My neighbor Victor just dug a huge pit for a septic tank. He usually has three horses. I heard a lot of horse noises yesterday and noticed one of them was missing. Somehow the pregnant female horse, Ruby, had fallen into the hole. She was freaking out and covered in blood from trying to escape. The neighbors were not home… and I was at a loss for a plan to help this poor horse.
How the hell do you get a thousand pound beast out of a nine foot deep hole?
Ruby was trying to get out by the lowest wall but there was a barbed wire fence at the top that she kept getting tangled up in. I ran to my other neighbor’s trailer and told them, “We have a horse situation.” Neither of us had Victor’s number, so he drove down to where his wife works.
I was standing by the pit trying to calm the horse when Victor pulled up in his pickup truck. He said his wife had called him then said a bunch of things in Spanish that I couldn’t understand and drove away. He returned a few minutes later con un caballero amigo, that is a cowboy friend.
The plan was to stack hay bails and make some steps for Ruby to climb out. We got a ladder and a fifteen year old kid climbed down and cautiously approached Ruby. “Brave kid.”, I said. Unfortunately we only had four hay bails and that wasn’t quite enough.
Victor decided to go buy more hay but when he got in his truck it wouldn’t start. “You’re having quite a day.” I said. “I need a drink.” said Victor. We got in my truck and went on a mission to find alfalfa hay to make horse steps. A few miles down the road I got a call that the horse had been rescued somehow, so we stopped at la tienda and Victor bought a bottle of mezcal and some beer. Most of the rest of the day was spent working on that.