon :)
Trish on April 15th, 2006 12:02 pm

LOL @ stray horses, I used to live in the country, but the town part, we had koalas up our gum tree, poddy calves in our yard, vistors on horseback, but never a stray horse LOL

How I did it is - Monday I wasn’t sick, people slept I did something, so when I felt well I did stuff when I didn’t I did nothing but die or wished I was.
anastasia_wolf on April 15th, 2006 12:06 pm

Ooh what an excellent horse story!

And PMSL @ snot.
HipbubbyMama on April 15th, 2006 1:51 pm

OMG!! Stray horses! How funny! :D
Heather on April 15th, 2006 2:28 pm

How totally awesome!! That is one kinda stray I wish we could keep lol
Bin Mitch's Mum on April 15th, 2006 8:41 pm

Oh wow, how exciting!! So glad you kept them safe for their owners and found their home…
Lilaclady on April 17th, 2006 1:42 am

lol, what a great memory to be able to tuck away, I’m sure you’ll do a great layout about it!
It must have been a relief to find the owners, but also sorta sad to see them go.
We also recently moved out to a almost rural suburb, all our freinds and rellies think we are mad to move out in the sticks, but we are only 40 minutes from the city so we’re not that far from everything.
Don’t talk about runny noses, I’m sure my kids will have them soon enough with winter coming…hate winter…
DebF on April 17th, 2006 8:30 am

you really do have the best of both worlds, truly rural, but close to the big smoke! growing up in outer sth-eastern suburbs, it always seemed to take forever to get into the city, and hardly any time getting out the other side (when we were on our way to Bendigo or somewhere like that LOL). nice pics of your visitors, and hope the booger has all gone away by now. (grin)
Sandra on April 17th, 2006 11:05 pm

My daughter would have been praying that the owners did not turn up. Your way of life sounds wonderful, best of two worlds. Hope your kids are better soon.
clikchic on April 17th, 2006 11:21 pm

Too Funny! Do tell what happened to the horses in the end! ;-)
Janie on April 18th, 2006 7:24 am

ROFPIMPLMAO @ snot.

Now there’s some strays that you couldn’t really keep now could you?
Peta on April 18th, 2006 9:58 am

ROFLMAO!! - i do so hope that the snot is gone I know it’s snot funny - but I can’t help laughing ;)

Love the horsey photo - what cool visitors you get out there in whop whop :P

LOL