The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side

Once again I thought I had come up with the perfect plan. I found a way to fulfil my children's dreams without actually having to really do it myself. Thus enters the new addition to our pasture... a horse named Chas. Chas is a sweet, gentle quarter horse that is 4 years old. You would have thought that my children won a trip to Disneyland when they looked out the window and saw him running around the pasture! The best part of my plan is that we don't have to do a single thing or pay a single dollar to have him around. A sweet college girl needed a place to pasture her horse while she is here finishing up school. I was only too happy to help. As with most of my plans, there was a flaw. Apparently, Chas is not only the sweetest horse but one of the more talented horses' that has been blessed with the ability to open the gate with his mouth.

Unfortunately for Chas this free spirited, adventure seeking horse may have outsmarted himself. While out on his little escapade he ended up in the road and had a little mishap involving a car running into him. After getting hit by the car and Chas doing pretty substantial damage to it, he ran straight up our driveway and back into his pasture. The driver walked up our drive as well and knocked on the door to let us know "he just hit our horse with his car". I have never been so happy to NOT own a horse!

The driver was a little loopy- and I might add that I don't think it was just the shock of hitting a horse- and went on to report that he thought he hit a moose (anyone ever seen a grayish/whiteish moose?) and then figured out it was a horse and that it jumped right out of the ditch into his car that he was driving 15mph. There were a few flaws in his story, such as no hoof prints anywhere near the very snow filled ditch at all, only in the drive and on the road. The damage done to his car and the horse makes me think he ran right into the back of the horse. Let's also keep in mind that the driver mentioned to the horse owner that he had to run to the gas station because he had the munchies....hmmmm? Did I ever mention that this small town is filled with those who would perhaps gravitate to a more herbal/medicinal/natural pothead lifestyle? But who am I to judge? Perhaps it wasn't pot, he did sport a very long pinkie fingernail that I am sure came in useful for something. Maybe it was just a fashion statement for the stylish, long-haired old hippie guy.

A few days later we received a phone call from the driver's insurance agent requesting our version of the story. We told him what we knew and the agent kept asking us if we were positive that it happened before 11:00 pm. We kept telling him that we were pretty positive that it happened at 10:40 pm. The odd thing is, rumor got back to us that his insurance had lapsed and he renewed it a few minutes after 11:00pm online. I am thinking that driving without insurance and trying to file a claim on a vehicle that didn't even have insurance may have the stench of insurance fraud. It just doesn't pay to be a dope-head!

Chas was pretty torn up and was loaded up and taken to the vet clinic. He had to have surgery on his hind leg because the muscle was severed at the joint. The surgery went well, in large part due to his gentle disposition. He is recovering well and expected to be released from the clinic within a few days after spending the last 8 days there. He will have to be stalled for the next month to keep the wound clean and promote the healing but is expected to make a full recovery. Hopefully the gate opening horse has learned his lesson and now knows that even if the grass is greener on the other side that he should stay out of the road to avoid the grass smoking drivers.