Wrong Side of the Fence

Yesterday morning when I went out to feed the animals, I was caught off guard.... something didn't look right.... hmmm, what is that standing in front of the barn?  Oh, that would be my horse Jack!  Why is Jack standing in front of the barn when he should be locked in the pasture that isn't in front of the barn?  The "in front of the barn that leads to my open yard, and the open driveway with no gate leading to the road"?  And more importantly, HOW did he get to the front of the barn when he most certainly SHOULDN'T have been in front of the barn?  So off I went to grab a lead to get him back into the pasture.  I thought, "Oh no, this isn't going to be pretty".  I was sure he would bolt on me because, afterall, the grass is much greener in front of the barn and I was sure he wouldn't go quietly.  But to my surprise, he patiently stood there waiting for me to walk into the barn, grab his lead and rope, slip it on, and walked like an angel to the pasture gate without a problem. 

Now that he was back in the safety of the pasture I needed to figure out why he was out.  I checked all the barn gates and pasture gates..... all were locked tight.  Hmmm, how in the world did he get out?  I couldn't find any way he could have gotten out.  Then I started following the hoof prints all around the property starting at the side of the pond:

(he should have been inside that fence on the right side of the picture)

All the way around the pond to the other side:

Through the front yard (it's mostly sand right now since I had a new septic system installed a few months ago)........

Finally, around the front of the house to the side pasture.  That's where I found it.... a portion of the cross fence between my unfenced front pasture and the back pasture was half way down due to a tree limb that had broken off and fallen on it.  It was down just enough for Jack to step over it and wander around the property.  He couldn't figure out how to get back into the pasture once he had wandered away from the downed fence.  I have no idea how long he was out, but he was in the barn before I went to bed.  By the looks of the prints all over the place, I have a feeling he was out for a while.  It scared me to think he could have easily wandered off the property and been hurt by a car or worse yet, hurt someone in the car.  So, off to the store I went to buy electric fencing materials to put up across the front pasture that wasn't fenced and he had wandered through.  I need to completely replace the cross fencing where he got out because it's all crap anyway.  Plus, fencing the front pasture allows me to get the animals off the back pasture for awhile to let it recover from winter feeding.  

I wasn't sure how to put up electric fencing by myself (my BB had to go to work), so I called a dear friend, and she brought another friend and her boyfriend, and within 2 hours we had the front pasture fenced.  I am so grateful I have generous friends that came to my rescue.  Here's the new fencing:

 

Jack in his new fenced in front pasture:

Me:  Jack, you sure caused me a panic.  Don't do that again, OK?

Jack:  Sorry Mom.  I just couldn't find a way to get back in before you caught me.