Spring Break Fantasies

One of my recent posts told of our expectations for spring break. Here's the reality of the week. First, I want to say that it's really difficult to get on a computer at my in-laws house. They have a computer, but there were 3 teenage girls there, along with 4 other adults. My Mom-in-law also had other plans, such as sewing a quilt that they wanted my help with. So, I have not posted since we got there.

When we got to the in-laws, it was still daylight, but barely. We set up the portable electric corral and put in the water and feed pans. We put Koda in just as it was getting dark or I would have taken a pic of her in the "play pen" as one of my blog friends said. I kept checking on her through the evening and well into the night. My husband said I was being like a mother hen.

As always, when we schedule to visit the in-laws, dad-in-law plans to be off work, but they call him in for the entire time we are there to visit. He had to leave on Monday morning at around 4:30 so he went to bed kinda early. We went to bed at around midnight (after checking on Koda one more time). When dad-in-law left he noticed that the corral fence was down and there was NO sign of Koda!!! Talk about a wake-up call. Hubby and I threw on boots and jackets and hollered at the kid to get up and help. I grabbed a lead rope and went one way while hubby went another. Mom-in-law grabbed keys and went in the car a third way. Thankfully they live on a dead-end street, and far from a highway. The horse went the correct way also. She went to the end of the street and got stuck in a corner of 2 fences. She was easy to catch and we walked her back home even though she was completely keyed up. She kept running circles around me, literally. We got back to the house, and, not having an electric corral, put her in the back yard. It's about a half acre in size and completely enclosed with fence about 5ft tall.

When I got up the next morning, I went and looked at the fence to see if it could possibly work and saw that the side where she broke out had a metal u-shaped pen that was split in half. I started by calling the makers of the fence, then the company I bought it from. The makers, Zareba, only offered to replace the broken part. Stateline Tack offered to replace the whole corral. My husband and I contend that there is no point in having it if it can't even keep the horse for one night. We finally convinced Stateline to refund our money, but they only gave us a credit on our account.

If ya'll didn't catch this...I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT. I took the fence down today (after snapping the pics shown) and noticed that the electric tape is stretched in a couple of places where it connects to the corner posts. Also the "u-bolt", or what ever it's called, where the tape connects to the corner post is not a single piece, but connected together with a very thin piece of plastic sleeve. I don't think this could keep a horse in unless it's a 35 yr old nag that's too old to move more than 5 ft from home without SERIOUS cajoling. DO NOT spend your $300 on this product!!! If we had been out in an open area camping, it is fairly possible that we would not have found Koda EVER. I will look into a locking metal panel system at twice the price, minimum. My horse is worth it.

My other fantasy was that I would ride every day. And I did ride on Monday. However, Tuesday, the climate change caught me and I was miserable with allergies. Wednesday, mom-in-law caught me and I was busy with quilt and family activities. Today was busy packing and heading home, after sleeping until 10.

My husband took a live video of Koda eating in their back yard. It appears to have just done a still shot with several seconds of air time so don't bother clicking play. Something went wrong with his phone's recording. Either way, here's Koda in my in-laws backyard.