It's 7am. Do You Know Where Your Horses Are?

The phone was ringing all morning with the school's recorded message of "We are on a 2 hour delay" due to the snow and frigid temperatures, so when I did my nekkid dash from the shower to the kitchen to answer it once more, I figured it was just a repeat.

But it was my neighbor across the street telling me she was pretty sure my horses were in her back yard.

All I could think was How in the hecks did they get across the 45 mph state route so full of tractor trailers there are signs posted about their obnoxious jake braking.

Truly, the stretch of road in front of our property is dicey on a clear and sunny day, let alone in the dark and snow.

Then I thought, No way. Mark left the gate unlocked? He neeeever leaves the gate unlocked and Sam (and to a lesser degree, yours truly) is the usual culprit and there is a big stink about it. Understandably a big stink when you're talking about animals getting smashed on the road or causing dangerous traffic accidents.
So all that's going through my mind as I wake the sleeping grizzly in my bed and try to find clothes to throw on and a hat to cover my wet head. Ah, the 15 degree weather is refreshing right out of the shower!

Run to the barn for halters and head across the street for my little runaways.

I think they were very, very glad to see us and came right to us. They must've had quite a scary adventure and seemed lost. Mommy, you found us!

When we put them back in the pasture we found that the gate had not been left open. Phew!
But somehow Admiral had either run through the gate or slid into the gate, because the gate hook was torn from the post and the gate was dented with horse hair stuck in it. I couldn't find a scratch on either horse and they seemed none the worse for wear thankfully. It's kind of a mystery what happened though. Weird.

I'm very glad it was a happy ending. Horses alive and well. No ten car pile up in front of the house. None of the cows had the ambition to sneak out. Sam was not in terrible trouble, though he was unpleasantly roused from his 2 hour delay sleeping in after a late night skiing with The Older Boys. (Kind of a milestone event overshadowed by the escape; Sam took a trip sans parents to the mountains to ski with fellows in their 15's and one almost 20 year old. Pretty rad for a guy not quite 13 I thought.)
How's your Monday so far?